A mission partner’s daring journey into a dangerous favela near Olinda resulted in a young rape victim receiving vital care.
On a visit to the family of one of the boys staying at My Father’s House, a home for boys in high-risk situations, CMS mission partner Andy Roberts and his colleague Jefferson discovered that one of the daughters had been gang-raped a few days earlier.
“They hadn’t taken her to the doctors, as the gang had threatened to kill them all if they told anyone,” said Andy.
Andy and Jefferson found the girl crouched in a dark corner of the cardboard hut where the family live. “She didn’t talk to us but we prayed for her,” Andy said. Later, Andy and Jefferson arranged to smuggle the girl and her mother out of the favela so the daughter could have necessary treatment and inform the police. “Please be praying for them and for protection,” said Andy.
Andy and his team also recentlydiscovered three young girls, ages 8, 10 and 13, whose mother was encouraging them into prostitution.
“The 13-year-old girl had been held for a few days in a guy’s room and raped repeatedly,” said Andy. As girls are usually coerced into prostitution by dangerous gangs, “we had to go ‘undercover’ – we met the girls’ aunt who had already reported the situation to the local authorities, but the mum and girls had denied the accusations.”
Andy and Jefferson covertly took the aunt to the state prosecutor’s office to get an official order to remove the girls from their abusive situation.
My Father’s House, in Olinda, Brazil, currently provides shelter and a chance at a new life for dozens of at-risk boys. Part of the work involves visiting the boys’ families, who often live in dangerous locations.
Andy and the team are praying about how they might directly help more vulnerable girls, too.


