Kung Fu for girls at risk to human trafficking

Asha (name changed), age 13 belongs to the Nat community — a caste historically pushed into prostitution for survival. She lives with her mother and two younger siblings in a single rented room behind a liquor shop. Until recently, everyone assumed she would leave school at puberty, just like her elder cousin, who was trafficked to a brothel at 14.

Asha found Apne Aap three winters ago — first for the hot meals, then for the books.

Now she comes for herself.

She walks to school daily in a hand-washed sweater, sits third row from the front, and reads English with the same determination her mother once used to count customers. She attends our center five evenings a week for study coaching, meals, and martial arts training, alongside 47 other girls.

This Christmas, she is not waiting behind a curtain.
She is reciting a poem onstage at the school winter program — her first public performance ever.

No girl from her family has stood at a microphone before.Asha’s Achievements in 2025

In the past year, Asha:

• Returned to school full-time and completed Class 6 without a single dropout interruption

• Learned 30 new English words every week, tracked by our tutors

• Earned the “Most Regular Student” award at the center (98% attendance)

• Co-taught a “My Body, My Law” session to 11 younger girls

• Intervened when a neighbor tried to take her friend out of school for marriage

Her teacher told us:

“She answers questions now — not because she knows everything, but because she is not afraid to try.”

Her mother said something even more powerful:

“She goes out with books in her hand. No man can bargain for that.”This Is Prevention. This Is Protection. This Is Christmas in a Red-Light Area.

Your support this year allowed Apne Aap to:

Run a daily safe space for 50 high-risk girls inside the red-light area
Provide meals, tutoring, and self-defense training five days a week
Stop early marriage and trafficking attempts through legal intervention
Train peer mentors like Asha to guide younger girls
Keep girls in school — where they are seen as students, not targets

Every time Asha walks to class, she breaks an old story and writes a new one.What’s Next for Asha in 2026

• Advancement to Class 7

• Green-belt karate test in early spring

• Participation in district girls' leadership camp

• Selection as a peer educator for new students

• A personal goal she whispers but believes in fully:

“I want to become a teacher. I want girls to read because of me.”

Christmas is about birth — and what we choose to grow.

This winter, help us grow education instead of exploitation.
Courage instead of fear.
Future instead of trafficking.

Give today — so more girls step into 2026 with books in their hands
and possibility in their lives.