"She had no one to go to, no one to help, so this is the only solution she found," said one neighbor.

"Everyone has the right to decide what to do with their own body, even if that's not the choice I would make," said another.

But her mother, speaking with difficulty from her bed with her daughter sitting beside her, said she is devastated.

"It's wrong, it's wrong!" she said. "She should look for work, she shouldn't prostitute herself."

Yet, as her mother's sole caregiver, Bernardo insists she has few options.

"It's a lot of responsibility to face alone," she said, wiping away tears. "I'm not really prepared."