Desperate Girls

The Badi Girls

Between 7,000 and 12,000 young girls, aged 9-16, are trafficked each year from Nepal; mainly to India. According to Nepal Monitor/On line journal, 2007, there are more than 200,000 Nepali girls in Indian brothels.

The Dalits(untouchables) are the lowest level in Hindu society, and the Badi community, in Western Nepal, are the lowest of the low. As a displaced hungry people group the Badi community has made sexual subservience a way of life. Young girls from this group “serve” other groups. This has become a tradition and means of livelihood. Many girls, even when they are unwilling, are forced to serve as sex slaves. Family members knowingly sell their daughters to traffickers.

Though prostitution is illegal in Nepal, the industry reportedly has links with highly ranked officials and political leaders. Large groups of girls are taken across the border with many police and government officials being in collusion with traffickers and brothel owners.

Traffickers and related criminals are often protected by political parties, and if arrested, are freed using political power. As a result, there is an underlying distrust of police that has led people not to file cases against traffickers.

Domestic action involves activities of NGO’s and other volunteer groups. These groups are playing a major role to address girl-trafficking and sex slaves issues. Some NGO’s are playing a very important role to improve the situation. From creating social awareness to rescuing and rehabilitation, they are providing services (and relief) to those that need it the most – the likely victims as well as the rescued ones. The Lighthouse foundation is one of these.

*See Chandra Kala’s story on this blog site.

Monday 13 April 2015

Monday 13th Yangon weary travellers



We arrived back in Yangon last night at 6 pm and it was 36 degrees.  We have had an exhausting trip but God has been doing amazing things.  We have had plans to meet people, and then we meet someone else by "chance" who offer us so much incredible help, facilities, connections   There are too many things to write here and many things not confirmed also, but we never cease to be amazed at what God is doing.  While in Lashio, we went to the orphanage  and the children sang for us.  These little ones in the picture are just some of them.  Can you see the white paste they all put on their faces; also the lady and her little girl.  It is a paste made from a tree and is used for beauty and sunscreen.  I always want to run around with a washer and wipe it off.  We also had the privilege of going to "Mary's house" to visit these ladies who are much older than our women in Kathmandu.  Some say they are about 50 or about 40, but they are not sure.   Some wonderful stories of redemption and hope.  There is a little abandoned boy there also that the lady has taken in, so he has a bright future also.  We met a man in Yangon who has a wife and two children, and he has taken in 16 other children in a two room house.  This is an amazing and sacrificial choice to make.  I also like this photo of the tattooed lady.  It is something a certain people group practice.   Grahame has interviews with some candidates for Indonesia this morning and we are going to dinner with a woman tonight who will be part of our new team here.   I am looking forward to being in Kathmandu into my old familiar surroundings, to see my lovely girls and women, and have somewhere to hang up my clothes.  I am so tired of living out of a suitcase and being in an aeroplane.  The team in Kathmandu have been doing a great job, with all things in good hands.
Robyn  







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