Healthlink Worldwide

Advocacy, awareness and community sensitisation: lessons from Maiti Nepal, Lunchtime discussion, 1 September 2006

Maiti Nepal is a civil society organisation that works to prevent the trafficking of women and children. It is estimated that 150,000 to 300,000 Nepalese girls and young women are trafficked into India and forced into work, including sex work.

Anhurada Koirala, Bishwo Khadka and key workers from Maiti Nepal introduced their work on advocacy, awareness and community sensitisation at a Healthlink Worldwide lunchtime discussion. Greater involvement of people who have been affected by trafficking, including people living with HIV and AIDS, has proved essential in linking long-term, community-level support with campaigns to implement anti-trafficking laws and policies.

The opportunities for development action lie with people at the front line who are trusted by vulnerable communities. Maiti Nepal’s work shows the effects a civil society organisation can have, both directly to rescue and support trafficked women, but also to hold a government accountable to their policies and plans.

A complex problem
Trafficking is a vicious circle. In Nepal, migration for work or as a result of conflict is the norm. Traffickers take advantage of displaced people and trick families with fake offers of marriage or jobs for girls and young women. Poverty and illiteracy compound the problem.

Local Nepali traffickers may be family contacts or relatives. They also tend to be poor. They are often the only traffickers who are caught and prosecuted – the “little fish” local trafficker gets jailed for 20 years for their actions, while the “big fish” brothel owner out of the country in India makes up to 20 times profit on each girl they buy.

Government policies and plans against trafficking are in place but it takes sustained advocacy to get them into practice: “Literate people are ignorant and pretend it isn't happening” said Anhurada. Police, government officials and health workers are “not always sincere”. There is corruption as powerful gangs and mafia are involved in trafficking. Survivors of trafficking or parents who are concerned about their daughters may not find officials approachable.

Stigma about trafficking and about HIV makes it difficult for girls and young women to reintegrate into their families and communities. And myths such as “having sex with a young girl cures HIV” are prevalent. The vicious circle is completed when trafficked women become involved in trafficking or running brothels themselves.

Trafficking is difficult to monitor. The situation is constantly changing – the traffickers are always one step ahead. It takes sustained work over time to change attitudes, to get people to see trafficking as “our problem”. “You can’t expect anyone to change in a day” said Anhuranda.

A complex solution
The long-term approach of organisations like Maiti Nepal doesn't fit into international donor agendas. There’s a gap between reality on the ground and international policy despite efforts such as the UK Department for International Development's White Paper, Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor.

The international agenda on HIV and AIDS has a care and treatment focus, and a focus on Africa, explained Bishwo. But prevention in Asia has to be a priority as HIV transmission is increasing rapidly.

Awareness and outreach, counselling and life skills training, rescue, legal services and rehabilitation are the areas that Maiti Nepal works in simultaneously. This joined up approach just won’t fit neatly into a three-year development project that has to show short-term results. But it is an approach that works.

Evaluating progress
Effects are often difficult to measure. Increased awareness about trafficking may be indicated in unexpected ways, for example by an increase in birth registrations and family photographs of children.

Rescue work starts with parents trusting Maiti Nepal’s workers enough to report that a girl is missing and providing a photograph of her to be passed to border surveillance teams so that they can identify and rescue her. It can take years to rescue a girl once she has been locked into a life as a sex worker in India. In one case, it took Maiti Nepal 12 years to find and rescue one woman. Winning the trust of parents and creating a climate where parents find the confidence to admit that a girl is missing is a major achievement.

Involving different communities
Long term links with people who have been affected by trafficking is central to Maiti Nepal’s work. Survivors of trafficking make up the border surveillance teams that identify when girls are being trafficked. The women work with border police and have identified police corruption which resulted in police officers being transferred: “our girls are experts” said Anhurada. A unit of police women has been established to work with Maiti Nepal’s border surveillance team.

Raising awareness of trafficking in remote areas is a key aspect of Maiti Nepal’s work. A free telephone helpline operates in 75 districts, but people need help to be aware of and use this service.

Journalists and the media have been supportive on women’s and children’s issues which is particularly important for raising awareness of trafficking among literate people. As is the case everywhere, some sections of the media are looking for a sensational story and have exposed survivors of trafficking without their consent, leading to increased stigma and exclusion from their communities.

Mobilising people through outreach work – including students’ groups and mothers’ groups – is the key to changing attitudes, but it takes time for people to accept trafficking as “our problem” rather than something that happens to other people. Religious leaders who are trusted by communities (“even if it’s not true, it’s true!” said Anhurada) have also been engaged which strengthens the outreach work.

Communication and change
Communication methods for outreach include radio and street theatre. However, outreach to the police, government officials and health workers is as important as outreach to communities that are vulnerable to trafficking. The police refer officers to Maiti Nepal for training on trafficking. Again, this work is difficult to fund as it does not fit in with the agendas of international donors or with government priorities, which focus on conflict.

Outreach with men as well as women is an integral part of the work. NGO employees, police officers, teachers and people along the “chain of trafficking” – bus drivers, border officials, hotel owners – are often men. Engaging with these people is a practical way to engage with men and Maiti Nepal has found attitudes slowly changing.

Maiti Nepal workers comprehend and deal with the complex reality of trafficking. However they cannot do everything. The Maiti Nepal hospice has to be limited to women and girls who have been trafficked – they have to refuse the men referred by health workers at the main hospital who are reluctant to deal with HIV-positive people. Maiti Nepal’s skills training and micro-credit schemes have to focus on survivors of trafficking rather than running schemes for whole families or the wider community.

Advocacy within Nepal remains a priority for Maiti Nepal, to increase support from government officials, the legal system and the health care system. Links with networks of anti-trafficking organisations in Nepal has helped to avoid duplication and build support.

The kind of local knowledge that organisations like Maiti Nepal embody – built through trust, time and effective work – is what will bring about change.

A UK group to support the work of Maiti Nepal is being formed, for further information contact devalts@yahoo.co.uk

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