Ladies of the Night
Posted on April 8, 2010
The girl on the corner is selling herself. Her eyes show pain, and her face carries the fading bruises of recent beatings.
The girl down the block works 18-hour days – typical for the prostitutes in her area. She stands in fear, avoiding eye contact with anyone who isn’t a potential client, knowing her pimp is watching every move.
Charntel Paile walks confidently in the midst of the ladies, not hesitating to speak to them and show her love for them. A scared teenager down the block sneaks out of her apartment to greet Paile and receive some cast-off clothing before her pimp catches her. The eyes of the girl across the street light up, and she runs to throw her arms around Paile in a hug. They arrange to meet later for some time to sit and talk.
Paile is not one of the prostitutes, but she is accepted and loved by them.
Paile is a Christian outreach worker with Action Labourers, ministering among the prostitutes in a prominent South African city. But she wasn’t always confident and secure. Abused as a child by her mother, Paile has experienced the physical, emotional and mental pain caused by abuse.
“Most of my teen life I grew up in a children’s home. It was tough, but amazing,” she says. “It made me become the woman that I am today.”
While living in the children’s home, Paile also came to understand and accept the love of Jesus Christ. Now her desire is to share that love with the prostitutes she encounters on the streets.
Paile explains, “I go out on the street, I watch what they’re doing, I build relationships with them, and I win them for Christ in the end.”
“When I go out on the streets, I’m a different person,” says Paile. “My character, my approach, the way that I speak to these ladies … some of them even think that I’m a prostitute. Not because I dress like a prostitute, but I hang out there with them. I stand at the corners, and I hear their stories. … Most of the prostitutes won’t admit that they’re being trafficked. But when you go deeper into their stories, you know that they’ve been tricked into prostitution. They’re really in slavery.”
Human trafficking is the practice of deceiving someone or taking them against their will, selling, buying and transporting them into slavery. According to stopthetraffick.org, 2 to 4 million people are trafficked across borders or within their own country every year. The United Nations reports that the most common form of human trafficking (79 percent) is sexual exploitation.
Paile says 90 percent of the prostitutes she has encountered have been trafficked. “It’s horrible what the sex industry actually does to women. … And most of the ladies I work with, it’s not because they want to, it’s by force,” says Paile. “And this is someone else’s daughter. That person had dreams: ‘My child will be an artist one day… a social worker… a doctor.’ Meanwhile, your child is a prostitute on the streets.”
“It breaks my heart as a woman,” she says. “Sex is such a precious thing that God created. But [this is like] taking silk and just cleaning the floors with it. Sex is not a cheap thing that you use and abuse people with.”
Paile desires to help prostitutes get out of their lives of prostitution.
“When I go on the streets, I see how these ladies are bruised and beaten up. Some of them – even if they’re pregnant – still have to go on the streets,” says Paile. “… The money that they make, they give to their pimps. They just get drugs and food, and they get beaten every day.”
The first phase of Paile’s recovery plan is to get the women off the streets and to a rehabilitation center where they can break their addiction to drugs. Then she takes them to halfway houses where they can be counseled, taught skills and reintegrated into the community.
“It’s hard,” says Paile, referring to her efforts to place ladies in rehab centers and halfway houses, “because [I] don’t always have the money. [I] don’t always have the means. And it really takes prayer and deliverance to reach those ladies. They need the mercy and grace of God.”
“I call upon the churches – the people of Christ – to pray,” she says. “I don’t think that most of us [realize] that prostitutes need help. … We don’t think that these kids are being raped, that they’re being abused day and night, that they work from morning till the following morning to make money [for their pimps]. … Just pray for deliverance – that God will set these ladies free.”
Paile challenges Christians to pray for the prostitutes, the pimps and the clients. There is not just one type of client who solicits the prostitutes for their services. “It’s men [who] are abused,” she says. ”It’s church-going men. It’s people’s husbands. It’s rich people. It’s poor people. It’s students. It’s everyone.”
“You know, God came for everyone!” exclaims Paile. “I wish that I could tell the whole world to look at the prostitutes with a different eye.”
To get involved in Paile’s ministry among prostitutes, contact her at charntel.paile [at] gmail.com.
2 Responses to “Ladies of the Night”
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The information about hman trafficking makes me feel gutted…as a woman, mother, grandmother. Life of a child is so precious. A dammaged child becomes a dammaged adult. I feel overwhelmingly for every child and woman who suffers this fate. The issue seems to be unsurmountable. The work of Paile and people like her is of the highest order. How do we create millioms more Pailes?
You have listed some good thoughts and comments, Iris. You’re right… sometimes the issue does seem to be unsurmountable. But prayerfully, with Christ’s help, we can address this issue and make a notable difference in the lives of the victims – and even those of the pimps and clients.
How do we create more people like Charntel? I think that it begins with us. Now that you and I have been made aware of the reality of human trafficking… what is our responsibility? What are we going to do about it? Who are we going to share the stories with? How are we going to pray? How are we going to make a difference?
We have a very big God. Seek Him and His guidance, and I will do the same.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings with us. May God bless you!