Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom

by Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF)
Play Video
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom
Help Former Child Slaves on their Path to Freedom

Project Report | Jun 2, 2009
NYOF's project to rescue girls from bonded servitude is spreading across Nepal!

By Olga Murray | Founder and President

Girls rescued by NYOF reflect on their troubled past
Girls rescued by NYOF reflect on their troubled past

Although the government of Nepal is undergoing more tumultuous changes, including a new Prime Minister, NYOF’s programs in Nepal are continuing to transform the lives of impoverished children and provide them with unimagined opportunities.

NYOF’s Indentured Daughters Program rescues girls from bonded servitude, sponsors their education, and provides each family with a piglet or goat to compensate for the income they would have gained from selling their daughter. We first introduced this program in the Dang district of Nepal in 2000, and we have virtually eliminated the bonding practice there. When we brought our program to Dang, fathers would boast about the number of daughters they had bonded away, local politicians would arrange labor contracts as favors to their constituents, the streets were filled with labor contractors coming to buy the girls’ services, and the bus park with frightened, weeping little girls about to be sent off they knew not where.

Today, nine years later, although a few girls are still bonded away in Dang, the arrangements are made between the fathers of the girls and the labor contractors on the sly and the family is looked down upon in the community. Thousands of liberated girls marched in a parade last January to celebrate their freedom, and at the rally that ended the parade, the Chief District Officer of Dang (similar to a Governor) declared Dang a zone free of bonded labor. For the first time ever in Nepal, the local police arrested the few labor contractors who dared to come to the district to make bonding arrangements. (The practice has been ruled illegal by the Nepali Supreme Court in a suit brought by NYOF.)

We recently visited the nearby Kailali district where the bonding custom is still prevalent because NYOF has not been able to start its abolition program yet. There, every January when the selling of girls takes place, men in leather jackets wearing dark glasses and sporting cell phones ride through the village streets on their motorcycles to buy child servants. One, a journalist, was there to renew the contract of a 16 year old. Another, who had engaged the services of a 10 year old in his home the previous year, also wanted to renew the contract and in addition, to buy another girl to work in his second home. The father refused an offer of $80 for a year of his daughter’s services, and the buyer went elsewhere to make his deal. As we discovered later, the father had already reached an agreement with another buyer for $95 for the year, half of it up front. (A price considerably higher than average.) All through these negotiations, Kausi, their daughter, sat silently and sadly on the bench in front of their hut, one parent on each side, as the adults haggled over the price of her future.

A couple of years ago, we extended our program to the Bardiya district, where it has been very successful - we have rescued about 1000 girls to date. With your support, we will soon eliminate the bonding tradition from Bardiya, and within a few years, from all of Nepal. Thank you for supporting some of the most disadvantaged children in Nepal.

Please let us know your thoughts about this project by providing feedback in our comments section!

NYOF rescued this girl and gave her family this goat
NYOF rescued this girl and gave her family this goat

Links:

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.

Sign up for updates

Organization Information

Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF)

Location: San Francisco, California - USA
Website:
Facebook: Facebook Page
Twitter: @nepalyouthfound
Project Leader:
Julie Pofsky
Associate Director of Development
Sausalito , CA United States

Funded Project!

Thanks to 1,709 donors like you, a total of $267,343 was raised for this project on GlobalGiving. Combined with other sources of funding, this project raised enough money to fund the outlined activities and is no longer accepting donations.
   

Still want to help?

Support another project run by Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF) that needs your help, such as:

Find a Project

Learn more about GlobalGiving

Teenage Science Students
Vetting +
Due Diligence

Snorkeler
Our
Impact

Woman Holding a Gift Card
Give
Gift Cards

Young Girl with a Bicycle
GlobalGiving
Guarantee

Get incredible stories, promotions, and matching offers in your inbox

WARNING: Javascript is currently disabled or is not available in your browser. GlobalGiving makes extensive use of Javascript and will not function properly with Javascript disabled. Please enable Javascript and refresh this page.