Hope in Nepal’s Darkest Region

IN Parwanipur village, just outside of Birgunj, a dry monsoon left the area dry and dusty along the busy transport route.

ASK anyone who has been there, and they will tell you; Birgunj is dirty.
A transport hub on the Southern Nepalese border with India, the town is a place where factories spew smoke into the air and puddles turn black from soot.

Just as it is an important economic center for Nepal, the flow of trucks and cars lends itself to a more sinister trade — human trafficking.
Street children are taken and smuggled into India for labor and even organ harvesting while women are taken to be sold into the sex trade.

CHILDREN in Birgunj are vulnerable as the proximity to the Indian border creates opportunity for traffickers.

Around the country, loss of livelihood from devastating earthquakes earlier this year has only made people more desperate for work which has fed traffickers who give false promises of jobs and income abroad.
Household economic woes were worsened still as rice paddies around Birgunj sat cracked, yellowed and dry from a month-long drought, only broken recently by some late monsoon rains.

TIMES are tough in Tarai according to stall owner Bishwanath Shah, young men crowd around his shop in the morning with little to do but talk and drink tea.

“HOW much for your camera?” economic hardships in the region mean anything is up for sale, even at the barber stall.

According to UNICEF Representative Tomoo Hozumi, a major disaster substantially reduces household income particularly among the most vulnerable population.
“We know that when going through difficult times, poor households often resort to harmful coping strategies, such as reducing their food consumption, cutting down their health and education expenditure, and sending their children to work — all of which can have irreversible negative consequences on them and more so on their children,” he said.

THE Tarai’s economic woes have only been worsened by a recent drought and political unrest.

Local and international NGOs are working in the area, carrying out roadside inspections in an effort to intercept trafficking, which has only increased following the devastating earthquakes which rocked Nepal in April and May displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
About 15,000 girls from Nepal are trafficked for sex trade in Asian countries each year, according to a UN estimate and since the earthquakes 513 children and women have been intercepted from being trafficked or illegally moved out of the country.

CONCERN for crops after a month-long drought in the region was only growing until some much needed relief recently.

An England-based group has a been running a children’s home for more than two years, set among green rice-paddies just outside the city, to house and rehabilitate the vulnerable — providing a ray of hope for the area’s most desperate.

THE Our Sansar children’s home provides shelter and hope for its 17 residents.

The home has given the 17 residents a chance, providing much more than just housing and full bellies, but also psychological support, an education and sense of community.
The boys come from a range of backgrounds and situations, but they all share one thing in common — until aided by the children’s home, they had no home and little future.

Project manager Ayush Dhakal says the area suffers from very harsh economic conditions which is a main factor in creating street children.
“Some homes have just one means of earning, they just send the children to beg on the street,” he says.
“Most don’t have a mother or father and some just don’t want to go home, it’s that bad there.”

At the home the children, ranging in age from 5 to 14 years-old live a very different life with 24-hour staff including, a social worker to help with rehabilitation and an education officer who helps them with their studies when they are not in school.