I would like to acknowledge Executive Board Committee of WYESHR(Women Youth Empowerment in Social service and Human Rights) for providing opportunity to write my view on this annual report and simultaneously I would like to acknowledge National, International and Single Donor who have been supporting WYESHR since 2012. I have been working as watch dog with WYESHR since its establishment.
Homogeneous mixture of social activist and former worker of AES (Adult Entertainment Sector) makes this organization unique and dedicated for social justice. Since its establishment this organization has been working actively in kind support of personal donors even in absence of international donors.
WYESHR is one of the pioneer organization of Nepal to introduce ETH (Emergency Transit Home) in Nepal which functions 24/7 days. In Nepal there are more than 10,000 NGOs working for a cause with old trend of documentation and problem identification; where WYESHR has tried to work in different modality by establishing Information Technology (IT) in NGO for proper documentation, problem identification, data duplication and Monitoring & Evaluation.
A 2008 research of Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare estimated 30,000 to 40,000 female workers in AES but in 2009, a research report of Tdh estimated 13,000 girls in AES; and again in 2019, a research of New Era and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in support of Freedom Fund shows that 1,650 female workers in AES.
Data from 2008 AD to 2019 AD is true - in past there was high number of female worker in AES and now there is very few number of female worker in AES; but the female worker specially minors are more in backstage of AES where NGOs and researchers are unable to trace and identify them. As I mentioned in above paragraph that world is changing either it is global warming or technology. Number of female workers are very few in field which is visible to naked eyes but we are unable to see them through technical eyes because AES is being a transit for trafficking, place of experiment and gaining experiment, contact point, entry point and exit point. There are 2 reasons behind decreasing number of children and women worker in AES from 2008 to 2019:
1. Daily field visit by multiple NGOs in same establishment: Due to multiple field visits of multiple NGOs in same establishment made AES’s owner aware and gave unintentional message that they need to hide the“children and women worker in AES. They need to operate from backstage of AES.
2.Internet: Internet made world so small because anyone can understand and know about the world in one click. Similarly traffickers and abusers are trafficking and abusing children and women in one click. More than 10,000 NGOs are preventing and protecting children and women from traffickers and abusers, which can be seen from our eyes. So WYESHR wish to protect those children and women who can be seen only through technical eyes. I just want make sure that decreasing data from 2008 to 2019 is true but this is the data which can be seen through our naked eyes because after devastating earthquake and blockade of India has pulled many children and female in AES but forms of AES, trafficking, sexual abuse, prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation has been changed, that’s been operating through the Internet. Numerous children and women of Nepal is working in AES of South Africa, Kenya, Dubai, Goa and Europe; as well as they can be found easily in online adult sites. So, it shows that revolution in technology is increasing number of sexual abuse, pornography, human trafficking, human smuggling and prostitution through internet. Many NGOs are working in field to identify, prevent and protect vulnerable children and women from being trafficked, abused, sexually exploited, child pornography and prostitution but due to lack of technology we all are behind and unable to give the real output but due to proper use of the Internet and technology abusers, traffickers and costumers are one step ahead of us.
The team at WYESHR wishes to raise awareness on booming addiction of children and youth in social site and the Internet. There are always two sides of every work - bright and dark - so social sites and the Internet have also made life easier but on the other side, the children and youth are being paralyzed by it. Children and youth are not highly involved in physical games, zero interaction and communication with family and friends, drug abuse, depression, isolation, dependency on the Internet, Google Syndrome, involvement in criminal activities, stressful, suicidal attempts and multiple health problems - like poor eyesight, headache, pain in backbone/shoulder are commonly seen in children and youth in Nepal.
The team of WYESHR is focused in three aspects:
1. How to incorporate IT (Information Technology) in Development sector for proper documentation, to reduce data duplication, reduce human trafficking and smuggling, child pornography, sexual abuse and online prostitution.
2. Raising awareness, organizing campaigns and creating safe online environment to children and youth to reduce health problem, google syndrome, criminal activities, internet dependency, depression, drug abuse, bully on social site, suicidal attempts and poor participation in physical games.
3. Establishing 24/7 ETH (Emergency Transit Home) in every district of Nepal for children and women.
My goal with WYESHR of 2025 is to see safe, better and sustainable environment of IT (Information
Technology) and ETH (Emergency Transit Home) for vulnerable children and women in Nepal.
Bijay Lama
Program Director
