Our Story

For two decades, Cents of Relief worked to bring healthcare, dignity, and opportunity to survivors of human trafficking in India.

Cents of Relief began in 2003, founded by Anup and Rina Patel, then students at the University of Florida, after Anup's early work in the red-light districts of India opened his eyes to the realities of human trafficking. He went on as a Yale medical student to research the demand side of commercial sex in Kamathipura and Sonagachi, two of India's largest red-light areas. His findings, which showed that condom use was far lower and forced prostitution far more common than officials claimed, were featured by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times, in the bestselling book Half the Sky, and in the Yale Journal of Public Health.

What started with spare cents, when Rina built a "penny per click" ad site to raise the first funds, grew into real work on the ground. Cents of Relief empowered survivors of trafficking through healthcare and education. We provided monthly health kits, vocational programs that helped women earn their own income, and reconstructive surgery missions in partnership with Mumbai's National Burn Centre, where our teams treated survivors burned during their abuse.

We remain deeply committed to the cause of ending human trafficking, and we're grateful to everyone who walked this road with us. This was never the work of two people. It was the work of countless volunteers, donors, partners, and survivors who refused to look away.