Anuradha Koirala Receives The Courage of Conscience Award
by Judy Dempewolff
August 25, 2006

“First you have to learn to take them as your own child. Then you will feel the sorrow and then the strength comes out from you to protect them.” These are the heartfelt words of Anuradha Koirala, a woman who was honored on August 25 with the Courage of Conscience Award at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts. Anuradha founded Maiti Nepal, meaning Mother's House, in 1993 to rehabilitate and support girls and women who have been trafficked from Nepal to India, against their will, to be sexual slaves in brothels.

There are currently more than 300,000 Nepali girls in Indian brothels, and they are most often promised jobs to help themselves and their families, only to be drugged and transported across the border, The trade is supported by poverty, cultural discrimination by gender, as well as greed. Girls average between 7 and 14 years of age. Once they across the border their papers are taken away and they are forced to “repay” their purchase price to the brothel owner. This false debt, of course, is never repaid. They must service 5-25 clients a day, and resistant girls are tortured, gang raped, and threatened until they submit. Many girls contract HIV as well as other STDs, and are also forced to endure numerous abortions.

Besides taking in the girls who have been rescued, Anuradha has helped to run workshops for police, lawmakers, and teachers. The survivors themselves are actively educating villagers with pamphlets, street dramas, and songs describing the dangers of trafficking. In addition there are prevention homes in three districts of Nepal where high-risk girls can go. They undergo job training to learn skills to earn money, and are then given microloans to get their businesses started. At the border between Nepal and India, 9 transit homes have been established. They are staffed with survivors, and they watch for likely traffickers crossing into India with girls. These transit homes also serve as refuges for those escapees who are trying to make their way back home. Often the guards at the border will take advantage of these girls instead of helping, and a place of safety is essential.

Maiti Nepal also runs a hospice for girls who return with illnesses and are not accepted back in their homes. They are treated with respect here, and are able to grow vegetables and sustain themselves.

Koirala is a lioness in her dedication to her girls and the work she does. As she has said “each child, what's going to happen? What will happen to them? It really scares me, but then it gives me encouragement. I must do something. I must stop it.” Every girl is like her daughter, her child.

In the film "The Day My God Died," shown before the award presentation, the stories of these girls bring this desperate situation into reality. This film is available for purchase at The Peace Abbey, and is periodically shown on Public TV. It documents the strength of these survivors, and their persistence in actually returning to the brothels to rescue other girls.

Along with Anuradha, founders of Friends of Maiti Nepal, Joe and Brigitte Collins, were present at the ceremony. In partnership with Maiti Nepal they have been a strongly supportive arm throughout the years, and had arranged for Anuradha to come to the US this August. She traveled with Anoop Singh Gurung, Administration Official, Ram Maya Tamang, a Social Motivator and survivor of sex trafficking, and Bishwo Khadka, Director.

The evening was profoundly moving and informing. For more information visit the web sites of Maiti Nepal and Friends of Maiti Nepal.