Maiti Nepal has come to be known as a very strong force among the non profit organizations to fight with the human trafficking in Nepal. The word “Maiti” in Nepali means a woman’s maternal home which she leaves after she has been married in order to go to her husband’s home. After she goes to her husband’s home, she takes up all her onus and obligations there. Yes, she is brought up in her parents’ home but now she belongs to her husband’s home and accepts his family as her own. As such, the word “maiti” is of great significance in the Nepali society especially for the women and so the organization’s name was chosen to be “Maiti Nepal” to provide love and affection to the victims as she received in her birth home.
Maiti Nepal was established in November 1993. Maiti Nepal was founded with the objective of protecting Nepali girls and women from various crimes like domestic violence, trafficking for flesh trade, child prostitution, child labour and other forms of exploitation and torture. Since the beginning, this organization has been working towards the achievement of its objectives. The prime focus of Maiti Nepal has been prevention of trafficking for forced prostitution, rescuing victims of the flesh trade and their rehabilitation. Though the issues regarding gender equality has been raised from time to time, the female population in our country is still under domination. They are inflicted with several abuses. To fight with these social evils inflicted upon the innocent victims, Maiti Nepal was founded.
Maiti Nepal – NGO that stops human trafficking in Nepal
The vision of Maiti Nepal is “A society free from sexual and other forms of exploitation against children and women.” The founder of the organization, Anuradha Koirala, herself had gone through the bitter experience of domestic abuse and violence. She realized that this is not only her problem but a problem of a huge female population which remains unreported in a country like hours. She, along with a handful of other conscious professionals came together to combat the female exploitation. Maiti Nepal has been performing various activities to prevent trafficking. It provides counselling, support and life skills to children and women at risk of being trafficked. In a social level, to create the awareness, it also conducts campaigns and gets support from the public. It rescues those who are trafficked and exploited. It advocates for them, provides legal services, health counselling and also helps in their rehabilitation.
To help with rehabilitation, Maiti Nepal has currently been operating rehabilitation home in Kathmandu, transit homes in the border towns of Nepal and India and preventive homes in the countryside. According to the statistics of South Asia Foundation, Maiti Nepal has three prevention homes, eleven transit homes, a hospice and Teresa Academy. These centres are well facilitated to provide support and assistance to the victimized girls, women and children. The chairperson of the organization, Anuradha Koirala has been working incessantly, being fully dedicated and committed to the organization’s objectives. And so, she was also awarded CNN Hero 2010. After this, Maiti Nepal also got international recognition.
Today, Maiti Nepal has continued with its objectives, helping thousands of victims. The data shows more than 1500 traffickers convicted, more than 300 rape cases prosecuted, more than 18000 legal services offered and more than 10000 mediation of domestic violence cases. This is a great achievement for the organization. However, the achievement would be even bigger when the Nepalese society would itself be free from human trafficking.
