In 1901 a seven-year-old Indian girl named Preena escaped from a Hindu temple and sought refuge with a Christian named Amy Carmichael, a young woman who had come from Ireland to share the gospel in India. According to Preena's story, her widowed mother had dedicated her as a child to be "married to the gods," which ultimately meant a life of prostitution. The traumatized child, whose hands had been branded with hot irons as punishment for a previous escape, had heard Carmichael talking about a God who loves everyone. After checking into the details behind Preena's story of alleged abused, Amy Carmichael concluded, "Investigations not only confirmed [the child's story], but unveiled an evil greater in its extent and more grievously unholy in its character than ever imagined."

On the spot, Amy Carmichael made up her mind. "Since these things are so," she said, "I must do something about it!" Later she wrote, "I mean it with an intensity I know not how to express, that … such unutterable wrongs … in the name of all that is just and all that is merciful should be swept out of the land without a day's delay."

For Carmichael, Preena's escape launched a 50-year career in intercepting and retrieving girls and babies from a "life" worse than death and giving them a home. It eventually led Amy and her associates to discover little boys being trafficked too and to expand their rescue efforts to include them. Today, over one hundred years after Amy Carmichael launched her ministry, the Dohnavur Fellowship is still rescuing children who are at risk and would otherwise be trafficked or on the streets.