“WE DON'T WANT THESE WOMEN NEAR OUR CHILDREN ANYMORE!”

An angry mob of residents stormed the red-light district with sticks in hand and paper signs, yelling for [the scandalous] women to leave. The doors and walls of every brothel were graffitied, with the word ¡FUERA! OUT!

"Young man, we are DECENT PEOPLE, and we don't want this type of scene close to our families." Understandable. But one thing she said stood out to me, "I walk by this street every day, and it makes me angry that people confuse me with one of these women!"

Maybe a few years ago, I would have said something similar, driven by ignorance and lack of empathy, but now I can see something that society has been doing for years, stigmatizing the ones who are the victims. It was so sad to hear how all the neighbors talked down to the women, but none of them ever mentioned the 100s of male clients that pass by every day, literally every second. Families should be most concerned about sexual predators in their midst!

I can't help but think about the damage we’ve caused by erroneous accusations. How many times have we fallen in judgment? How many times have we felt superior, simply because our mistakes are sometimes less scandalous?

As a part of Project Suma for almost 6 years, I’ve grown to appreciate that despite our mistakes, we are different. Different, in that we accompany women and their children, starting from a place of relationship. We don’t judge from our places of comfort, but make ourselves uncomfortable, in order to meet them and thus show the face of Christ in our weakness.

- Gustavo Arraya