The Hair Project

The Hair Project is active in three locations in Mumbai which is a destination for trafficked children and young women.  Girls as young as 7 or 8 years old are trafficked from rural areas ending their journeys in the crowded cities. Many of the girls and their families believe they will enter domestic service.  Most in fact are forced into prostitution and others are victims of modern slavery.

Their lives are brutal.  They can have up to 30 clients a day and they work seven days a week.  They typically share a room in a brothel with three others and that room is where they conduct their trade, sleep and sometimes bring up their children.

By the time the girls are in their early twenties, their ability to earn begins to decline.  They are traumatised, often mentally scarred, they cannot read and write and some are even unaware of the days of the week.

But they are still people, ordinary people with ordinary thoughts and ordinary senses of humour.  The Hair Project has grasped the challenge of providing them with a stepping stone to help re-build their shattered lives.  Undertaking a structured and supervised training programme in hair dressing, the girls can acquire a skill which in turn empowers them to build a future for themselves.

The girls need help. 

We provide this help by teaching them hairdressing, a skill with which they can earn a living and rebuild their lives.