Girls are disappearing in Nepal.
In the remote mountain villages of Nepal where people are uneducated,
poor, and increasingly without a family provider (many fathers and
husbands have been killed in the decade long people's
war), girls are at a greater risk than ever before.
Exploiters convince the poor parents that they can arrange for
the marriage of their young (12, 13, 14 years old) daughters to
the son of a family in the city or that they can arrange jobs for
the girls in the capital city Kathmandu. The parents innocently
trust these relatives hoping that their daughters will get to marry
without the traditional dowry or that their daughters will be able
get a good earning job in the city that will in turn help support
the family.
These families are only trying to do what is best for their daughters.
But too often these girls are taken to Kathmandu, then to India,
to be sold to brothels. If not brothels, these innocent children
are sold to Indian circuses where they are subject to harsh conditions
and sexual abuse. Due to this deception, many young girls are unknowingly
put in very dangerous, even deadly situations. These girls are returned
to Kathmandu only when they have become sick with HIV/AIDS and face
rejection from their own family as well as the society. They come
home to die in their own country.
Dhamma Moli is a Buddhist project based in Nepal that provides
shelter and education to young Nepalese girls at risk of falling
victim to human traffickers who will sell them to brothels in India.
Founded by two Buddhist nuns, Venerable Sisters Molini and Dhamma
Vijaya through this project will visit different villages in Nepal
and talk to families about the problems with the sale of girls.
They will then make requests to the parents of the at-risk girls
to allow their daughters to live in Kathmandu under their supervision.
Upon obtaining permission of their parents, they will bring the
girls to Kathmandu to live in a monastery. The girls will then get
education in basic living skills, academic subjects and vocational
competence within a Buddhist monastic environment. |