Gender Equality Nepal Project #14845

Stop Girl Trafficking in Nepal

by American Himalayan Foundation

Project Report | Dec 15, 2015
Keeping Girls Safe Post Nepal Earthquake

By Erica Stone | President

Nepal’s central hills were ground zero for the earthquake, and the place where trafficking has long been entrenched. Predators have been quick to take advantage of the chaos, posing as job brokers or orphanage workers to lure away girls and sell them into slavery. How can this happen? For families crushed by poverty, in a culture that doesn’t value women, girls are expendable. The earthquake opened many new cracks for them to fall through.

EVERY GIRL SAVED IS A VICTORY.

Dr. Aruna Uprety, our visionary partner in STOP Girl Trafficking, wanted to prevent the tragedy of girls being sold and had a far-reaching idea — you can keep a girl safe by educating her. How does it work? Search out the girls most at risk and put them through school. Pay their school fees, give them backpacks, school supplies, mentors. And, as part of their safety net, involve the whole community, so that teachers, parents, and other SGT students all get invested in keeping girls in school.

The longer a girl stays in school, the more she learns and the more confident she becomes. She is seen as an asset to her family and a role model for other girls. Parents have wept with pride at their daughter’s graduation, a child they had considered of little worth.

SGT had 11,000 girls in school — before the earthquake. Within days of the disaster, Dr. Uprety and her organization, RHEST, transformed their network into emergency relief teams and delivered rice, tarps and hygiene kits to thousands of girls and their communities. And, because every day outside is a day at risk, we helped build 54 durable temporary classrooms where schools had collapsed, and added 3,800 newly vulnerable girls from the hardest-hit districts to SGT.

Now SGT has 14,800 girls in school. It’s a big jump for us, but it prevents another 3,800 terrible fates.

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Jul 13, 2015
Back to school post-earthquake

By Bruce Moore | Regional Field Director

destruction in Bhatapur

The Chuna Devi School is located in the once picturesque village of Maha Manjushree, in the hills above Bhaktapur. While not totally decimated as other areas were, most houses sustained considerable damage and all of the girls there in STOP Girl Trafficking and their families are still sleeping outside under tarps.

The girls shared their stories of where they were during the two quakes and what has happened to them since. Miraculously, none of their family died or was seriously injured. Most of the girls were able to recover some of their belongings—clothes, books, school bags—from their homes. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case for Ranita. She was the only girl in the group who was not in her school uniform. It is buried under the rubble of her home which collapsed completely. She cried while telling us, and it brought tears to her mother and a few other girls as well. She was quickly comforted by our local volunteer, Sano Baba, who explained that we would look after her and find her a new uniform.

Raju Dhungana, a teacher at the school, told me he and another teacher had just completed a week-long intensive course in psycho-social counselling. They were tasked with observing the children and offering support when needed.

“For the first week at least, there will be no formal lessons. The students will attend school for only a few hours a day where they can play, sing and dance, talk about their experiences and, by doing so, try to remove some of their fear. The first stage is to offer them some distraction from what has happened over the past month.” Raju told me.

In a stroke of good fortune government engineers, after a thorough inspection, stuck a large green notice on the school walls: the building was deemed strong enough to be occupied again.

Happy to get their new school supplies

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Apr 14, 2015
Finding a Voice

By Bruce Moore | Regional Field Director

Manju in her home

“Because of STOP Girl Trafficking, I have made it to grade 10, and they have helped me regain my confidence and will help me become independent. It is difficult for me to express the emotions I feel for them.” - Manju

Manju is 17 years old. Eleven years ago her father died while working in India. Her family never learned the circumstances of his death—murder wasn’t ruled out as a possibility. His brother, Manju’s uncle, brought her to India. Having no daughters himself, he claimed he would treat Manju as his own child.

Manju wanted to go to school, but she was unable to speak the language and forced to quit after a couple days. Instead of school, she labored all day doing house work, washing dishes, and carrying water for her uncle and his tenants. Both her uncle and the tenants were abusive—they beat her and kept her in a small, dark room. When her mother’s family called, they were told she wasn’t available.

After seven months, her mother’s brother suspected mistreatment and went to India to find her. Seeing the cigarette burns on her hands, he knew he needed to bring Manju home immediately.

STOP Girl Trafficking (SGT) staff found her in grade 6, encouraged her to return to school, and started supporting her from grade 7. But within a couple years after returning from India, Manju’s throat began to swell, she had trouble eating solid food and she lost her voice, likely connected to the trauma she had experienced. Staying in school had become too difficult, until SGT staff checked in on her.

They brought her to their office in Kathmandu, where she spent three months in intensive voice therapy—something that would have been impossible without SGT’s support. Her voice is raspy, but she can speak and eat again without discomfort. Manju, now in grade 10, is happy and proud to be back in school.

Oh, and did I mention that she’s also a poet?

Manju and her family wave outside their home

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