Stop Girl Trafficking in Nepal

Each time we go to Nepal, we meet with SGT girls. And we always learn a lot. On a recent field visit, we visited some of the girls who are in their last two years of school, 11th and 12th grades, and graduates, alums who are just starting their careers. With SGT now twenty years strong, we wanted to understand the impact SGT has had on their lives — what happened beyond keeping them safe from being trafficked.

Over tea, we talked with two groups of girls; one from the area around Pokhara and the other from Kathmandu. In both, the alums were almost all employed. They had become school  teachers, hospital receptionists, and NGO staffers doing social mobilizing. Some had gone on to pursue their bachelor’s, two in finance and marketing. All were beating the odds against young low caste women finding work.

A few years ago, when we asked SGT girls in 11th and 12th grades what they wanted to do, quite a few said, ‘work in a bank.’ Now they say, ‘manage a bank.’ These graduates and alums are young women with plans and dreams. When we met, they were thoughtful, poised, and eager to talk to us. I thought, ‘How were these girls ever really at risk?’ But then we heard their stories: extreme poverty, abusive, alcoholic or absent parents. Fathers burning their schoolbooks, never enough to eat, houses and family members gone in the earthquakes. One girl even scared away a tiger that was stalking her on her way to school.

And, I thought, this is what we do. We take girls at a real risk of being trafficked and turn them into confident, articulate, grateful young women looking at very different futures. With 23,000 girls and counting, it is a movement with huge impact. And it could not happen without you. Thank you.

Erica Stone

President

Links:

• Learn more about AHF
• Learn more about STOP Girl Trafficking

When Binu was very young, her mother committed suicide, unable to bear her alcoholic husband's abuse any longer. Losing their mother was a tragedy and led to a cascade of troubles for Binu, her two elder sisters, and younger brother.

Binu’s sisters had to drop out of school. Their father would roam around the village all day drinking, and he died just two years later.  After their father's death, her brother was sent to a monastery and her sisters went to Kathmandu to find work. Binu was abandoned, left with a neighbor.

Every morning, Binu wakes up at 5 am to take care of the household chores for the neighbor's family before going to school, and there is always more work for her to do in the house after classes finish.

Fortunately, when Binu was 10, a teacher recommended that she be enrolled in STOP Girl Trafficking. Six years later, Binu is in ninth grade and wants to become a social worker when she finishes her studies. She is the only person in her family to reach ninth grade.

Binu misses her siblings terribly and only gets to see them during the holidays. But she told us that, without STOP Girl Trafficking, she would have had to drop out just like them, and she is grateful to be able to pursue a different kind of future.

This year, STOP Girl Trafficking has 12,000 girls with dreams as big as Binu's enrolled in school, where they are safe and studying hard. Thanks to your kindness, they are able to not only dream of a better life, but make it happen. We, and they, are deeply grateful. Thank you again.

Links:

• Learn more about STOP Girl Trafficking
• Learn more about AHF