Thank You! Thank You!

I am now in Istanbul. I left Nepal early this morning. I can't believe my time in Nepal is over for now. What an amazing experience!

As part of the disaster relief, PRC has distributed 110,000 pounds of food (mainly rice and lentils), 6,000 pounds of salt and oil, enough tarpaulin to temporarily house 5,500 people. One medical team treated 300 patients and John, with the help of Amrit, saw about 250. Medicines for about 500 were given.

This doesn't even include their daily work of rescuing and caring for the trafficked and abused!

I want to sincerely thank all the staff for their tireless and ongoing efforts. Founders Shanta and Min, amazing coordinator and team leader Suman (pictured) and the rest of the amazing team I had the opportunity to assist: Amrit, Ramkumar, Prem and Binod. And to all the kitchen workers at the shelter who fed me so, so well. Thank You! ... and thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your work!

I also want to thank all the supporters. None of this would have happened without you! Let's keep the good work going!

Photos from the Rescue Center

Just a few photos I shot at the rescue center. I actually didn't shoot many of the girls. They deserve a little privacy

Rescue in India continued

Monday a few team members are traveling to India. They will be securing the release of the eight who were trafficked. They received some pictures and info (sorry, for security reasons I cannot share the images).

The biggest issue with their release is proving citizenship. They were trafficked without paperwork or passports, or fake ones. Now the challenge is proving they are Nepali.

Team members are also traveling to the villages of the eight who were trafficked to confirm their identities. Once their identities are confirmed, they will be brought back to Nepal.

Adding insult to injury, the chaos, confusion and further financial hardship caused by the earthquake can be used to the benefit of the traffickers. I'm sure these aren't the only earthquake-related trafficking cases PRC will encounter.

Can't Complain

Seeing how so many Nepalese work, I surely have nothing to complain about. These women just walked up a mountain hill and they were just chatting along the way, amazing!

The Rescue Center

I wanted to show PRC's center facilities. It is a beautiful place.

The top picture is the main house. The first floor is living quarters for the rescued girls, their kitchen, dining room and small living room. Upstairs it's the quarters for staff and visitors.

The middle picture is the other main building. It has a couple of offices, a classroom and storage. The garage is also used as a classroom, sewing training, temporary sleeping quarters, basically anything except parking a car.

The bottom picture shows just a piece of the garden. They keep so many different plants and flowers. Their are also two areas where food is grown. They plant a variety of crops throughout the year.

This place is a little oasis.

Love Listening

This evening I had a special treat. I was in my room and several of the girls at the rescue center were outside laughing and joking. It was so wonderful to hear them that I just sat back and listened. The sound of fun needs no translation!

John & Chris

John (image 1) and Chris (image 2), the other two Americans volunteering just left for the airport. Thank you both for all you've done to help!

More Amazing Faces!

Women Traffickers

We are now back in Kathmandu.

While at the border station we heard many stories of rescued girls. We also saw pictures of many of the caught traffickers and heard about their sentences. What really surprised me was the amount of female traffickers. About sixty percent of the pictures were of women. I guess I thought women would be wiser or more compassionate. I thought wrong.

All of the traffickers looked like anyone else on the street. They could easily blend in. It sure would make it easier if they carried signs!

We also met a member of the Human Rights Council. They work in direct cooperation with PRC and other NGOs in regards to trafficking.

Collectively they have worked with law makers to get stronger sentences for traffickers. Not so long ago it was difficult to prosecute, let alone sentence, a trafficker. Now they are getting lengthy sentences. I am told it is different than in the U.S. If the sentence is ten years, they serve ten years.

India Rescue continued

The team just got back from India. There are eight to be rescued. They are being held several hours from here. Tonight the staff will receive their names and photos. They are now making arrangements to pick them up.

It turns out these kids were trafficked as a result of the earthquake.

Rescue in India

Right now I am at one of PRC's border stations on the Indian border. A couple of staff members went across into India and are coordinating a rescue with local Nepali and Indian authorities.

Without an immigration office here, I can't cross. So instead I wait to hear how it went when they return.

