When she first came to the Bellary Child Development Center in Bellary, India, Yashodha was painfully shy and woefully slim. She did not interact with other children at the center, fearing the stigma that had followed her all her young life; Yashodha’s mother, Padma, was a devadasi.

A Hindu tradition going back centuries, devadasis are dedicated as young girls to a god or goddess in an attempt to appease the spirit into bringing good fortune. As servants to the deity, these poor, uneducated girls are required to perform temple duties, which include satisfying the sexual desires of the temple priests and any other man who approaches them. A man is considered the incarnation of the divine, and fulfilling his desires is considered worship.

Forbidden to marry because they are promised to a god or goddess, devadasis depend on these men for support. Yet as they grow older and are visted less frequently, devadasis are compelled to beg, or worse: be replaced by their own daughters. The cycle of degradation and extreme poverty continues, crushing the dreams of one generation to the next.

At the age of 6, Yashodha was invited to enroll at the Bellary Child Development Center, which offers nutritious meals, medical care, tutoring, and assistance in paying for school uniforms and tuition. The center offered a chance at a life her mother never had.

But even as Yashoda begin attending the center, she had to return home to the reality of her mother’s bondage. “My mother used to worship an idol goddess,” Yashodha explains. Men would come to her home to see her mother, who could not refuse their requests. Day and night, Yashodha heard the sounds of humiliation, hurt, and worthlessness.

“I could not sleep,” she says, “sometimes at all. The evil spirits disturbed my sleep. But when I started going to the Mission of Mercy center, I learned that Jesus is with me always. Emmanuel, God with me. I began to pray.” Sleep came, and soon, faith. Yashodha accepted Jesus as her personal Savior. “I confessed my sins and am rescued from those evil spirits. I am following Jesus today in my life.”

Today Yashodha is a beautiful, self-confident girl with a sweet smile. She is completing the 10th grade and dreams of returning to her community to teach, to rescue other children. Equipped with a good education and the support of her friends and church, Yashodha is breaking the cycle of shame. In fact, her mother is no longer a temple prostitute. Through vocational training provided by the center, Padma can now support Yashodha and her sisters, Kavitha and Tulasi, who live in a simple home with mud walls and a roof of thatch. Their life is entirely different.

That change was possible because of a dedicated sponsor. Sponsorship funds enabled Yashodha to attend a center with compassionate staff that could encourage her in life, school, and faith. A monthly gift of $34 really can break the cycle of poverty. To learn more about sponsorship or to sponsor a child, click here. You can make the difference to one child.