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Trapped in prostitution: Thousands of underage girls who are sold for sex every ten miles along Brazil's 2,7000 BR-116 motorway
‘When he’s finished he throws me out of the cab’, she said, showing her
battered and bruised elbows. ‘Sometimes they let me climb down, or
sometimes they just kick me out onto the concrete.
‘But I never sell myself short. I charge 25 reals (£10) a time’.
For British journalist Matt Roper, this chance meeting with Leliah was
to change his life. He drove off along the BR-116 motorway, a merciless
2,700-mile stretch of road spearing up the coast of Brazil from Rio de
Janerio to Fortaleza, in a state of profound shock.
Later he decided to investigate and write about the forgotten children who eke out a living on the Highway to Hell.
And despite being a hardened news reporter, nothing had prepared him for the scale of depravity he was to uncover.
Abandoned: Lilian, a 12-year-old whose mother abandoned her. Her
neighbour forced her to prostitute herself, but she was later stabbed in
the neck at a bar and fell pregnant
Left: Mara, 16, left, performed an abortion on herself after being
raped by her landlord and right, Josilene, 15, who would end up miles
away from home on the motorway after selling her body
Leliah was just one of thousands of girls – some as young as nine - sold
for sex every ten miles along the BR-116. Many are prostituted by their
own families. The cheapest fee for a transaction is £8.
'I was expecting to find something alarming, something that would make a
shocking investigative story, but never this,' Roper said.
'I’d stumbled upon what appeared to be an epidemic of child prostitution, involving thousands of young, innocent girls.
'Every story I heard was more distressing than the last and the girls
were all so vulnerable, completely alone and unprotected. It broke my
heart.
'I later discovered a hushed-up Brazilian government report into the
motorway, which had identified 262 places along the motorway where
children were known to be sold for sex – that’s one, on average, every
ten miles.
Dedicated: Matt Roper, centre, talks to local girls in Brazil. He moved
to the South American country with his wife and young son in 2011
With the help of children’s councillor Rita Marques, who is based in the
town of Medina, Roper began to meet the girls whose lives were blighted
before they had even reached adulthood
“I couldn’t understand how this tragedy had been kept hidden, unreported, for so long.”
With the help of children’s councillor Rita Marques, who is based in the
town of Medina, Roper began to meet the girls whose lives were blighted
before they had even reached adulthood.
One of the most horrific cases involved a 16-year-old called Mara, who lived with her mother and two brothers in Serrinha.
At the age of 11, their landlord Jonas began to sell her for sex because
he gave the young girl food when her mother went to work.
He also raped her and she fell eventually pregnant. Jonas forced her to
carry out a horrific abortion using a coat hanger, leaving her bleeding
and distraught.
She turned to drugs and is now being pimped out by local gangsters.
And then there was Mariana. At 13, she was forced to sell her body on
the motorway by her own mother Maria. Sometimes her parent would even
walk her to the road, negotiate her price and then greedily snatch away
the money for cigarettes.
If Mariana failed to attract a customer, she would face a beating when she returned home.
Safe haven: Determined to help the girls Roper set up a charity in the
UK called Meninadança. With the funds raised the charity decided to
create a safe space for the girls and now rent a building known by
locals as the Pink House
Inspiring: The wall of the Pink House's dance class which reads: 'Don't
be the girl who fell. Be the girl who got on her feet again'
Hope: Run by Ms Marques, nearly 100 girls aged 11 to 17 have been
through its doors since it opened at the beginning of the year, with
around 60 coming to the project every day
Brazil’s relaxed attitude to buying sex has long attracted international
criticism - UNICEF estimates there are 250,000 children into
prostitution across the country.
And as Brazil prepares to host the next World Cup and Olympics 2016, the
South American nation is under the pressure to break the growing
problem of child prostitution racket.
Brazilian law dictates that an adult subjecting a child to prostitution
or sexual exploitation is punishable by imprisonment for four to ten
years and a fine, but countless times Roper came across young girls who
told him their abuser had not been punished.
He even went on a raid with local police to track down girls being
abused in motels, although was disheartened by what he saw – police gave
motel owners enough time to warn their customers as well as giving up
if punters did not answer the door after a 10-minute wait.
Roper had moved to Brazil with his wife Dani, 26, and their son Milo, three, in November 2011.
He had always intended to write about the girls, but now he decided that he would also set up a charity to help them.
Sisters Rebeca, 15, and Milene, 12, from the Chilli Peppers in
Salgueiro. Rebeca is a mother of two - she has a two-year-old and
six-month-old baby
Working with his friend Canadian country singer Dean Brody who had been
with him on the night he met Leliah, Roper set up a charity called to Meninadança provide refuge for the children who had been forced into prostitution.
They established The Pink House in Medina, where visitors can talk about
their experiences, take dance and beauty classes and find support.
Run by Ms Marques, nearly 100 girls aged 11 to 17 have been through its
doors since it opened at the beginning of the year, with around 60
coming to the project every day.
Meanwhile, Roper had had a second encounter with the young girl who was
prostituting herself so her mother could afford cigarettes.
Now she was 15, seven months pregnant and dancing for a scruffy, unshaven man in a brothel.
‘My mum never cared about me. She was just interested in using me to buy
her cahaca. So I ran away. At least now I can keep the money for
myself’, she told him.
Road of misery: Brazil's BR-116 motorway also known as the 'highway to hell' by the girls who sexually abused every day
With the help of Ms Marques, Roper persuaded Mariana that she did not
have to stay in this sordid place. After persuading the town’s judge to
forcibly take her away from the mother who was exploiting her, the
journalist and his wife took her in and, despite being unable to keep
her baby, she has now settled into their home.
Her 16th birthday was celebrated with a huge party.
‘I wept as I saw her, beaming radiant, surrounded by new friends and
family. I could hardly believe she was the same girl we had found less
than a year ago, dancing lifelessly inside that dark oppressive roadside
brothel,’ Roper said.
Later, Roper and his wife took another girl into their home who workers
at the Pink House had discovered was in danger. Nathane, 13, was
sleeping in friends’ houses after her mother died, and was on the brink
of falling into the dark work of child prostitution that had snared so
many.
Despite successes with Mariana and the Pink House, there was one girl that Roper could not forget.
Haunted by Leilah, the ghostly girl in the lilac dress, the journalist set out to find her.
It was too late. Still a prostitute on the Highway To Hell, she was now
heavily addicted to crack cocaine and desperate for cash to buy drugs.
When Roper refused, she became furious and snarled: ‘Don’t bother coming back.’
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