How to Solve Human Trafficking in Nepal
Turn Survivors into Empowered Entrepreneurs and Business Owners:
The solution to human trafficking in Nepal and in other parts of the world isn’t always complicated. It just takes the will to act and a few resources to make it happen.
The Women’s Protection Center in Nepal runs a vocational training program that gives women who used to live in fear the skills and opportunity to own a business and provide for their own needs.
This approach is far better than a typical “aid” program. We’re not interested in giving out free food and rent for decades and creating a new form of dependency that just replaces the one these women experienced when they were trafficked (or living in fear of it).
Nepali Women’s Job Training Program
At the Nepali Women’s Training Program, we teach them:
- Marketable job skills – sewing and knitting of scarves, shawls, gift bags
- How to start and run a business in Nepal
- The tools and resources they’ll need to succeed
Once they’ve completed the 6-month training program, each woman is given a sewing machine.
From there, they can take it back to their community, start producing clothing, set up shop, and open for business.
In the last five years alone, we’ve empowered over 200 Nepali women through this job training program. Some now have jobs with other companies. But most have started their own businesses and are making enough to meet their families’ needs.
Why Sewing?
Nepali clothing is some of the most beautiful in the world. So when a skilled craftswoman opens up a store in her area, she is going to get business. She just needs to know how to do it. Once trained and empowered, success is only a few steps away.
With how the economy is in Nepal (over 40% unemployment), it doesn’t take a lot of revenue to provide for daily needs and become a positive force in the community. So once she gets her business going, each woman who comes through our job training program will be able to provide for her family.
Sewing also gives women in Nepal a useful job skill that helps them avoid the deceptions of human traffickers which is why a sewing machine solves human trafficking in Nepal. Because traffickers thrive on dependency.
“You need money,” they say. “You can’t provide for your family. You’re starving. Your kids aren’t in school. I can get you a job in India or the Middle East. Don’t waste your time getting an international work visa. Don’t waste your money paying fees. I can get you past all those barriers and get you hired fast.”
It’s a tempting offer. But it’s full of lies, treachery, and exploitation. By sidestepping all these “barriers,” what they’re really doing is making their final destination impossible to trace. So once the woman gets overseas, they find the “job” isn’t what they expected, and there’s no way out because no one knows where they are.
With a profitable clothing and apparel business, even a very small one, women will no longer feel pressured to consider working abroad and risk being trafficked.
Empower Nepali Kids Through Education:
Education is the most important and the first right of every single child. Through education, the children and women will never fall prey to those in the business of trafficking.
With your help, our children are taught to read, write, and how to do mathematics. They learn life skills and the dangers of human trafficking and are provided with after-school tutoring and homework assistance at the safe home. Additionally, families are able to meet school-related needs such as school fees (there’s no free school in Nepal), books, supplies, and uniforms.
Sponsoring a scholarship for a child gives them the opportunity to reach their dreams to the utmost extent. Most of our children have dreams to become doctors, teachers, dentists, lawyers, etc. Helping them reach that goal helps them turn into a community changers. Allowing them to positively change the world they live in for rebuilding a better Nepal.