MAITI NEPAL

Introduction

Maiti Nepal is a non-governmental organisation working from a local community level to an international level. It has its rehabilitation programme in Kathmandu; prevention homes in the districts of Nuwakot, Makwanpur, and Nawalparasi; transit homes at Ilam, Jhapa, Morang, Janakpur, Parsa, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Banke, and Kailali and awareness and advocacy programmes in Chitwan, and Kailali. Maiti Nepal has also been facilitating its rescue and repatriation programmes in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Siliguri, Kishangunj, and Pune in India. In order to develop strong cross-border coordination and networking between Nepal, India and Bangladesh, Maiti Nepal initiated Cross Border Workshops and now it has become a regular feature of the organisation's programme. Maiti Nepal aims to help girls and women who have nowhere else to turn: girl children from the streets, abandoned children, bonded labourers and destitute women. Started in 1993, Maiti Nepal runs a Child Protection and Rehabilitating Centre for girls and women. Maiti Nepal also works in different targeted areas of Nepal where girl trafficking occurs. Birth of Maiti Nepal Maiti has no literal translation but it denotes a girl's real family, where she was born into. The word has a sentimental value especially for a married Nepali woman who has no longer any right towards her parents or their property. She then becomes an outsider belonging solely to her husband and her family forever. The famous song, Maiti ghar timro haina paryi ghar jao--meaning "this is not your home, you belong to an outsider (husband)" says it all. Maiti Nepal however is home to all women and girls--whether married or not--who are exploited, their rights grossly violated and neglected by family and society likewise. It was a crusade to find such victims a home for their protection from social evils that gave birth to this NGO in November 1993. It was started by a handful of conscious professionals like teachers, journalists, and

social workers committed towards combating the social crimes like domestic violence, girl trafficking, child prostitution, child labour and various forms of female exploitation.

Objectives and target group

Maiti's focus has always been on prevention of girl trafficking, a burning issue for Nepal. Rescuing girls forced into prostitution and helping to find economic alternatives have been our key struggle. Rehabilitation, although not literally possible especially with former prostitutes, is one major challenge we have accepted in our work. The practical steps would be to counsel them and provide non-formal education on health, laws, basic reading and writing. They are also trained to develop income-generation skills and provided Maiti's shelter until they are ready to stand on their feet. The sexually abused girls, abandoned children, potential victims of trafficking, destitute women, prisoner's children, returnees from Indian brothels, girls and children infected with HIV and Hepatitis B, intercepted girls are the major target groups or say, beneficiaries of our programs.

Activities:
1. Child Protection and Women Rehabilitation Centre in Kathmandu.
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Looks after children between the ages of three months to 19 months; others go to school for formal education. y Teaches vocational training to the girls and women. They are taught to make hats out of natural plant fibre, strings and ropes, string beads, do fabric painting, sewing, stitching, weaving and knitting. y Counselling services are provided to girls suffering from severe trauma. Physical check ups, hospitals visits, and treatments are other regular activities. Identifying criminals, filing cases against them, identifying and tracing parents, and providing counselling and psychotherapy sessions are ongoing activities. 2. Prevention homes:

At present Maiti Nepal has three prevention homes, one is at Chisapani, which lies on the border of Nuwakot and Sindhupalchowk district. The second one is in Hetauda-Makwanpur district and the third one is in Bardaghat-Nawalparasi district. Conduct skill and income generating training to high-risk girls who are in danger of being sold into prostitution.
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Provide non-formal education. Train the girls to become activists. Encourage formation of groups. Provide micro-credit for self-employment, or to establish small cottage industries.

3. Transit homes Presently, Maiti Nepal has nine Transit Homes in Jhapa, Rupandehi, Parsa, Morang, Janakpur, Kailali, Ilam, Banke and Nawalparasi. Provide a safe crisis shelter for a short period for rescued children, girls and women. y Ensure a safe passage to their respective villages. y Form surveillance teams and supports them at the border points. Surveillance teams, in coordination with government authorities, intercept girls and women who are in the process of being trafficked, but without violating the rights of freedom of migration of the girls and women.
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4. Hospice at Jhapa Provide care, affection, and a homely environment for terminally ill survivors of trafficking. y Provides -24-hour medical care. y Is a self-sustaining centre with vegetable gardens and fishery looked after by the Hospice resident.
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Other Programmes As education is the best way to sustain people and raise awareness, Maiti Nepal has established a pre-primary school named Teresa Academy for children up to class 6, residing at its Kathmandu Centre and for children of carpet workers, abandoned children, orphans, lost and found children and so on. y Identifying criminals and filing charges against them. y Building networks and self-help groups. y Public-awareness campaigns. y Encouraging and mobilising students' involvement in Fighting Against Girl Trafficking. y Applying pressure on the government and law-enforcing agencies
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Details of the Proposed Project Maiti Nepal has been working against trafficking with the help of the above mentioned programmes for the past 10 years. Since its inception, Maiti Nepal has been focussing on activism. But with the gradual growth of the institution Maiti Nepal seeks to develop the institution with technical aspects e.g. human resource

