SHATTERED TO STRONG
Belinda* was the new girl in a big city. The 10-year-old’s family fled a wave of violence in their village and escaped to Guatemala City, hours away. They slept on the concrete floor of an empty house and started over from scratch.
Belinda did what all new girls do. She nervously met new friends and navigated a new school. At home, she helped care for her three young sisters and doted on her pet bunny.
Like many new girls, Belinda was also lonely and vulnerable—and the man watching her from his truck one day knew it.
Belinda was standing outside a friend’s house when the truck’s driver stepped out and approached her. She couldn’t imagine his terrifying next move.
“The eyes say everything,” Belinda remembers. “His said, ‘I’m going to do something bad.’”
The man grabbed Belinda and pulled her toward his truck. She grasped the metal bars of a nearby window and screamed for help as he sexually assaulted her. A woman finally rushed to the window, and the man ran to the truck and drove away.
Belinda was wounded and shocked. And she was not the only one. The man had also assaulted another neighborhood girl—just 7 years old—while she was playing in the street with her sister.
We need your help to stop violent men like this, until every child is safe. Please make a gift today.
Guatemala is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a girl. Girls there need someone to stand between them and the violent men who want to hurt them—someone like you.
You can change everything for girls like Belinda by sending rescue today. Will you help us fight for girls like Belinda?
Friends like you made it possible for our investigators to find the truck driver and help police arrest him. And friends like you held Belinda’s hand in court when she took the witness stand and—looking the attacker in the eye—shared what he did to her.
Belinda’s bravery—and our faithful supporters—made her neighborhood safer for girls to play outside and walk down the street.
Right now, there are so many other neighborhoods where girls are still not safe. They are waiting for someone to rescue them from violent men who will stop at nothing.
Your gift today can protect girls like Belinda from violence. Together, we can fight until every child is safe from violence. Please send help today.
Our faithful supporters helped Belinda to heal from her trauma. Belinda missed an entire year of school after the attack, but partners like you made it possible for our aftercare workers to walk with Belinda through years of counseling. Now she is succeeding in school, has a contagious joy, and is preparing to enter college.
“Every day I wake up and thank God for giving me another day,” Belinda says.
*A pseudonym