What we provide

• Emergency shelter and protection to vulnerable girls who have nowhere else to stay.Our female staff counsellor, Samikshya, offers immediate and ongoing support.
• Non-formal education and recreation through classes and activities at the shelter. The majority of the girls who stay with us cannot attend regular school for safety reasons or due to the trauma they have experienced so we provide them with in-house classes to ensure their development. The classes vary depending on the age and their level of education, and interests. Extra-curricular activities include arts, crafts, sport and music. Recently, knitting has been a big hit with the girls now planning to set up their own workshop.
• Outreach: Our field staff member Avinash and social worker Sabita are spending a great deal of time investigating cases of girls who have been referred to us by the community social workers, and also reaching out to communities to ensure victims know whom to contact for help.
• Legal support: We ensure that all correct paperwork has been filed by the families and police in cases of rape or violence so that the perpetrator can be brought to justice. These cases take a very long time and quite often when the perpetrator is from a high caste or influential family, the police are not keen on taking action, or the families of the girls are too scared to file any charges. Our staff are assisting these families and also press the police to take action when necessary. We are planning to expand this vital aspect of our work over the coming months.
• Training support: As soon as girls are considered to be stable, we identify training opportunities in line with their interests. This can include being allocated training places with our Kathmandu-based partner, the social enterprise Lily's Leaves.
• Research: We have been informed that up to 100 girls as young as six years old are working at local brick factories. The factories have been closed throughout the rainy season and will reopen in November. Our staff are staying in touch with the local communities in those areas and will start their thorough investigation in November. After we finish our first-hand investigation, we will make a plan of how we can help these children and their families. The issue is huge and very complicated, so it will require a lot of planning and funding.