Nepal & India Anti-Trafficking Fund.
HELP US RESCUE NEPALI GIRLS FROM SEX-TRAFFICKING... We've established a fund with a goal of $55,000 to expand our efforts to prevent, rescue and rehabilitate sex trafficking victims in Nepal and India.
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. —Psalm 82:3-4
Inspired by the commands of this scripture and others like it, over the past two years we've been developing a strategy to attack the crisis head-on. Specifically this report will update you on our plans and current actions to escalate our sex trafficking prevention, rescue and rehabilitation efforts in India and Nepal. These initiatives are in addition to our existing slum outreach and orphan care programs which have already been successfully rescuing and caring for children who are at extreme risk of trafficking, and in many cases freed directly from child labor or slavery situations.
Our native workers in India and Nepal are in a unique position to offer aid to women trafficked against their will, forced to become prostitutes in the notorious brothels of Mumbai. The majority of women trapped into forced prostitution in India originate from the villages of Nepal at an alarming rate of over 12,000 girls per year.
One method used by the traffickers is to lure young women and teenage girls with the promise of jobs in the big city. Parents willingly send their daughters thinking they will be able to send back funds earned from their jobs. Of course orphans under the care of relatives are at the highest risk for being sent along with the traffickers. In many other cases, sadly, girls are either kidnapped outright, or sold into slavery for one-time cash payments due to the desperation of destitute parents.
For over a year now our native team in Nepal has been conducting human trafficking awareness campaigns in dozens of the villages known to be targeted by the traffickers. The traffickers prey on the villages along the India-Nepal border, as it is easiest for them to make it across the unguarded stretches of the border in those areas. Villages further north are less likely to be targeted because of the distance and difficult terrain the traffickers must travel to successfully reach the Indian border without being discovered by the authorities.
However we have felt called to do more. Our next steps have lead us to direct involvement in rescuing trapped Nepali girls from the Mumbai brothels, offering rehabilitation for the girls who are rescued. Thanks to funds already raised, our new rehabilitation center is up and running with 10 residents recovering from the brutality of their former lives. Thankfully, the tide is turning on the previously indifferent Indian government participation in the crackdowns of these operations, and more and more Nepali girls are being freed from their captors. We are sad to report that many of the freed girls have no where to go and end up right back in the same trap within weeks or even days.
We've established contact with Nepali friends living in Mumbai who are well acquainted with the situation. With the cooperation of our new friends in Mumbai and the Indian police, we have found that there is an immediate need of placement of rescued girls into rehabilitation. Our strategy is to provide tips for the Indian police that only persons of Nepali origin would have awareness of. In addition, it is to our advantage that our Nepal team is able to speak with the rescued girls in their native language.
Our new facility is equipped to house 20 rescued girls; we have 10 with us now. As more funds come in, we will be able to increase to full capacity. We offer the women a place to live in a nurturing support-based environment. Our staff has trained female counselors who oversee the day to day operation of the program. All meals and expenses to stay at the center are covered for a period of at least six months, until the women can be successfully employed or reunited with relatives in their native villages. An integral part of the program is to provide craft-making and seamstress skill training so they will have a reliable source of income upon departing the program. Bible study is offered to those interested in participating. Women from our team's home church in Kathmandu are among the volunteers.
We've set a financial goal of $55,000 as a starting point to equip us for this expansion. This fund is being used to cover travel and other expenses for members of our Nepal and India teams to operate successfully in Mumbai, and to outfit and cover the first six months' operating expenses of the new rehabilitation center in Kathmandu, Nepal. Additionally, the funds will be used to acquire a new four-wheel drive vehicle to expand our reach in heightening awareness of sex trafficking among the villages of Nepal.
[Learn more about our Nepal programs]
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