Where are the girls?

The Harsh Reality

Unlike boys who can live openly on the streets for years, girls are pulled off the streets an average of 2.5 hours after becoming homeless or running away. Girls are far more vulnerable to human traffickers and gangs who target them quickly for exploitation.

Why the difference?

Girls without protection are at immediate risk of being recruited with false promises of jobs or shelter. Instead, they are trapped in:

• Forced sexual exploitation

• Domestic servitude

• Labor trafficking

• Gang-controlled exploitation 

  
  

Hidden and Invisible

Once trafficked, girls are moved to hidden locations like brothels, private homes, or taken across borders making them nearly impossible to see or reach. This is why you rarely, if ever, see homeless girls on the streets. Their disappearance is a sign of a brutal trafficking pipeline working fast and under the radar. 

What This Means for Our Work

Because girls vanish so quickly, they require specialized efforts lke safe shelters, anti-trafficking programs, and urgent intervention. The visible homeless boy population does not mean the crisis is smaller for girls but it means their danger is far more immediate and hidden.