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Above is a backstage look at the “Shoot 4 Freedom” photo shoot that raised money to fight the sex trafficking of women and children in Kolkata, India.
Danielle Valimont spent one year working inside Sonagarchi, the largest red light district in Kolkata, India. Sonagarchi is a mile-long, has several hundred multi-story brothels, and has over 10,000 women and children who are sold for sex.
In the course of this year, Valimont realized the organizations for which she was working did not have very high success rates. One had spent 10 years working in this district, removing 150 girls – an average of 15 per year.
“One hundred and fifty girls is great, but what happens to those you can’t get out? How do you help the kids in there that can’t get out?”
These questions led Valimont to create her own nonprofit organization, one with a mission of education. Move 4 Freedom, Valimont’s organization, aims to heighten awareness of the plight of these women and children while providing them with knowledge and tools to remove themselves from red light district.
Valimont says that in India, there is a strong sense of destiny tied to your parents’ profession. If your mother works in the red light district, such is your own fate. Coupled with the de facto practice of the caste system, which prevents these children from attending school, a cycle emerges of being born into brothels and never being able to escape.
“I think the only way to stop it is to give them an education,” said Valimont. Wanting to provide this education, she partnered with Kids With Destiny, an organization committed to moving children out of the red light district by providing medical care for those with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis inside the red light district, a safe place to live once outside the district, and long-term emotional support.
“Originally, I went over there with a lot of anger toward the madams and pimps. But as I spent time with them, I realized they had been prostitutes themselves; employing other women was the only way to make their situation any better. By the end of my trip, my best friend in India was a madam. My whole viewpoint changed. I realized, they’re hurting too, they’re just in a different position,” said Valimont.
On January 14, Valimont held her first Move 4 Freedom event, “Shoot 4 Change.” She photographed 30 women and children, asking them to display their emotions about trafficking. She decided not to use actual images of Indian children from the district “because the one thing they don’t have is privacy,” Valimont said.
The Shoot 4 Freedom exhibit, entitled “Tonight,” was held March 18. Trafficking statistics about Atlanta were read each half-hour to raise awareness of sex trafficking in our own country and state, such as “Tonight, 240 men will be serviced by underaged girls in Atlanta…”
“People think it’s so far away, but it’s here now. Something has to be done,” said Valimont.
Shoot for Change raised $2,000 for Kids With Destiny and Move 4 Freedom, and Valimont’s photographs will be displayed in the Starbucks on 14th Street in Atlanta during the month of April.
For more information or to find out how to get involved, visit www.kidswithdestiny.org.
The GRIP 
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