Home Visit

In a previous post I told about a six year old girl staying at the rescue center. This is the home from which she was rescued.

Sting Operation

I just heard a great story!

A few months ago a girl was rescued in India and her trafficker was arrested. PRC picked up the girl but in the meantime the trafficker bribed an Indian officer and escaped.

Somehow PRC got a photo of the trafficker. They distributed it around their locations as well as shared it with law enforcement and other organizations.

A staff member had a copy of the photo while at a tea shop far away from where the trafficking took place. As he was having tea, a customer saw the photo. The customer asked about it. The staff member said that it was just someone he hoped to get in touch with and asked "why, do you know him." The person said he did and that he was a chicken supplier to restaurants.

With that info, the staff member tracked down his cell number. Since the trafficker was on the run it took a while for him to return. When he did the PRC staff member called him posing as a restaurant owner needing a large order of chicken.

Now the trafficker is in prison. What a sting! The trafficker even made the paper.

India Border

We are at the India border visiting one of the border monitoring stations. The first image shows the border. The buildings on the right are in Nepal, the ones on the left are in India. In the middle is no man's land.

The PRC staff was in action. In a previous post I mentioned a girl I had met on a previous trip who was rescued from the brothels in India and is now part of the staff, that is her on the right. How amazing it is to see her now!

While we were visiting the border station, an underage couple was brought in. While the staff was questioning them they found out they were runaways. They were running away to India to get married but didn't know to where. The PRC staff informed them of the dangers and were counselling them. They agreed to PRC calling their families to come and get them. Now they might be in trouble with their parents but they are safe.

Progress Halted

After coming out of the mountains and into the sweltering valley, the car has overheated. Help is coming. We will be back on the road soon!

And while we are waiting, we watched a girl for up a chicken with a blowtorch.

The girl blowtorching the chicken told us her experience during the earthquake. She was watching tv on the second floor when she first noticed the tv start shaking. Then everything started shaking. She grabbed her little brother and ran outside.

Border Patrol

PRC runs a number of border stations between Nepal and India. Since most trafficked girls are trafficked to the brothels in India.

PRC works directly with the border patrol. They stop and question anyone traveling with young girls. Their questions can quickly identify if something suspicious is happening.

If they have any suspicions, they will question further often separating the girls from the ones they are traveling with to make sure their stories match.

Some girls are tricked into thinking they are going to get a good job, others are outright sold. Traffickers have many tricks.

PRC has caught numerous traffickers and rescued numerous girls this way. And they are rescued before they are forced into prostitution in India.

Now we are headed to one of the border stations.

Rescued!

There is a wonderful little girl here at the rescue center. She is about six years old. She has a beautiful newly shaved head (she came in with lice).

She lived in a hut with a thatched roof in a small village. Her home offered no protection. She had been abused by a neighbor.

She was brought to PRC. Her abuser has been arrested and convicted but it is still not safe for her to return.

She is so happy here at the center. A staff member has a daughter about the same age. It is wonderful to see them play and have fun together!

Another Aftershock

We just felt another aftershock. It was enough for me to feel my chair move underneath me.

Monsoon

We are getting a taste of the coming monsoon season. When we were traveling, a big storm hit Kathmandu. The winds were blowing around anything not nailed down (and a few things that were).

Shanta was in downtown Kathmandu and saw signage and everything blowing about. Sadly, it also tore apart tents where people are sleeping to avoid their damaged or collapsed homes.

It tore apart the tent at the rescue center where the girls were sleeping. They are still afraid to sleep indoors so they are sleeping in the garage.

More Amazing Faces 2

More Amazing Faces 1

Sunday Drive

I wish photos could adequately portray the mountain roads. Here are a couple images to try. The first image is from my window while we were driving. You can see a village far below.

Cut Leg

One man came to the healthpost with a bad cut on his leg. He had been trying to salvage what was left of his destroyed home when one of the metal sheets fell.

He was stitched him up in front of an audience. John said his skin was like hardened leather. The needle bent trying to sew him up.

