Each year, the Children of the Night Hotline receives about 10,000 telephone calls from child prostitutes and alumni (children who have completed our program in years past).
We hear about programs opening to help American child prostitutes but they don’t answer their telephones when we call and their lengthy admission policies are not helpful to children who want to escape a pimp right now!
Just the other night a young girl called our hotline from Houston, Texas. A pimp left her unsupervised in a hotel room, for a brief period of time, and she called the Children of the Night hotline begging us to rescue her. She was so scared to involve the police but when we convinced her that the Houston Police would work with her and us and never let the pimp know she called out for help, she agreed to let us call them.
We called Houston Police Dispatch and officers rescued our little girl and brought her into the police station so she could call us again from a safe location. One of the police officers gave her $45 for a cab ride to the airport so she could board a plane to Los Angeles to be met by a Children of the Night staff person.
Since she was a minor child, we needed parental consent to bring her into our home and to move her from Texas to California. Her mom was not home but with a vigilant search we were able to locate Mom’s next door neighbor who put a note on mom’s door to call us. Our young girl waited safely and patiently at the police station until her mother called us with consent.
Once her mother consented for her admission to Children of the Night, our young girl used the money given to her by the kind policeman to take a cab to the Houston Airport to pick up a non-stop ticket to Los Angeles paid for by Children of the Night donors.
This brave young girl stayed in the Houston Airport until her flight left at 6:50 a.m. for Los Angeles. And at 8:35 a.m. she was greeted by a Children of the Night staff person who safely drove her to the Children of the Night home.
Children of the Night has 24 beds for American children victimized by prostitution and a 24 hour hotline to assist with entry into the shelter home 24 hours a day!
We have been told there are another 20 beds available in the United States for American child prostitutes but they do not answer their telephones or they have such lengthy intake procedures that it take days, sometimes a stay in a dangerous shelter, or a lengthy court proceeding and time in jail in order to be placed in one of these programs. In the meantime, America’s child prostitutes remain in dangerous conditions under the control of a pimp or in jail!
Our children deserve more and our recent case shows how a few responsible members of law enforcement, a neighbor, a generous cop, an airline and Children of the Night rescued another American child from prostitution right here in the United States.
It’s not that hard. It just takes a committed group of people!
If you know of any Department of Social Service licensed homes who are regulated to insure programs are appropriately staffed, staff is cleared with criminal record clearances and child abuse index screenings and they answer the telephones around the clock to give a child prostitute access to a safe, warm bed when they need it, please let us know because we can’t find them.
For the last 31 years, Children of the Night has answered the cries of over 10,000 American child prostitutes with internationally recognized programs because your generous, thoughtful gifts have made our work possible.
Your gifts to Children of the Night saved this little girl because there was no other program in place to do so!
Please help us again this month so we can reach even more!
With heartfelt thanks,
Dr. Lois Lee
Founder and President
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