Gender Equality Nepal Project #23760

Restoration and education for 36 trafficked girls

by Free a Girl

Project Report | Nov 27, 2017
Supporting girls to regain independence

By Free a Girl and Shakti Samuha | -

Imagine what the girls have been through when they arrive in this halfway home shelter.

So far this year 38 girls have been rescued from the horrors of human trafficking and have been supported and rehabilitated through this project. Many of them were trafficked across the border to India and then had to be repatriated back to Nepal.

Most girls are heavily traumatised, suffer from sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, and are far from stable and independent. It is critical that they receive a range of support at the halfway home and go through a number of steps before they can return to their families and to normal life.

First, they receive medical support and psychosocial counselling; this is critical to help them deal with their trauma. They also participate in a legal orientation, where the staff teach them about the laws and their rights around child abuse, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation. Then the girls decide whether they want to file a case of human trafficking in the court and so far this year, 6 cases have been filed.

While the girls reside in the halfway home they all receive some form of education; one third of the girls receive formal education. When they return after school, the halfway home teacher provides them with after-school tuition and supports them with their homework.The other girls who don’t attend formal schooling participate in non-formal education at the shelter. Non-formal education is provided by the halfway home teacher to those beneficiaries who are illiterate. It is a bridge course to teach the girls basic literacy and numeracy (i.e. as elementary as the alphabet and numbers) before they start school. It is also given to those who join the shelter home in the middle of the year and are unable to go to formal school. Some girls have also started undertaking vocational training courses, including in jewellery-making or hospitality, through the national Council of Technical Education and Vocational Training or registered private agencies. The halfway home also does job placement for the girls, so that they can have decent work if they are not enrolled in formal education or vocational training.

As this is a halfway home shelter, it is not a short-term, immediate needs shelter or a long-term home. Hence, the aim is to support girls in the medium term to develop their physical, mental and social wellbeing, as well as get on a path towards independence. This includes equipping them with skills and/or jobs, so that they can then gradually return home with their families or reintegrate in urban areas to find decent work.

An in-depth risk assessment is always done by the staff before the girls return to their families. This is one of the most essential tasks before the girls can go home. It maps and traces out any possible risks of the girls being re-trafficked. This is because girls are often trafficked by family or extended family members, neighbours and other community members or traffickers in their local village who lure girls into false promises of a high-paid job in the city. If there are no risks found in their community, the girls return home and the staff follow up with them once a month to check their situation and if they are resettling well. If any risks are found during the risk assessment, the girls are referred to another organisation for long-term shelter and support, as going home may be dangerous for them. Sadly this can often be the case, which is why it is so necessary that the girls receive education, vocational training, job placement and other skills at the halfway home, which enables them to lead an independent life where they can make strategic life choices.

Permalink

Jul 17, 2017
A young girl's dream for freedom

By Free a Girl and Shakti Samuha | -

A young girl’s dream for freedom

We want to share with you an inspiring story of one of the girls supported by this project, who has been able to return home and even give back to the community

Sunita’s story

(name has been changed to preserve anonymity)

Sunita was trafficked at the young age of 8, spent years in a brothel in India, which resulted in emotional, physical and lifelong scars. Together with our local partners and donors, Free a Girl is able to help Sunita and other girls obtain freedom and fight for justice.

Sunita is from a low socio-economic background in the district of Sindhupalchok, Nepal. One day she went with her relative to visit a temple. This relative took her to India and sold her to a brothel, and told her parents that she got lost in the temple. She was only 8 years old then. She doesn’t remember many details about how she was trafficked. She spent four years in a brothel in Kolkata, India. One day, in a police raid, she was rescued and was placed with of our local partners in Kolkata. She was found to be HIV positive and was given ARV to suppress the virus and stop the progression of HIV disease. After ten years, our local partner in Nepal, Shakti Samuha, repatriated her from India to Nepal. There she received shelter support, counselling and vocational training. She stayed in a halfway home for 2 years. It was difficult to locate her family, as Sunita had a vague memory of her village and only remembered her mother’s name. However, eventually her home was located and only after several visits, was Sunita reintegrated with her family.

With the help of our local partner Sunita has received support for Buffalo farming so she can earn an income. She is engaged in a trafficking-survivors group in her district and is working as an agent of change to fight against human trafficking locally. Now she says, “whatever had happened to me, no other girls should ever go through it. For that, I am actively raising awareness in our community.”

Young Sunita thought her life was over when she became another girl lost in the dreadful brothels of Kolkata. We help rescue girls like Sunita in Nepal and provide them with shelter and the hopeful prospect of a new chapter.

Free a Girl’s projects in Nepal assists in the rehabilitation of girls that are victims of child prostitution through medical and social care, education, life-skills, and vocational training. We support the girls to attain financial and social independence. In 2016 alone, together with our local partner, we provided critical care, education and training to 32 rescued girls in a halfway home. Out of these 31 girls, 11 chose to receive formal education while 13 chose vocational training courses. Four victims of human trafficking received legal support to file their cases, which could not have been done without the help of your donations. Thank you for your continued support.

Permalink

Mar 29, 2017
Achievements in 2016!

By Free a Girl and Shakti Samuha | -

This project has supported survivors of trafficking and sexual exploitation. We have provided lifesaving assistance and educational opportunities to 32 girls living in a halfway home run by Shakti Samuha in in the past year; we have helped them achieve lasting change in their lives. The project also led to 4 cases against human trafficking filed in court. We would like to thank all the donors and partners for helping us support these girls and for standing up against the injustice of trafficking and sexual exploitation in Nepal.

ACTIVITIES & RESULTS

Legal

4 cases of human trafficking were filed in court through the help of this project.

Rehabilitation

32 girls benefited from shelter support.
All beneficiaries who received shelter support, received psychosocial counselling and health support.

Of these girls:

o 13 girls participated in vocational training.

o 11 girls received formal education support.

o 31 girls engaged in non-formal education.

Often girls also want to engage in recreational activities. Through this project, all girls are provided with training to make paper-flowers, greeting cards and reusing or recycling things in our daily lives for arts and crafts. These are creative tools the girls can also use when reintegrating into society.

Reintegration

7 human trafficking survivors have been repatriated from India to Nepal.
2 parent’s interaction programs have been finished in Sindhupalchok and Nuwakot districts with the parents of the reintegrated human trafficking survivors.
12 girls have been reintegrated with their family and 2 beneficiaries have been referred to other organisations for long-term shelter support and education support.

SUCCESSES & CHALLENGES

Almost all the girls who received services from the halfway home in 2016 were attending school and receiving vocational training. The main challenge is that it is not easy to reintegrate the girls with their family because of their poor economic status and high risk of being re-trafficked after they are reunified with the family. Acknowledging this fact, this project emphasises provision of educational and vocational training to those girls so that girls can earn money and live an independent life in the future. This is also why the interaction programmes with parents of trafficking survivors are very important. In these meetings parents’ problems are discussed openly to understand the issues of trafficking, how to prevent this problem in the future and who to go to for support.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 ›

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.