 Protection from violence  2022

The context

Often victims of violence and discrimination, many young Nepalese girls flee their villages and move to the city in search of a better life. Alone and vulnerable, they are easily recruited as waitresses, singers, dancers or masseuses.

It is estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 of them are eventually pressured into providing sexual favors.

Prostitution became a crime in 2008 in Nepal with the adoption of a law that controls human trafficking. For fear of having a criminal record, but also of police corruption by organized crime, these young women do not dare to file a complaint or ask for help.

Already stigmatized by their profession, many of these isolated young women have been living in great precariousness since the appearance of Covid-19.

So-called "adult entertainment" establishments in Nepal have been closed for months, leaving many women without an income. Others lost their jobs, pushing back dreams of retraining.
It is also a very difficult time for women who had successfully left the prostitution industry by starting their own businesses. The economic crisis has put an end to the activities of many of them and threatens them with having to return to their former activity.

The project

Planète Enfants & Développement wishes to support its local partner Chhori to inform, orient and support 125 prostituted women within a multi-service social center; but also to help them retrain.

The multi-service social center
The center will open in June 2022 in Thamel, a district of Kathmandu where prostitution establishments are present at night. All the women of the district can go there to benefit from a listening ear, psycho-social support, health or legal advice and guidance offered by social workers.

Neighborhood outreach visits
Experienced social workers go out three times a week to meet with women in the neighborhoods to inform them of the center's existence, provide them with initial advice, and also identify their needs in a constantly changing sector.

Home visits and individual psychosocial follow-up
The women who need it the most must be accompanied individually by social workers. During a 6 to 12 month program, a social worker listens to them, advises them and directs them to the appropriate services to resolve their difficulties (employment, income, health, violence, parental education, etc.).
Since many women in prostitution suffer from anxiety, fear and even paranoia, those who feel the need receive the support of a psychologist.

Awareness and empowerment sessions
The social center wants to offer women collective information sessions (on topics such as sexual and domestic violence, healthy relationships, ...) and organize workshops in small groups to encourage them to express themselves: art therapy workshops, sexual and reproductive health awareness, legal awareness (access to justice, human trafficking, rights as citizens ...)

A career guidance program
30 women will be selected for a 5-day training that will make them reflect on their skills and experiences, in order to guide them towards a professional reorientation. The beneficiaries will be supported in accessing vocational training and/or credit services to create a micro-enterprise and leave the prostitution sector.

Emergency housing assistance and reconstruction program
Many girls are thrown out for not paying their rent or because they wanted to cut their ties to the prostitution industry. We plan to take in 10 of them in a shelter run by Chhori.
The shelter provides women with shelter, medical and legal assistance and vocational retraining. By engaging them in its handicraft retraining program, Chhori offers them the prospect of a sustainable life change.