The story that follows is what happens in a land where people are not free – and what happens when people like you, people who are free, choose to step up and help the helpless.
Here you see a photo of precious Bao Yu (name has been changed to protect her identity).
When Bao Yu’s mother was 8 months pregnant, she went to the hospital to determine the sex of the child. Her mother already had a three-year old daughter, and her family was determined that this second child would be a son. (In the countryside, where your first child is a girl, you can have a second child. Many regard this second child as their last chance to have a son.) When the doctor told Bao Yu’s mother she was carrying a girl, her family tried to force her to abort. The family wanted a boy, and because of the coercive enforcement of the One Child Policy, they knew they could not have a boy if they kept baby Bao Yu. Even though Bao Yu’s mother couldn’t see her daughter in the womb, she knew that she loved her and felt her growing day-by-day. Still, because of the intense pressure from her family, she felt like she had no other option but to abort her full-term pregnancy – just because her baby was a girl.
Bao Yu was very fortunate that Women’s Rights Without Frontiers’ (WRWF) learned that her mother was being pressured to abort her at eight months. A WRWF undercover fieldworker visited Bao Yu’s mother and told her about the “Save a Girl” program. Our fieldworker reassured her that we are helping other families keep their girls too because we believe that girls matter just as much as boys. We offered to give the family a monthly stipend for a year, to help them support their new daughter. With our help, Bao Yu’s mother was able to stand against the cultural tide of son-preference and give birth to precious baby Bao Yu.
We are saving lives and changing the culture, one family at a time!
Bao Yu’s story is repeated all over China millions of times each year. Families who already have a daughter will routinely abort their second pregnancy if it’s a girl. Because of this brutal practice, there are 37 million more men living in China than women. And this gender imbalance is driving human trafficking and sexual slavery.
To support Women's Rights Without Frontiers' Save a Girl campaign click here.