development, office management set up etc. The need for this has been realised to further enhance the work more efficiently and effectively. In view of the development of human resource we would like to propose a crash course on the basics of computer including Windows, MSWord, MsExcel and MsPowerpoint. A similar kind which was set up for the girls at Maiti Nepal last year. As the girls of Maiti Nepal had a very difficult background, the time taken to complete the course was 9 months. However, since these people whom we propose the crash course for have a stronger background, the time frame would be much less (around 2 months). Additionally, they should also be trained for the multimedia system including, creation and maintenance of database and the use of scanner and printer and email/internet. These focal points will be accompanied by the girls previously trained, and will hold their own computer classes for students capable of learning the new technology in the respective branches. Maiti Nepal proposes to South Asia Foundation to provide equal funding for training of its field staff and for the provision of computers to be installed in 15 of its branch offices as listed below: Transit 1. Pashupatinagar 2. Kakarbhitta 3. Biratnagar 4. Janakpur 5. Birgunj 6. Bhairawa 7. Nepalgunj 8. Dhangadi 9. Mahendranagar 10. Maheshpur - Nawalparasi Prevention 1. 2. 3. Hospice Satighatta Rehabilitation Itahari - Sunsari Chisapaani Bardaghat Hetauda Office Ilam Jhapa Morang Dhanusa Parsa Rupendehi Banke Kailali Kanchanpur

Home Centre

Nuwakot Nawalparasi Makwanpur Jhap -

The reason for proposing to train the field staff on database and multimedia is: The important documents of children, women, patients are manually kept in paper files. This means that the photographs of the girls who are trafficked are also usually lost in the stack of files that are increasing and becoming overwhelmingly difficult to manage. y By teaching them the use of scanner/database/e-mail/internet, they can keep easily retrievable files of pictures and data which can be transmitted as and when required.
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Further, by keeping an electronic database, information about everyone can be stored, and used extensively over time, when there is a need to track information about a particular person.
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As mentioned above, a two months' crash course can be conducted for the field staff on multimedia and on using computers and other accessories. The training would be provided by SAF Nepal IT coordinator Mr. Rajesh Lamichhane and his colleague in Kathmandu for two months.

MAITI NEPAL AND ANURADHA KOIRALA

Anuradha Koirala does not go by the book. Life is too short, the bureaucracy too large and the system too corrupt to get bogged down in fine print, especially when you're trying to help little girls who are rape victims or enslaved prostitutes. Koirala marches around her small four-bedroom house like a drill sergeant--face stern, manner crisp. Discipline is important when your home is shelter to more than 80 abused and exploited children no one else wants. "The children have to learn to be bold--they can't sit around and weep," she says, jaw set and eyes flashing, as if by sheer willpower the frail former schoolteacher could drive this lesson home. A 12-year-old girl who was raped by her father walks past, and Koirala reaches out to sneak a mischievous tickle. The stiffness melts into a puddle of giggles and hugs and tenderness. Later, the horrors that these children have suffered, the personal debt that Koirala has piled up while helping them, the legal battles to arrest their abusers seem to crash down upon her. Her shoulders stoop in fatigue and her weathered face softens, deepening the creases and making her appear 10 years older than her 44 years. But a consuming anger propels Anuradha Koirala forward. It prompted her to form Maiti Nepal, meaning Mother's House. She started by making personal loans of 1,000 rupees ($20) to nine female beggars and prostitutes in Kathmandu so they could set up stalls to sell vegetables, cigarettes and candies--and, she hoped, reshape their lives. The shelter is now the centerpiece of Koirala's crusade. There she has surrounded herself with the human residue of Nepal's most insidious social evils: child prostitution and international trafficking in women, particularly to brothels in India. Advocacy: Campaign for Social Awareness

As part of its prevention strategy, Maiti Nepal also reaches out to the community, particularly adolescent girls, student, teachers, and VDC leaders. These programmes attack one of the root causes of trafficking - ignorance. Girls learn about trafficking so that they can avoid being tricked by strangers who come to their village and try to lure them. Awareness and advocacy campaigns against trafficking are intervention programme designed to reduce the problem of trafficking in children and women and is in operation in many parts of country. The programme focuses on acquainting community about situation and the risks their daughters and sisters could face at the hands of traffickers. Involvement of young people as educators through plays, talk programmes, discussions, songs, and real life stories not only gives trafficking a human face, but it also helps to reduce stigma and discrimination by providing a forum for community members to discuss the issue and build shared accountability for preventative action. Anti trafficking Safety Networks The main aim of this programme is to formulate Anti trafficking Community safety-net groups in Nepal-Indo border and establish surveillance system in to build safety measurers in protecting children and women from getting trafficking. Under this programme, girls at high risk of being trafficked and concerned agencies have themselves become safety net members and to empower and strengthen to encourage and motivate them to take ownership of the community based safety net programmes. Anti trafficking community safety-net programme is launched in four border districts in Nepal that borders India; Jhapa, Morang, Rupandahi and Kanchanpur. Awareness Awareness campaigns and advocacy work are significant features of Maiti Nepal\'s activities. Many efforts have been made to highlight the issue and Maiti has received adequate press coverage. In August 1994, a major awareness campaign was organized in six districts- Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Dhading, Makwanpur, Nawalparasi, and Rasuwa. Maiti Nepal mobilized Padma Kanya (Girl\'s) College students, police, lawyers, journalists and local people. Women pressure groups were formed. Workshops on girl-trafficking, child prostitution and AIDS were organized in each district to educate and generate awareness among key groups of people like the politicians, police officers, chief district officers, medical officers, journalists and local students.

