June 12, 2011
The monsoon rains started today and left gorgeous streaks across the sky. I can’t stop staring out at the night sky and almost-full moon. A car is driving around the neighborhood playing the gayatri mantra on repeat. If I close my eyes it could almost be India…but more quiet. I have now been in Kathmandu for two weeks and feel a tremendous sense of peace in my heart. The days are filled with Raksha (Protection) Nepal- a non-profit organization that rescues girls and women from forced prostitution and trafficking. It provides them with shelter, psychosocial counseling, education, literacy training, and a means for obtaining an alternative livelihood through vocational training (sewing, driving, mobile repairing, cooking, etc).
I am teaching English to a group of 55 women and girls ranging in age from 12 to about 65 years old at Raksha’s school for women. These women and girls come from different backgrounds: some suffer from domestic violence, some were rescued from the "entertainment" sector (massage parlors, dance bars, cabin restaurants, etc), and others come from communities with high rates of violence against women. Each time I walk into the classroom they stand and collectively say ‘namaste’ with their hands pressed together. It is a sign of deep respect for teachers. Their warm smiles are heart-piercing. I have never experienced a job that is this emotionally gratifying. Most of my ladies do not speak English at all. All have experienced hardship simply due to being born female and this is their way to empowerment. I want to teach them everything I know, but I have to take things very slow (with the help of a Nepali interpreter). Some of them do not even know how to write in their own language of Nepali. Still I have such a fervent belief in them and in their ability to persevere. They repeat each letter and each word with such determination, despite the difficulty. I know that the work we are doing is more than just about learning English. It is a pathway to empowerment and freedom.
The history of sexual exploitation here is staggering. Nepal went through a difficult 10-year war during which a large number of people were killed. Many women became widows and were consequently unable to feed their children. These women (and/or sometimes their daughters) were forced to migrate to the cities in order to find work. Illiterate and lacking skills, many were exploited and coerced into forced prostitution then presented with threats when they tried to leave.
Side note: external trafficking to India and other countries is also a huge problem here, as I have mentioned in the past. There are currently over 200,000 Nepali girls and women in Indian brothels (mostly in Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta). They were trafficked through coercion and promises of better jobs. Most of them come from poor and rural communities in Nepal. This is the subject of my research for my final capstone paper, and I will write more about it as I conduct research in the coming weeks.
In the past few days I have listened to many personal stories of gender-based discrimination and violence in Nepal. There is a strong cultural preference for boy children here, which has led to horrifying cases of violence against women and girls. Child marriage, rape of little girls by old men, exploitation, and violent assault in the "entertainment sector" is not uncommon. Today I met a girl who ran away from her village at the age of 13 when her parents tried to marry her away to a much older man. She ended up in Kathmandu and began working in a restaurant, only to be sexually exploited by the owners and eventually forced into sex work. When she was 14, a man broke her arm, leg, and a vein in her neck when she refused to service him. Her neck is permanently twisted to the side and she is still awaiting surgery. Raksha Nepal is working to rescue these women and girls from the endless and torturous cycle of sexual slavery, debt bondage, violence, fear, intimidation and pain. It is providing them with a sense of integrity and pride in a culture where patriarchy is dominant.
And then there are the children.
Raksha Nepal is also a shelter for 18 orphaned children. They are the kindest, softest, most endearing little love bugs in the world. My heart melts when I am with them. They are patient, orderly, disciplined and adult-like. They come back from school (the ones that do attend school) and eagerly sit on their mats to do homework. Each time I walk into their room they giggle and put their hands together in “namaste”. I bought them notebooks and pens a few days ago; by the end of the afternoon each child had neatly written her/his name on the cover and filled half of the notebook with phrases they found in their books. I just love them so much.
Sadly, more than half of the children are currently not attending school due to a lack of funding (Raksha only received enough grants to send half of them to school this year). Raksha has also had to suspend the vocational training programs for rescued girls and women while the organization awaits funding. I spend time with the kids each day, giving them homework and English phrases to copy in their workbook. They eagerly come to me with their completed work and ask for more (kids asking for more homework- hard to believe, but it is true). I plan to do everything I can to get Raksha funding so that these kids can go to school. I’m also concerned about girls and women not receiving shelter due to a lack of grant money. Raksha’s goal is to expand the shelter program to eventually accommodate 20 survivors. But again, funding.
The fierce woman behind Raksha Nepal is Menuka Thapa. Menuka was in her mother’s womb when her father fell from a tree and passed away. The entire village blamed her (the unborn baby) for the death of her father. Menuka’s mother had given birth to eight girls and one boy, and kept getting pregnant each year in the hopes of having more boys. Menuka was the last child. After her mother’s death when she was only 12, Menuka migrated to Kathmandu in the hopes of finding work. She witnessed the effects of forced prostitution while working in a restaurant. That day she gathered the girls and began teaching them about their rights. Eventually she created Raksha Nepal so that she could turn these girl’s lives around. She is very much adored and respected by the girls and children at the shelter (and by me).
You know how sometimes things just feel right? That is me in Nepal. I know that there is a reason I am here at this moment. Information keeps unfolding in front of me as I scramble to keep track of it all. It all comes down to this: women and girls have not been given a voice here. I feel it is my duty to do everything I can to make sure their voice is heard.
