SAN DIEGO -- Children are being sold for sex to child molesters for just a few dollars, 10News reported.

But some San Diegans are doing everything they can to rescue the children from a life of prostitution.

It's a multimillion-dollar industry and the product is the young and helpless.

10News reporter Elsa Sevilla could not believe what she saw -- young people on display like meat in a supermarket, and customers from both sides of the border shopping for sex.

10News was introduced to children doing school work, but these weren't ordinary students. Many are the sons and daughters of prostitutes.

Most come from a neighborhood called the Red Light District in Tijuana -- called the Zona Norte. For now, they are safe.

Some of these children have been sold to pedophiles by their own parents for drug money.

"He would tell my mother he would give her $10 if I would sleep with him," said victim Juanita.

Juanita, 9, has been raped four times and forced to watch pornographic movies with men -- her mother aware of it all.

Children as young as 7 and 8 years old are coerced to become sex slaves. Many of them are living in hotels in La Zona Norte.

But thanks to San Diegans Connie Youngkin and her husband, some children are finding shelter.

"We had a really nice place in Poway. (We had a) jacuzzi, pool -- everything we could want, but we had a really hollow feeling in our heart," said Connie, with El Pozo Orphanage.

The Youngkins sold everything and moved to Tijuana, opening El Pozo Orphanage five years ago. So far, 45 children have found refuge.

The Youngkins want to do more. Children like Javier, who was raped at 10, sold drugs and became a father at 13.

"My mother abandoned me, and I lived in a doghouse for six months. Then I lived on a sidewalk, covering myself with cardboard boxes," said Javier.

Some children for sale are kept locked up and treated like animals, 10News reported.

Rescuing the younger ones for the orphanage is dangerous work.

It costs $12,000 a month to run the orphanage -- a financial drain on the Youngkins.

They want to bring in 50 more children.

If you're interested in helping, you can send a donation to:

Children of Promise International
PO Box 200
Alma, MO 64001
(El Pozo Orphanage)