A local congregation hit the pews Friday night. Not for a service, but to raise awareness and money to fight human trafficking.

"We work with the largest red light district in Kolkata, India, which is called Sonagachi,” said Head First Development board member Diana Adoura. “Over 10,000 prostitutes, most of them are there not by choice, but by being sold into slavery.”

Women in India are not treated with the same respect that people might experience in the United States.

"Women don't mean much,” said Adoura. “Women are like trash in India. So parents can sell them to pimps. Family members can just give them away, so they can have money to live on."

Head First Development is reaching out to those women, hoping to make a difference and give them a better way of life.

"The nursing industry is so huge in India right now,” Adoura said. “The demand is so huge. So we wanted to train these girls to go into as nurses aids and make money so that they can be self-sustaining and not having to be under the pressure of prostitution."

So Calvary's Love Church, community advocates, and state officials are doing their part to fight for those women. 

"I imagine a little girl or a little boy at 3-years-old,” said Human Trafficking Ministry Co-Director Michelle Brown. “They don't decide that they want to grow up to be enslaved by another human being and be sold over and over and over again. I know that those children had dreams for something entirely different.”

Head First Development has helped hundreds of girls leave prostitution and human trafficking to get nursing aid jobs in India.