I was recently disturbed to find out that the age of consent in Brazil is only 14 years old! This legal statute (further) complicates prosecution of sex traffickers and criminals. As author/journalist/founder Matt Roper discovers, the entire legal system is rigged against these exploited girls who are routinely abused and taken advantage of by older men in these small towns, some who “marry” them or take them as a girlfriend. Roper’s NGO has to fight the cultural norms that find these circumstances acceptable on a daily basis. When one father brings his daughter’s case to the town police sergeant, explaining that his 13-year old daughter is living with a man who beats and routinely rapes her–the police sergeant responded: “she’s got a roof over her head, food on the table, and someone who likes her. You should be glad she’s not on the streets causing trouble like so many other girls her age.”
These cultural norms come from generations of exploitation and poverty that are so engrained that mothers and grandmothers force their 10, 11, 12 year old girls out to the dangerous truck stops at night to prostitute themselves to bring home a few dollars. Many of these girls end up in gangs, addicted to drugs, severely injured, and in many cases killed/murdered.
With so many miles of highway, it can all seem insurmountable but progress is being made with each additional Pink House funded and each court case won. Due to a generous donor, Meninadanca was able to recently hire a legal team to fight the court cases. The book is powerful reminder that EVERY girl has invaluable worth and is WORTH fighting for. If you’d like to get involved, please shoot me an email, comment or clink on the link!
My review of Matt Roper’s first book is here.
Read more here:
https://www.instagram.com/meninadanca/
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Matt Roper's Other Books:
Before the Night Comes (2024)
Highway to Hell: The Roads Where Childhoods Are Stolen (2013)
Remember Me, Rescue Me (2003)
Looking for book ideas?
Check out our readings lists from 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014
Page 136 Transcription: "Most disturbing, though, was hearing the subject of child sexual exploitation spoken with such triviality in the front door natter I overheard in the street. I’d often hear mentioned how someone had taken their daughter or niece on a trip with them, inferring that it was so they didn’t need to pay for the ride, or could exchange her for accommodation or food. Mothers grumbling about how disappointed they were with their daughters, not because they hadn’t done their schoolwork or had stayed out past their bedtimes, but because they weren’t bringing home as much money as they were expected to."
Context: Roper observes the normalization of child exploitation along the BR-116, where children are often treated as family commodities or currency for basic needs.
Page 137 Transcription: "Incredibly, the desk sergeant, after listening to the father’s pleas, put a hand on his shoulder and tried to reassure him that there was nothing wrong with his 13-year-old daughter cohabiting with her rapist. 'She’s got a roof over her head, food on the table, and someone who likes her,' he said. 'You should be glad that she’s not on the street causing trouble like so many other girls her age.”
My annotation: horrible
Context: This interaction highlights the systemic failure of local law enforcement to protect minors, viewing abusive cohabitation as a preferable alternative to homelessness.
Page 137 (continued) Transcription: "Oh yes, the man and the girl, they sometimes show up at church together. It’s a bit strange, isn’t it, I mean, the age difference. But he’s an upright man who pays his tithe faithfully."
Annotation: wow
Context: A local pastor prioritizes a member's financial contributions to the church over the moral crisis of the child he is exploiting.
Page 156 Transcription: "In early 2014 Chris Rogers, a BBC newsreader I knew from my time in London, got in touch, asking me if I could help with a documentary he was making for the channel’s flagship..."
Context: This marks the beginning of Roper's collaboration with international media to bring global attention to the "exploitation highway" ahead of the World Cup.
Page 159 Transcription: "...hour-long Panorama special, called ‘Brazil: In The Shadow of the Stadiums’, aired on BBC1 a week before the start of the World Cup – with, to my surprise, my name credited as ‘field producer’ in the closing titles – it was the first" Context: The documentary successfully exposed the contrast between Brazil's multi-billion dollar stadium investments and the extreme vulnerability of children in the surrounding regions.
Page 162 Transcription: "'It happens all the time,' one woman told us as she washed her smalls in a metal basin."
Context: This conversation in Cândido Sales serves as a catalyst for the Pink House’s expansion, as locals confirm that disappearances are a frequent, ignored reality.
Page 163 Transcription: "Back in Medina, among those girls who were bravely taking hold of their own destiny was Maria Lúcia, now 13 and a mother to a newborn daughter. She had always been fiercely loyal to her ‘husband’, a man in his forties who had groomed then raped her..."
Context: Maria Lúcia’s transition from a victim of grooming to an advocate highlights the mission of the Pink House: empowering girls to break cycles of generational abuse.
