Human trafficking is one of the challenges in Nepal. It has been estimated that one-third of victims of human trafficking is either born, reach, or sent through Asia. Mostly young poor girls who have no access to education tend to believe in the trafficker’s words, because they think that they find the paradise to take them away from current miserable life of poverty.

Girls in Nepal

How can we stop the chain of trafficking? It only can be achieved by working collectively among communities and establish a monitoring mechanism that the traffickers have no space commit crime.

Thinking about the victims still locked up and victims being rescued but struggling with the nightmares is heartbreaking. However, I cannot help myself thinking about the background of the traffickers. The fact that they had ruined the lives of small children cannot be forgiven, but does the problem of poverty lies in the traffickers as well? I might be biased, but I could not believe that all the traffickers involved in this huge industry abduct people in order to get some additional money. I assume that some of them who are in the bottom of the hierarchy of human trafficking industry have involuntarily be an accomplice in the crime. Where will be the safe place for them? It is very important for Nepal to strengthen the punishment for the perpetrator; however, the problem is undoubtedly rooted into poverty. Unless the government tackles with the problems of poverty in individual level, this remains as a game of cat and mouse.

Who in our group imagined that Nepal is a country full of garbage? Since I was only imagining Nepal as country surrounded by beautiful mountains, I was so shocked to see the reality. In the city of Kathmandu, you can see trashes everywhere, literally 360 degrees. On the sidewalk, on the river, under the bridges…

Why are the people so indifferent toward this situation? It is very interesting that even though people are so faithful believers, it seems like they don’t care about religious buildings covered with trash. Furthermore, despite their concern about purity/impurity because of the caste system, they don’t see the trash as the object of impunity. Impunity and insanitation are completely different concepts in Nepal.

Pollution can be seen not only in the capital but also in countryside. At the village we visited in Bara district, people lived beyond poverty level. Therefore most of the houses in the village were made of straw, and every household set an open fire in order to get warmth and to get rid of the garbage. Beautiful starry sky was vanished by the poisonous smoke, and we could barely breathe. First, I thought that the people were not aware of the health damage caused by smoke, however, making the matter worse, they were aware of it. They couldn’t help setting fire because there was no other option for them to survive cold nights. Sure enough, some of them were already ill, but they couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. I felt so bad seeing this, but at the same time I was objectively observing this circumstance that destroying the nature directly leads to the destruction of the human beings.

Straw used as bed

Before visiting Nepal, I have decided to focus on my research topic as children, because if you foresee Nepal in 30 years time, the children will be the primary actors of the Peacebuilding process. I was determined to research specifically about the child war victims, such as former child soldiers or orphans, and wanted to see how Nepal tackles with their psychological wounds. I was expecting to visit many educational facilities and meet many children having problems, however, this did not happen.

In Nepal, trauma healing is one of the aspects that they haven’t started working on as a nation. They are concerned about gender disparities, domestic violence, human trafficking, corruption, education, impunity, but not about trauma healing. None of the organization spoke a word about “trauma” or “psychological disorder,” and it was so difficult for me to grasp the real situation. It nearly made me feel that maybe there is no trauma on children in Nepal after all.

Children Playing

For the first half of the trip, I was frustrated with the lack of information that I wanted. However, I started to think that if I continue to persist in this topic, I would lose this opportunity to learn other things. I acknowledged the importance of being flexible to the research topic if you were on the ground. But also there was a part of me saying that it is hard to change my research interests all of sudden,

because not getting much information about child soldiers/orphans doesn’t mean that the problem doesn’t exist.

As I was struggling, I was able to meet the organization that deals with children’s human rights, two days before leaving Nepal. It is the organization called CWIN (Child Workers In Nepal Concerned Center), which focuses on issues about child rights, child labors, trafficking, child abuse and children in armed conflict. It divides war-affected children in 3 categories, which are 1) Children who lost their parents during conflict, 2) Children injured during conflict, and 3) Children actually involved in the conflict. CWIN give these children psychosocial support such as counseling, and ultimately tries to reintegrate them into the community. This was the only organization that focused on psychological wounds of war victims, so the presence of CWIN meant a lot to me. Researching on the ground requires flexibility in topic, but at the same time, the persistence is also needed.

When I recall my experience in Nepal, the first thing that comes up to my mind is 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking. We met over 30 organizations during the 2-week visit and heard each of their goals and different approaches to fight against the injustice and to create peace in their country. However, 3 Sisters was the organization that inspired me the most. I have to admit that at first, I was not expecting high quality services from Nepali trekking company. But I was totally wrong, and there were many things that we have to learn from their commitment to service.

According to their definition, a guide refers to a person who can:

G-reets

U-nderstands

I-nforms

D-emonstrates

E-ntertains

They have a clear notion of how guide should act like, and I was so impressed when they mentioned “Entertaining” as an essential factor for a guide. I was surprised to see the thoughtfulness of the company that not only providing jobs to girls to make them self-independent, but also to give importance to the quality of the service they provide. If you only work for your own sake, it will limit your potential, because it is relatively easy to satisfy yourself. But on the other hand, if you work for the sake for the other people, there is no limit of satisfaction because you cannot control other’s satisfaction. This situation makes the guides to be more creative, more knowledgeable, and leads them to enhance their potential. All of the girls there were really having fun working there, because they think of their job as challenging but meaningful.

As a result, the company succeeded in gaining reputation among foreigners, and became one of the most famous trekking companies in Nepal. Yet, they are not content with their success, and striving for the empowerment of women. I saw many NGOs that works in wonderful projects with decent facilities to empower women, however, I did not see the high aspiration toward their goal as 3 Sisters did.

Under the internal conflict in Nepal, schools were used as weapons of war. School facilities were taken over by Maoists, and the role of the teachers became highly politicized. It was far from the place where you can hear the laughter of children.

When we visited Bara district, we were able to see one of the schools. It was a two-story building that the stairs were in dangerous condition that if a student step off the stairs, he would be hit onto the ground. All the classrooms were equipped with blackboards and table with chairs, which was better than my expectation. However, it was beyond satisfactory level. When we were walking around the school facilities, many people from the village including children gathered around us and stared at us. I was so curious to know what the children were seeing through us. Are they envisioning an ideal world though us? Or are they just seeing us as an object to make money from?

In the capital, Kathmandu, all the classes were taught in English, but on the other hand, all the subjects are taught in Nepali language in rural areas. This disconnection between the capital and the countryside create a huge gap in the quality of education. And this undoubtedly leads to the differences in numbers of jobs that they are qualified to attain. For example, if they can speak English, they can be hired in a tourism industry, which generates huge profit in the country.

In Kathmandu, I accosted by a boy who was selling jewelry. I was so surprised to hear his fluent Japanese, but seeing his eagerness to sell jewelries to me, I hesitated. Since I knew that Japanese is one of the main tourists who come to Nepal and spend lots of money there, I could not help myself feeling disappointed that his purpose of learning Japanese is just to get money. Of course I understand that he had to stand out among the great number of seller on the road, and I was sure that Japanese tourists would be attracted by his language ability and buy something from him.

However, this leads to my question of, “for what purpose do we learn”?