Daughters in Danger

Nepal has captured the world’s imagination for centuries. Until recently it was known to the world as a Himalayan Hindu Kingdom, though in 2008 it became a Democratic Republic after 10 years of Maoist insurgency. It’s also the home of Mt. Everest and eight of the world’s ten highest mountains. It’s caught between India and China and currently hosts more than 100,000 refugees from Bhutan.

Thanks to their long and interconnected history, Nepalis can travel to India with no visa and work there without any restrictions. While this is great for adults seeking their fortune in their giant southern neighbour’s cities, it means all sorts of trouble for Nepali children. It’s estimated that up to 7,000 women and children are trafficked across Nepal’s porous borders into India every year, where they’re forced into prostitution – 20% of these are under 16. Nepali females are easy prey: while 69% of males in Nepal are literate, only 42% of females are. As a result of this lack of education and inability to stand up for themselves, 200,000 children of Nepali prostitutes are thought to be living in Indian brothels.

Together with our city-wide network in Katmandu, Viva has been implementing a programme called ‘Daughter’ to teach girls how to stay safe from traffickers, and to show their families and communities how to spot and report trafficking activity. How are we getting word out? Through the church, of course! Before Daughter started in 2008, less than five churches in Nepal were involved in helping children who had been trafficked or abused or preventing these crimes. But by the end of Daughter’s second year, 70 local churches in nine border districts were responding to the needs of these children! That’s pretty good, considering only 0.5% of Nepal’s 30 million people are Christians.

In Nepal, girls who have been raped or sexually abused are encouraged to keep quiet, since it’s thought that bringing these issues to light would disgrace the whole society. A resident of Mahottari describes it like this: “People still are living in silence. They do not know where to go and whom to complain. Many accept it as part of our culture to live in agony for the sake of the dignity of the family, or are scared that they would be forsaken.”

But now that more than 90 pastors have been trained to teach about and deal with child sexual abuse and child trafficking, thousands of girls have a community leader who they can turn to, who will advocate for them before the police (notorious for turning a blind eye) and their families. By 2009, 3764 children and nearly 2000 adults had been taught how to avoid and report trafficking and sexual abuse through the animated Daughter tool.

The Daughter tool is a film about a girl suffering from incest. It’s also distributed as an illustrated flip chart, since most of the country is subject to power cuts for 18 hours out of every day. Viva’s also been involved in distributing 20,000 abuse hotline cards to young people through the network. In fact the whole scheme has been so successful that the local governments have recognised the unity of Christians in their communities. It’s such an unusual thing for local religious groups to campaign against sexual abuse and exploitation that we’re getting a fair bit of attention!

Despite all the success, it’s still an uphill climb. Frequent Maoist strikes have made it impossible to travel or cross borders, so many events have had to be cancelled or postponed. And weak infrastructure has made travel a real challenge; church leaders want to get to border districts to train locals in protecting children, but there are often no roads or the bridges have been washed away in landslides.

On the other hand, local churches in one of the most inaccessible regions have formed volunteer cell groups to intervene in cases of trafficking and sexual abuse. And 19 churches in the Rupendehi network have started a programme to feed and clothe street children – something the churches in that district have never done before! They’re in the process of getting these children involved in their churches.

Working towards a common goal has had the added benefit of unifying the local congregations. According to one Nepali pastor, churches are sometimes so divided that pastors will purposely change their route in order not to see one another in the streets! Now they’re forming networks and thinking up new ways to help children at risk. They’re even starting Sunday schools, which were nearly unknown before.

While trafficking and sexual exploitation are a dismal fact of life in Nepal, the local churches have a fantastic opportunity to reach out with the love of Christ and demonstrate God’s liberating power to the young people in their communities through Daughter.

Here’s a heartbreaking, yet encouraging, success before we sign off. Laxmi was 16 when her cousin raped her while walking her home from work early in 2009. But at a Daughter forum a few months later she said, "I am breaking the silence this afternoon. In my society I am not supposed to speak about sexual abuse because I am a daughter. I reported this case to the police but they did not forward my case. Even my parents did not hear me but they suggested me to suppress this issue for the sake of their social dignity. But, today I realise this is not only cruelty with me - I am thinking of thousands of other daughters who could be victims at any time. The Daughter film has taught me to intervene in cases of child sexual abuse.”

Through Laxmi’s testimony and the effectiveness of the Daughter presentation, the people in her town saw that their culture required a radical change. At the forum that afternoon they committed to prevent child sexual abuse and to help Laxmi fight for the rights of Nepali daughters.


~ Viva, Nepal


Would you like to learn more about the issue of child abuse? Visit www.viva.org/Abuse.aspx.

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