A fund to rescue children from slavery in Nepal

We are pleased to share with you that we have recently rescued a 15-year-old girl called Mina (name changed).  However her story is truly tragic and almost unbearable to type. She comes from a large, dysfunctional family who lived just outside Kathmandu, relying on agriculture for income. 

Mina's desperately poor mother brought her to Kathmandu to find work when she was just ten years old.  Initially Mina worked in a dance bar without pay.  Over the years she moved to different dance bars, being forced to service male customers but having to hand over her earnings. The dance bar owners said that feeding her and giving her a place to stay was enough. 

Eventually she moved to a small restaurant, thinking that her experience there would be better.  She expected to clean and wait on tables but was once again forced into sexual slavery, having to have sex with between 5 and 10 men each day. She says that at this time she was in "severe pain." 

Our partner Shakti Samuha heard about Mina through their outreach worker and moved swiftly to rescue her. Needless to say after five years of constant abuse she is very traumatised. We are giving her all the time she needs – just assuring her that she is safe. 

We are so glad that Marigold House exists to offer a safe haven to girls like Mina – but we dearly wish that it wasn't needed. Thank you to all who fund our work, helping us give time, space and safety to girls like Mina as they start to rebuild the pieces of their broken lives.  

We are very pleased to share with you that we have recently rescued a boy and a girl from India. They were both living in public shelters, having been trafficked across the Nepal border four years ago. Without paperwork, Nepalese children become stranded in India – which is why they need to be rescued and brought home.

Sunita* was 12 when her stepmother sent her away with £3, telling her to get married and never return home. She met a stranger who tried to take her to his home in Hajipur, India. Fortunately, they were stopped by a policeman, who grew suspicious when the man started changing his story. The man ran away and Sunita was placed in a state-funded home for girls in India. Sunita was unable to contact her family for the next four years. She lived with 250 other girls and women of all ages and backgrounds – some of whom were mentally ill. For many reasons it wasn’t a safe place. In fact, the home is currently under investigation following reports of staff members abusing women and girls. Sunita told us that there wasn’t enough food and that she had to share a bed with two others. Sometimes she was beaten for no reason.

Palin* dropped out of school when his father committed suicide. He was just 10 years old when he started working at a garage to be able to buy food. At the age of 12, he was trafficked to Bihar in India by a relative who promised him a job. He was forced to smuggle electrical goods across the border, but ran away after his relative started punching and kicking him. He took shelter in a temple, but people cursed him and called him a thief. He got scared and went to the local police for help, which is how he ended up in a boys’ home for four years.

This is the first rescue we have undertaken with our new partner, ChoraChori Nepal, who have a strong history of rescuing Nepali children from India. They first became aware of Sunita and Palin at the beginning of 2021, but tracing their families and getting all the paperwork in place has been a long process. The children are now at ChoraChori’s safe home, where they are spending time with an experienced counsellor. Family integration will only take place if all the appropriate safeguarding checks are in place. Thank you for your support which enables us to rescue children like these and restore their childhoods to them.

*names changed