One evening when we went out to Walking Street, we saw 2 girls standing on the sidewalk. We asked them: “what are you waiting for?”. They just arrived in Angeles City after a long journey from the province. And just applied for a job in a bar, talked with the manager and waiting for the mamasan (the leader of the girls in a bar).

We invited them to come with us for a meal. We were surprised to learn that actually they were very motivated to study. One of them, 22 years old, dropped out of her last year high school because of pregnancy. We offered them to stay in our house and to enroll them in Alternative Learning System (ALS).

The same evening, their mother already texted and called to ask for money. The girls were very stressed about it. Mary* and Justine* explained that they come from a poor family with many children. A typhoon ruined their house, the family had to borrow money to rebuild the house. And now the girls had to take care of that because every week the loan has to be paid off.

We see this a lot of times, because of family culture, the oldest girl has a burden to pay back. We also were aware that their family has to understand and know that their not graduated daughters cannot send this amount of money every week because of a regular job.

Prostitution has many faces but is always based on lies and a ‘make-believe life’ where everyone is pretending. Only the Truth can set them free!

They stayed for the night, we enrolled them in ALS and they were already starting their homework. But the burden to their family and the pressure of phone calls from their mother was too high. They applied online for a job in a bar.

Mary* and Justine* promised us to finish their high school this year, in combination with a job in a bar. And when the loan is repaid, to save money for their own property, go back to the province and go to college there. Also you are always welcome to come back to SHINE.

We prayed with them and we gave them a New Testament in Tagalog language. It was sad to let them out and saw them walking away. Go for it girls, don`t give up your dreams! We were able to plant some seeds and hope this will contribute to change their lives step by step! You are loved!