Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom

Some former child slaves are learning a trade -- and taking great pride -- in designing, creating and promoting their traditional Tharu attire.

About 20 young women from the Tharu community of Western Nepal who were sold as domestic child slaves in a practice known as Kamlari are enrolled in a training program to design and tailor their authentic native dress.

The intricately designed costumes are in high demand among Tharu girls and women.

Manjita Chaudhary, a young woman NYF rescued from indentured servitude 15 years ago, is leading the training program. NYF supports the popular program through its Vocational Education and Career Counseling program (VECC).

NYF has rescued more than 12,300 girls from the practice of Kamlari since it launched its Indentured Daughters Program in 2000 and is now working to ensure that the girls become healthly, happy, independent young women.

The vocational training programs help to stimulate the cultural and economic development needed to ensure that no child will become a victim of Kamlari again.

Our staff provides structured counseling sessions and assessment tests, and then helps girls enroll in top quality training programs for a wide variety of careers. 82 percent of our graduates are currently employed - a remarkable achievement given that the unemployment rate in Nepal is 40-46 percent.

Thank you for your generous support.

Namaste!

Links:

• Nepal Youth Foundation

We launched our Indentured Daughters Program in 2000 with an audacious goal -- to end the practice of Kamlari, the system in which girls from desperately poor families were sold into domestic slavery.

Since then, Nepal Youth Foundation has rescued over 12,300 girls and returned them to their home communities, importantly, our advocacy work helped persuade the government to officially affirm the abolition of Kamlari and allocate millions of dollars to educate girls who were officially victims of the system.

But rescuing the girls isn't enough. Every one of them has suffered traumatic loss and abuse during their childhood and has been deprived of an education. They'll need support well into young adulthood in order to thrive and make their place in the world.

Our new Empowering Freed Kamari’s program (EFK) is helping the rescued girls become healthy, happy, independent young women, while stimulating the cultural and economic development needed to ensure that no child will ever become a victim of Kamlari again.

This year our various EFK activities served more than 8,000 girls and young women.

Leadership Training With support from NYF, the girls formed their own action group in 2010 - the Freed Kamlari Development Forum (FKDF), which has grown to include 1,375 members. Our EFK staff provides them with training in leadership skills, organizational management, political literacy, accounting and entrepreneurship.

Economic Development There are 37 FKDF business co-ops with nearly 3,000 members. We provided $40,000 to start their co-op loan fund, and 762 young women have now launched their own businesses and reinvested $40,000 back into the fund.

Vocational Training We provide assessment tests and counseling, and then help girls enroll in top-quality training programs. This year, 355 girls developed marketable skills in agriculture, engineering, computer technology, healthcare and more.

Psychological Support With training and supervision from the staff of our Ankur Counseling Center, FKDF peer counselors provide emotional support for former Kamari’s. There are now 50 FKDF peer counselors and five assistant counselors conducting 145 monthly support groups with 2,025 participants.

Thank you for helping us to do this important work.

Namaste!

Links:

• Nepal Youth Foundation