Olga's Dispatch
February 2002

Kathmandu, Nepal

Dear Friends:

One of the wonders of email is that I can give you the latest news on children from the other side of the world almost as it happens. Let me take you to a remote, far-western Nepalese district called "Dang." Just last week, we were able to save another 170 girls in this district from being sold into indentured servitude.

From our earlier letters, you may recall that January is the time for the "Maghe Sakrante" holiday, when young girls are contracted out by their parents as bonded laborers for a year. This practice has take place for generations in certain impoverished communities, including Dang, in western Nepal. The family receives around $50 for the girls' services for a year. The girl gets nothing, and her working conditions are completely at the discretion of her employer, who often takes the girl to a faraway town.

Our Director of Administration, Som Paneru, traveled with other members of our staff from Kathmandu to be in Dang before the contractors arrived. This is the third year that NYF has tried to convince families during Maghe Sakrante to allow their daughters to remain at home and attend school. We are quite sympathetic with the families -they only "sell" their daughters out of dire financial necessity – and we must offer some "compensation" that will enable the family to find new ways to survive.

As in the last two years, we offered families a piglet that they could raise on kitchen scraps and sell at the end of the year for about the same amount of money they received for their daughters' labor – provided their daughter could stay at home and go to school (we pay all school expenses). We found that although a few piglets from last year had died, some families with particularly fecund specimens had many little piglets to sell or raise, and earned more than they would have from their daughters' labor.

There were a few especially satisfying moments this year. As I have mentioned in past letters, labor contractors who come to the village to sign up new girls often will bring along "city girls" who are already working, dressed in attractive clothes. The purpose, of course, is to tempt the local girls to enter this labor market. But before the contractors arrive, we hold orientation sessions in the villages to let the local girls know what is really going on. We tell the girls who are about to be "sold" (as well as those who are already working as servants and who wish to sit in on these sessions) why they should attend school, and how we will help them do so while helping their families to make up for their lost wages. Well, this year, we got an extra surprise. Several of the little girls brought back to their village to serve as "city girl temptresses" sat in on our talks – and they, too, joined our program and are now living with their families and going to school! In my Spring Letter in May, I will send you some pictures of these children.

This year, the Dang villages where we have been working were a sight to behold. They were plastered with hand-lettered signs posted on trees, on walls of houses, stores and schools, speaking out against the practice of selling girls. "This village is free of bonded laborers – the pride of our community!" "Send daughters to school!" "Girls in this village are not available for sale!" Who was responsible for this media blitz? The girls who had entered our program last year or the year before, as well as our local "motivators." It was gratifying to see how much progress we were making in our efforts to raise the awareness of the local population about this inhumane practice. There had been no sign of opposition to the system two years ago, when we began our program.

We started this project two years ago, "rescuing" 30 girls – some as young as six or seven. This year, the tally is 320 girls – more than a ten-fold increase. We estimate that about 1,500-2,000 girls have been indentured from the valley where we are working, so we have our work cut out for us.

Thanks again to all of you for your loyalty, support, and encouragement over the years. Without your help, none of these good things would have happened.

Warm regards, Olga