When a trusted ‘friend’ on social media offers a young Nepali girl the chance for paid work in India or Kathmandu the lure can be too strong to pass up.
Or an ‘employment’ agent might approach a girl's parents with the offer of an upfront bonus. Many families live in desperate poverty and it is not at all uncommon for girls to be pulled out of school at around age 12 and sent off to ‘work’.
But the harsh reality is up to 50 women and girls are trafficked into India every day, sold into the sex trade, used as drug mules, exploited for bonded labour. Or a child might be sold to a sham orphanage, feeding an abusive and unethical travel tourism industry. Shockingly, some children are even used for human sacrifice or organ harvesting.
We want girls in Nepal in school, not in slavery. We want every girl educated. No girl sold.
Knowledge is power
No Girl Sold aims to engage a whole generation of youth in the Indrawati region on a journey of change for a more equitable and girl-safe society. We are arming young people with knowledge about:
- The dangers of girl trafficking
- The value of education
- Other important issues such as early age marriage and reproductive health
We involve boys too. After all, they are a part of the solution.
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Mighty girls leading the way
With aspiring and passionate girls at the helm, No Girl Sold aims to empower young leaders-in-the-making to drive their own positive change for girls.
Our empowerment model trains and supports amazing girl leaders to deliver workshops and drive creative community problem solving to raise awareness about trafficking and a whole host of girls’ empowerment issues.
Every girl educated
Education is the route to true empowerment and opportunity. To help girls along this path No Girl Sold includes:
- An extracurricular school program to give girls an extra boost
- Scholarships for secondary and tertiary education
- Vocational training opportunities
- Leadership development
Securing families
It is a family decision to pull a girl out of school. So an important part of No Girl Sold is making sure families are in a secure position to support their girls’ ongoing education. We facilitate:
- Mothers’ groups, where women work out ways to help each other and their girls
- Direct access to nurses, pharmaceuticals, family planning and maternity support: something as simple as access to contraception can relieve financial pressure on a family and lead to a higher school completion rate
- Seeds of Hope family farm program, feeding bellies and providing an income
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A mother's group meeting on the mountainside
