By Erica Stone | President
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
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