Rising Star Shakti Bhagchandani: “Why I plan to start a foundation dedicated to helping survivors of physical and sexual violence in the Middle East”

In the near future, I hope to start a foundation dedicated to helping survivors of physical and sexual violence in the Middle East.

Under this umbrella, a particularly vulnerable group are domestic workers in the Gulf. Thousands of women from Uganda, Ethiopia, Nepal, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other countries temporarily take up household work in the Gulf to raise money for their families back home. Sadly, many end up running away from abusive and exploitative employers but can’t return home because of a merciless labor system that strips them of their passports. Many are beaten, sexually assaulted, confined, underpaid, overworked and live in inhuman conditions. HRW brought light to this issue a few years ago, but nothing…