In 1996, an awareness program was completed in the district of Udaipur. In 1997, another was done at Jhapa and Makwanpur districts. Other awareness programs were held at Rupandehi, Sunsari and Morang districts in 1998.

Community Outreach Programmes The overall goal of this project is to create public awareness regarding the menace of trafficking girls and mobilise concerned citizens to fight against this practice. To prevent children and women from being trafficked emphasis are placed on advocacy programmes right at the point of origin, which would encourages community to build early warning and support systems.

Major activities of this programme are public information campaigns, consultative workshops, development of awareness materials, and ensuring increased media coverage of issues, community sensitisation, and legislative reform, strengthening of border securities sharing information, and exposing the perpetuators publicly. Maiti Nepal works directly with community in ten districts. Articles
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WHY ARE YOUNG GIRLS CHOOSING SEX WORK AS THEIR PROFESSION THESE DAYS? - 2009-07-27

The views expressed in this article are based on first hand interviews with the girls and women, who were at Maiti Nepal under different circumstances and not necessarily mine or those of Maiti Nepal. Is it really under compulsion to fulfill their daily basic need? Is it really because their parents could not foster them because they were a single parent?Do they have many siblings or were very poor to have a single meal at the end of the day?Or is it the other way round that they are fascinated by the metropolitan city?s fashion faux and colorful society and being lured with high aspirations by their peers. Kathmandu, once upon a time called ?City of temples and deities? is now known as ??Sin City?? or ??second Bangkok??. It has become the center for crime, deception, in disciplinary acts, social hypocrisy, and conspiracy which has given every possible way to prompt these young girls to choose this profession. All concerned individual has the same question i.e. what is the government doing?Just a mere public stunt of trying to close all the dance restaurants and massage parlors for a short time. Like the saying goes, ?Where did the milk spill in the bowl??

When asked individually, why they chose this profession every girl has the same mechanical answer?. obligation. Can?t you earn your living by doing an honest job? Does every girl in this society who has difficulties in their life choose the same profession? In fact the simplest answer is, its easy and fast money for them. A woman working at massage center, where she does everything in addition of massage, earns around Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 per month and even more. A qualified medical doctor earns Rs. 20,000 per month .When we asked them what they do with so much money she says fostering her children, house rent, food etc. but not to mention drinking, partying, gaudy clothing and make ups. Girls working at such so called massage parlor and dance restaurant are highly fascinated by the valleys fashion faux and lifestyle. They ardently follow every trend that?s going around .Be it going to the party, fashionable shorts, haulter neck tops, Converse shoes or the hair do like hair extension, coloring and highlights. There?s nothing wrong in wanting all of this, but they want it so badly that for the sake of it they chose easy and fast money job. When you think of trafficked survivors, who were sold to brothels across the borders, they are real innocent ones. Few have escaped on their own, some were rescued by NGO?s like Maiti Nepal and many are still there. But what about internal / domestic trafficking, where the traffickers are their own relatives and the massage parlor are run by people from their villages. Once they are brought there, they taste easy money and once habituated they tend to return to the parlors even when rescued. A Girl who has just entered her puberty was rescued by Maiti Nepal from a massage parlor. When I asked her age, she was just 14 and told us that she joined the work because her sister was already working there. I again asked her if her work at the massage parlor include sex, then she answered it was her own will and consent. So does this mean that in our country an underage child can chose to be exploited if she wants? Many girl on vaginal examination had extreme cases of PID (PELVIC INLAMMATORY DISEASE) which means that it is not only about exploitation of children, but also a health hazard. One of them were tested positive for HIV. She was explained and counseled about the disease. Tears rolled down her eyes, I assured her to not to worry, but the problem is still humungous. At present they are enjoying their life in the ?Sin City?, but it will be too late to realize that, life is not easy for anyone and that we cannot have everything in life and yes, we do have lots of options. But who do we blame for this? A young and helpless girl in a big city? Dance restaurant and massage parlor owners for running such a business? Male clients for going to these places? Society for their hypocrisy? Or the Government for not doing enough? The question and the problem lie open.