Asheville area partners embark on mission trip to India to help women working in sex trade
ARDEN, N.C. (WLOS) — A local partnership is reaching across the globe to India, with a goal of empowering and helping women working in the sex trade.
"Local companies in Asheville coming together to affect someone other than Asheville," John Judd, of Judd Builders in Arden, explained. "A global vision to help people that have no way to help themselves,"
Youth with a Mission - Asheville, Avadim Health and Judd Builders leave for Mumbai , where they plan to install Theraworx dispensers in 100 brothels.
Theraworx is an Avadim topical solution expected to provide relief for women suffering from skin problems.
"The immediate effect is that the girls in the brothels will experience healing from a local company that's right here," Chris Vengala, of YWAM Asheville, said. "The ladies on the trip will have a chance to teach the ladies how to use the product. But in the process, they'll actually open their hearts so we can actually share Christ with them."
There are more than 500,000 prostitutes in Mumbai, and YWAM's mission is to help women escape sex trafficking and prostitution.
YWAM's Reshma Project aims to connect sponsors to women who are leaving their lives in the brothels of India. This allows for each sponsor to invest in a specific woman's journey to sustainable freedom, based on her individual needs.
Vengala made a similar journey in 2017 with positive results with Thereworx.
"We took some product to the leprosy colony, and we did a medical camp," he said. "Four months later, we got some amazing results that the product was healing the open leprosy wounds."
"It's a way to make more of a global effect than just concentrating here in Asheville," Judd said.