Page 166 Transcription: "The scene ended up being one of the most powerful moments in Lytannya’s film, called Esta Vida (This Life). 'I was at my cousin’s house and I went to sleep with my sisters,' remembered Alicia quite matter-of-factly. 'Then some guys came in and raped me. Simply that. They burst in, raped me'"
Context: Alicia’s matter-of-fact delivery in the documentary Esta Vida underscores how trauma has become an expected, everyday occurrence for many girls in this environment.
Page 187 Transcription: "It was a huge victory, and historic too – the first time anyone had been convicted of violence against a child in the town."
Context: While a historic legal win, Roper reflects on the insufficiency of a single conviction against a century and a half of entrenched cultural abuse.
Page 200 Transcription: "and some of the girls were as young as 11. He also revealed that, as well as the raffles, one establishment organised weekly bingo nights, with the girls put up as prizes paraded before players before the games began."
Annotation: horrid
Context: The "horrid" public commodification of children via raffles and bingo illustrates the absolute lack of community protection for the vulnerable.
Page 209 Transcription: "I was only 10 when he raped me. He destroyed so many lives. From my time, just the girls I knew who he abused, there were more than 50." Context: A victim named Samantha describes the mass-scale abuse perpetrated by Joel Cruz, showing how one predator can devastate dozens of lives with impunity.
Page 256 Transcription: "She told how her father, a clandestine gemstone miner, would pass her around his colleagues when she was just 11. How she was only able to go to school because those men would give her books and school supplies in exchange for doing what they wanted with her. ... they were all outwardly upright and respected men in town, community leaders, shop owners, church-goers, family men."
Context: Julia’s story highlights a double betrayal: by her father for survival and by the "respected" men of the community who exploited her.
Page 299 Transcription: "that even 10-year-olds were not safe."
Context: During a meeting with company representatives, this realization serves as the "last straw" for advocates fighting against the abuse perpetrated by migrant workers.
Page 311 Transcription: "finally understanding they were no longer alone."
Context: The introduction of a dedicated legal team (Pryscilla, Luisa, and Antonio) gave the girls their first sense of belonging to a system that actually valued their rights.
Page 312 Transcription: "How can you offer hope to young victims of abuse and sexual exploitation without also giving them the one thing that would truly set them free – justice?"
Context: Roper concludes that social services alone are insufficient; systemic legal accountability is the necessary "missing piece" for true liberation.
Page 328 Transcription: "flagship Sunday night news programme entitled The Exploitation Highway in which they showcased the work of the Pink Houses"
Context: National recognition via Brazil’s second-largest network, Rede Record, helped bring the issue to the forefront of the Brazilian public consciousness.
Page 329 Transcription: "ential think tank, the Jose Luiz Egydio Setubal Foundation in São Paulo, placed us among the 10 most innovative social projects in Brazil. ... the dam of the Brumadinho iron ore mine ... had suddenly burst, unleashing a devastating river of sludge that had engulfed everything in its path, killing 270 people and poisoning rivers for hundreds of miles around. ... as reconstruction efforts brought thousands of male workers to the region, they began to see another sinister consequence ... many already bereaved and traumatised young girls falling victim to sexual exploitation." Context: Philanthropic recognition allowed the Pink House to respond to the Brumadinho disaster, where an influx of reconstruction workers created a new environment for exploitation among traumatized survivors.
Page 331 Transcription: "Their idea, Elisa explained, was to train up their drivers to become ‘agents of protection’ on the motorways, who would know how to report and intervene when they saw children being trafficked or exploited. ... they would start with their own 7,000-strong workforce, but their intention was to roll this out to many thousands of other truck drivers over the coming years."
Context: A massive shift in strategy involving Grupo SADA, training thousands of truckers to act as protectors rather than participants in the exploitation cycle.
Page 333 Transcription: "But there was even more to come. Soon after, we received an invitation to speak about the plight of girls on the BR-116 in the British Parliament. ... later that year, with our fifth Pink House already up and running ... I watched Rany, Moany and Maluiza move a roomful of politicians and dignitaries to tears. The three girls were from Cândido Sales, a place where we had faced so much hostility and opposition."
Context: In October 2023, survivors from Cândido Sales stood in the UK Houses of Parliament, transforming from victims into international advocates for change.
References & Further Reading
People: Matt Roper, Chris Rogers (Journalist)
Media: Panorama: Brazil: In the Shadow of the Stadiums (BBC)
Organizations: The Pink House (Meninadança), Jose Luiz Egydio Setubal Foundation
Key Events: 2019 Brumadinho Dam Disaster, Meninadança UK Tour (Oct 2023)
