 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 has supported its local partner Chhori in. the development of a multi-service social center designed to provide guidance, information and support to prostituted women.

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 most are accompanied on an individual basis by social workers. As part of a 6 to 12-month program, with 2 visits per month, a social worker listens to them, advises them and directs them to the appropriate services to resolve their difficulties (employment, income, health, violence, parenting, 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 offers women collective information sessions (on topics such as sexual and domestic violence, healthy relationships, etc.) and organizes 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, etc.).

A career guidance program
27 women were selected to take part in training courses spread over two seven-day modules, designed to help them reflect on their skills and experiences, in order to guide them towards a professional reorientation. Beneficiaries were supported in accessing vocational training and/or credit services to set up a micro-enterprise and leave the prostitution sector. By 2023, 17 women had either returned to school, changed jobs or started an additional income-generating activity after participating in one of the various activities offered at the social center.

Emergency aid for 120 families following an earthquake
On November 3, 2023, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook Jajarkot, the home region of the girls and women who attend the Pariwartan social center. In this holiday season, many of them
had returned to their home villages to celebrate Dashain and Tihar with their families. In response to the consequences of this natural disaster, we supported our partner Chhori in providing emergency aid to 120 families, through the distribution of tents, mats and food. In addition to material aid, two Chhori social workers visited the affected villages to provide psychosocial support to 170 pupils from a local school and 15 families.