Friends of WPC Nepal

Mission

Friends of WPC Nepal seeks to prevent human trafficking as well as protect and empower at-risk women and children through awareness programs, education scholarships, job training and the safe home.

The Problem

Trafficking into the brothels of India and domestic and sexual slavery in the Middle East is a historic trade, with between 5,000 and 12,000 girls aged from as young as 7 years old disappearing from Nepal every year. An estimated 200,000 girls from Nepal are working in brothels in India. The average lifespan of a girl working in prostitution in India is just 34 years.

The United Nations cites human trafficking as the third largest international criminal industry, with traffickers making an estimate US $32 billion annually.

Neither the governments of Nepal nor the recipient countries have acted with determination to stop this evil trade. Despite having anti-trafficking and corruption laws in place in both Nepal and India, the crime continues to flourish. There are, however, gaps in the law, but neither India nor Nepal have ratified the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000 (UNTOC) with its comprehensive protocols that could close those gaps.

Our Story

Lila Ghising was born in Hetauda, Nepal near the Indian border. As Lila grew up, she noticed her friends started to vanish. She was told that her friends had been sent to school, but when she became an adult she learned the horrific truth: her friends had been trafficked. Not content to quietly allow such injustices to continue, Lila founded the Women's Protection Center in 2001.

Today, the Women's Protection Center operates two safe homes, a vocational training center, and a community education program. Our safe homes currently house 22 children who are at risk of being trafficked, and sponsor a further 50 children living in the community to receive an education. The vocational training center offers job training for vulnerable women who are trafficking survivors, trying to escape domestic violence, or are living in poverty. Graduates of the program learn sewing and tailoring skills and are equipped with a sewing machine and all other tools necessary to start their own business. The community education program runs trainings that equip people in the community to recognize traffickers in their community to protect them from becoming victims and serves hundreds of people per month.