EmpowerHER: Rights, Protection and Hope

Our recent work in Province 2 has proven to be very challenging and very rewarding at the same time. We have had to be very patient and acknowledge that sometimes things take 20 times longer in Nepal than we would like them to. 

We are working very close with the police who refer any cases of girls needing assistance to us, and also we get cases referred by local social workers and active outreach work by our staff. 

We have been helping a few rape (including gang rape) victims, sisters who saw their mum being killed by family members and then sent off to work in a hotel, girls trafficked to India who are now at the child helpline there and are being sent to us in the next few days. A lot of tragic stories and a lot of work to be done. Most challenging part is working with the communities who very often do not accept those girls back, or parents not wanting to prosecute the perpetrators as they worry that this will jeopardise future marriage of the girls. So we are now working on a long term plan of working with the communities, changing perception over there and setting up a mini legal clinic that would help bring justice for the girls. 

Our counsellor is providing sessions for the girls that are in our direct care, but also to those that have a place to stay but come to visit us on a daily basis. Through the counselling and sessions with our social worker we are trying to build a plan for possible future training and job opportunities for the older girls. 

Thank you so much for all the support - this means so much, and is really needed as the project expands.