Sex Trafficking Prevention through Education, Impowerment and Microenterprize Support

General Welfare Pratisthan (GWP) clearly understand that the main cause of sex (Girls) Trafficking in Nepal is dis-empowerment to female that includes girls are away from schooling, away from resources, and away from recognition. Therefore GWP strongly advocates for reducing such inequalities through multidimensional approaches. This includes empowering marginal rural youth females using income generation program tools, community radio program, and creating solidarity among them.

GWP has created 100 such solidarity groups with income generation program and community radio approach. Through these programs, GWP managed to engage 4000 marginal youth rural females by supporting economic opportunity. In this process through community radio, GWP provided relevant, interesting and useful messages for them. These programs supported by Equal Access/DBI, Free a Child, GO campaign, and FHI360/Nepal.

Since 2001, GWP continued the radio program associated with income generating programs of different types i.e. beauty parlor, felt craft, paper craft, sewing cutting, bamboo crafting, ginger farming, goat farming and poultry farming. Till today GWP is supporting 100 girls groups consisting 15 girls in each group. GWP provided continuous support to the groups with radio listeners through mobilizing one-peer facilitators through its income-generating program for anti-trafficking program. Each group is continuing the Income Generation program that helps them to gather in the group for the common interest.

The DBI program associated with the income-generating program has brought some significant changes in the community. We could easily notice and observe the changes from the outside also;

  • Group cohesion found strong and increased the team spirit
  • Actively working to oppose the community disorders, myths, social misconducts, girls trafficking and domestic violence
  • Significant changes in the caste/ethnicity based discrimination and stigma
  • Started up the common income generation program
  • Significantly decreased the circus joining incidents. People have aware on circus associating trafficking of the girls to the different Indian brothels.
  • Increased the social feelings and group interaction on the common social issues and tried to resolve the problems in the community levels
  • Reducing the gender biased and domestic violence
  • Started to refer the STI cases to the STI clinics and showing their initiations for the early STI treatment if they have found such cases
  • They tried for the self-measure to escape from the potential rape cases in the village.