Following the successful completion of the first seminar in Kathmandu, we are looking to start these seminars in rural areas hardest hit by trafficking. In December Rabindra and some volunteers visited a border town to get a feel for how the local community are being affected by trafficking and were given details about two teenagers who had recently been trafficked. Their single mother had been approached about offering work to two of her children and she thought she was being given a chance to help improve their living situation, so she willingly sent them off. With the help of a lovely local taxi driver, our team were able to locate these children in a hotel on the Indian side of the border and were able to smuggle them out of the hotel and get them back to their mother, who was obviously very upset about what could have happened to her children and thankful to have them back by her side. It is believed they were being trafficked for their organs.
We are working with the mother and investigating how we can get a new tin roof onto her whare, which is what led her to send her children off to ‘work’. This form of deception happens a lot with poor parents, they are desperate and so believe they have been given an opportunity which will lead them out of abject poverty. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
From left to right:
Rabindra and the HLF volunteers with the mother and all her children.
Rabindra and the HLF volunteers at the border crossing to India.
The local driver getting on board with our work!
The mother and her children (the two on the left were the trafficking victims).
Our seminars focus on educating people about the forms of deception that happen and we are also looking at how we can work with other agencies to support these poorer communities and ensure they have safer options. We will operate awareness seminars to try and prevent trafficking and any women and children we rescue or that need further support then our ever-expanding network will be able to undertake this work. It breaks our heart that this work is even necessary, but we are always hopeful that when working together, anything is possible.