We have a short status report on our cooperation with Plan International (we wrote about them here) to free and protect Kamalari girls in Nepal. The project is aiming to ensure that girls in the regions of Dang, Kailali and Kachapur are not sold into slavery by their poor families.

Since 2006 Plan international is supporting Nepalese girls that have been sold into slavery by their families. The practice of selling a girl as a Kamalari (a hard working woman) has been illegal in Nepal since 2000 but in order to be able to support their families a lot of parent’s still see no other way out of poverty. In 2012 Plan was able to free 404 girls from slavery and about 3/4 of them are already going back to school. For the older ones among them Plan offers pre-professional training to ensure their start into an independent and self-determined future.

1.997 Girls Have Been Rescued Since 2006

Since the beginning of the project in 2006, a total of 1.997 girls have been freed and are able to visit a school again or for the first time. However, a lot of these young women have a hard time to adapt to a learning environment which is so different from the hard labor that they have been used to all their lives. To make the transition easier and to ensure the educational success of the girls, Plan is supporting them through tutoring and learning assistance.

The Girl’s Families Are Also Supported

Apart from the liberation of girls, Plan additionally supports the families of 523 endangered girls to make sure the will not be sold into servitude in the future. An example: Some women are offered advanced training to learn a variety of professions that allow them to carry out a variety of professions in order to support their family and community.

Sustainability Through the Involvement of Traditional Leaders 

Especially crucial for a better future are therapeutic sessions that help the girls to process the sometimes violent and sexual experiences that they had in their past. They are able to strengthen their self-confidence for a future career. A strong focus lies on the effort to make the girls feel secure in the school environment and to convince them that learning will provide them with a better future for themselves and their families. To ensure the sustainability of the project, Plan is working closely with village elders and traditional leaders to make sure the Kamaiya practices vanish from the region for good as soon as possible.

If you want to support the project, please look at the galleries of Stephan Opitz, Silvia Wischropp, Michael Schöppinger, Rob Smith, Rob van Kessel, Franzi Kreis or Chris Zvitkovits and order one of their stunning photographs.