Medical Clinic

The healthpost at the epicenter of the second quake was destroyed. They set up temporarily in the district office. We were able to set up there as well. As usual, John was swamped. The healthpost was very poorly equipped. We were able to leave them with a supply of medicines.

Back from Epicenter : Amazing Team pt. 2

150 of the poorest and most hard-hit  families got food to last them twenty to thirty days while they start their rebuilding process.

Tarpaulins were also distributed according to need.

Additional tarpaulins were given to the school and healthpost both of which were damaged.

Back from Epicenter : Amazing Team!

We just returned from the epicenter area of the second large quake. The PRC team is amazing! These guys are tireless and organized. I may not always know what is going on but they sure do.

They pulled off a flawless distribution where everyone walked away happy which is not always the case. People in desperate situations can sometimes act desperately. We have heard about aid trucks getting looted or sometimes fighting because people felt the distribution was unfairly divided.

Before we left PRC coordinated with local leaders in the area we were going. They got a general assessment of people and needs. Once there representatives from each neighborhood or community have a more detailed account of their people and needs.

The food and tarps were then separated out for each community. Then those communities divided it amongst themselves. This gave them a say so, or power to be part of the process not just recipients of a handout. They all agreed to serve the most needy first.

Like I said, an amazing team!

Mountain Roads

Yesterday we left Kathmandu. Our truck was loaded with three tons of food, tarpaulins and medical supplies. Two of us fit in the front with the driver. The rest ride on top of the supplies.

The mountain roads are definitely not for the timid. They got rid of all those pesky things like gaurdrails.

About an hour or two from our destination, the wind kicked up and the rain began. The wind was staying to swirl and even shake the truck. The driver reluctantly kept going.

I was in the front seat. All of us in the front were wide-eyed when we turned a corner and saw there had been a very very recent landslide. Some of the rocks on the road were as big as a motorcycle. We were all eyeing the cliff on side us for any sign of movement.

All of a sudden dirt and small rocks started coming down the cliff at our front bumper. The truck driver punched it and we got outta there. We don't know how big that slide became and we didn't go back to find out. We stopped in the next village that wasn't directly under a cliff.

We stopped in front of a house and got out of the truck. We decided to spend the night. The woman of the house where we stopped greeted us (image). She then cooked us dinner and had tea ready for us in the morning. Amazing!

The road we turned on this morning makes that last one look like interstate 35. So our adventure continues.

Impromptu Clinic

Even a motorcycle can be transformed into a place for a medical exam.

Epicenter 2

In a couple of hours we will be on the road. We are headed to the district at the epicenter of the second large quake. That area has been cutoff due too numerous landslides. We are delivering food and tarpaulin for shelters.

I am told that this area has a high population of Christians and of the untouchable cast.

Rescued!

My time in Nepal has been focused on earthquake disaster relief. But now I want to take a moment to remember what PRC does on a daily basis.

This evening PRC's founder Shanta introduced me to an amazing young girl staying here at the rescue center. She shared her story with me.

I am not going to use her name but I can tell you she is fifteen years old. She was born in a small village. At six years old her father left with a different woman. She was left with her mother. Her mother has disabilities which prevented her from understanding how to care for the girl properly.

When she was seven her uncle gave her to be a house servant in Kathmandu. She did get paid a nominal amount for her work, which the uncle would steal.

It wasn't long before the man of the house started abusing her. Eventually he started sharing her with others as well. This went on for about seven years.

Then she learned that she was going to be sold and sent to the brothels in India. She ran.

She was caught by a police officer. The officer abused her and let her go.

She sought refugee where a friend was staying. Abuse started there too. She ran again, and again was caught by the police.

This experience with the police was different. The police officer told her he was going to get her someplace safe. He got her to PRC.

She has been here about three weeks now. She has a long hard road ahead but you can already see she is beginning to flourish. She said before she was even considering suicide. Now she said she sees there is a possible future.

I couldn't believe how boldly she shared her story with me. What strength!

No matter how many of these stories I'm told, it never gets easier to listen. I can only imagine the emotional toll on the staff workers here dealing with this each and every day.

Thankfully they also hear, and share in, the successes of changes lives as well!

Amazing People 2