Giving Compass' Take:

• In  Kerala, India, millions of people were affected by severe flooding, and sex trafficking survivors who possess carpentry skills are helping flood victims rebuild their homes. 

• How does disaster relief philanthropy compare in India to the U.S.? 

• Read more about the mindset behind development work in India. 

Sex trafficking survivors trained in welding and carpentry are helping to rebuild homes and schools in India's Kerala state, which was devastated by weeks of flooding. Hundreds of people perished last month in the worst floods to hit the coastal state in a century, and more than 1 million of Kerala's 35 million people were forced to take shelter in relief camps.

The floodwaters have now subsided, but many of their houses are in ruins.

"We are cleaning their homes, fixing doors and windows so they can live there," she said by phone from Chengannur, a town on the Pamba River that was among the worst hit.

Their skills were welcome, said Pallithazhath Bahuleyan Sajan of the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development, a Kerala-based charity that works on low-cost housing and women's empowerment.

"There is a lot of labor scarcity, particularly carpenters, and there was a lot of damage," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. His organization was approached by Prajwala, which had been training sex trafficking survivors in building skills.

"They have a lot of empathy," said Sunitha Krishnan, the founder of Prajwala. "They volunteered to go to Kerala. They said they knew what it felt like to lose everything."

Read the full article about sex trafficking survivors in India by Roli Srivastava at Global Citizen