'Everyone thought I was mad'

Says founder of Maiti Nepal, Anuradha Koirala, when she first touted the idea to friends and family to start an organisation to end trafficking of women and children. A documentary on her NGO Maiti Nepal, which will be aired today, reveals how determination helped her overcome obstacles such as no money and zero support

Says founder of Maiti Nepal, Anuradha Koirala, when she first touted the idea to friends and family to start an organisation to end trafficking of women and children. A documentary on her NGO Maiti Nepal, which will be aired today, reveals how determination helped her overcome obstacles such as no money and zero supportu00a0

Anuradha Koirala, founder of Nepali non governmental organisation Maiti Nepal, is in India till Tuesday, but this isn't the 62 year-old's first trip to the country. She has visited Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi several times before on rescue missions. This time however, a CNN documentary on Koirala hosted by Hollywood actor Demi Moore, brings her to the city. Called Nepal's Stolen Children, the 50 minute-long documentary will be aired today.


Anuradha Koirala is the founder of Maiti Nepal, an organisation working
to prevent trafficking of women and children. Pic/Atul kamble

Koirala, an English and Social Studies teacher from Kathmandu began Maiti Nepal in 1993 after she approached a few women begging outside the Pashupatinath Temple and asked them why they begged instead of working.
"All of them were survivors of different forms of violence -- polygamy, sexual harassment, trafficking..." Koirala trails off. "They asked me, 'how can we get a job when there's no one to refer us'."

Koirala helped eight women set up small road-side shops ("naglo pasals") to sell odds and ends like cigarettes, match boxes, and sweets, for an initial investment of Rs 1,000 each, which came from her salary and savings. Initially, she had thought that she would continue her day job as a teacher, but soon that became impossible.
"I had to commit to this full time, but at the same time, I didn't know where to get the money from, since no one in my family supported me."

"They thought I was mad. People wondered why I wanted to help trafficked women. They wondered if I was one of them," Koirala adds, her tired eyes flashing anger. What made it more difficult is that Koirala also offered to take care of the children of these eight women, while they were at their shop. She rented a two-room place, and kept the 10 children -- all girls, as it turned out -- where she taught and fed them, till their mothers returned. She eventually moved in to that rented place.

An initiative that began on a small scale under such circumstances has ended up affecting the lives of over 12,000 women and children. "There are close to 2,00,000 Nepali women working in brothels in India," says Koirala. Not only does Maiti Nepal now have two hospitals and a clinic, but it also employs survivors from rescue missions in India and Nepal to watch the borders between the two countries.

"They are more adept at catching criminals transporting women and children out of the country, than the security forces, who'd rather look out for wrong doings with oil or transport goods," she adds. At present there are 50 such survivors on a look-out on 10 points along the border. Besides that, the organisation also offers gender-balanced training for the women they rescue, who haven't been accepted back by their families. They are taught gardening and plumbing and how to become electrician. At the same time, the organisation also conducts awareness camps in villages every year.

The documentary was shot over a period of 15 days with Demi Moore talking to Koirala, and taking the journey with some of the survivors rescued by Maiti Nepal. One of them is Radhika, who was forced by her husband, with whom she had had a 'love marriage', to sell her kidney to make money for the family. When the cash got over, he sold her to a brothel in Kolkata from where she was rescued three years ago. "Radhika's family refused to take her back since she had eloped and married a man from a lower caste. Even her son has been traumatised by the whole experience. His tongue was burnt by the brothel madam, to stop him from crying for his mother," says Koirala. "I know the story of each of the girls. But there's so much more to do. Maiti is the only home," says Koirala.

Nepal's Stolen Children is part of CNN series on human trafficking called The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery. It will be aired today at 5.30 pm on CNN International

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