„I still remember the very first meeting with six young girl servants, whom we had brought together with a great deal of difficulty. The older one was eleven, the younger six. I asked them what they would prefer to do.
“Sister”, they said, “what if we’d like to weep…? For if we start weeping in the house where we live, the lady tells us we’re supposed to work, not to weep.” Having a good cry as the best of wishes!

This made clear to me the complete isolation of these children. I think such a situation of loneliness, this being all alone, must be the biggest trauma to a child.”

“One of the first children we went to rescue was an eleven years old girl named Kavita. As I arrived, she looked at me and said: “Didi, sis, I knew you would come.”
This remains to me such a marvellous thing: a child living in the worst misery and still staying confident that everything will turn out all right, that help will come, that there is always a reason for hope.”

J.D.

‘Many girls feel uprooted and isolated. They live in an unknown city that frightens them. They live in constant fear: fear for verbal aggression, violent outbursts and sexual abuse. Usually they receive a minimum wage for their hard work. The hardest thing for the girls, however, is to see that other children their age can go to school. And they would so love to go to school. They would like to wear pretty clothes for once too. Often they are not even called by their own names. These seemingly unimportant trifles cause a lot of pain.

I believe that by defending the weak, we get closer to God’s world. I believe that every day we help to create the world. I am happy to be able to strive for solidarity together with an entire movement of strong women and children. I believe in our alliance.’