Educate Nepal Mission Teams: Charlton Christian College Mission

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.

Sunday, 17 November 2013

Charlton Christian College Mission

Hi all,

We've arrived in Nepal and we've instantly fallen in love with the place. The roads are dirt, the driving is hectic, it's pushy and shove and the people in the street treat each other like "I was here first, move".
There are cows wandering the streets, the sacred cows, upheld by the Hindu beliefs. The guest house is comfortable and we'll be well rested tomorrow and ready to commence work where ever we're needed. The travel here has been tiring, but so worth it. You can see the poverty of the people we've passed on our way to the guest house, picking nits out of each others hair, living under a few sticks with a piece of tin over the top, people living beside the road with children, living of rubbish tips, no welfare support or emergency services here. That's why I thank God that he's given us the opportunity to be here.
I'm really missing my family.
Danielle Adamo