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Asha Nepal is a UK-registered charity working for the rights of women and girls in Nepal. Asha is the Nepali word for hope. Hundreds of thousands of women and children in Nepal suffer daily from extreme human rights abuses – sex trafficking, sexual and physical abuse, child labour, and discrimination due to gender, caste and HIV/Aids. We are fighting for women's social status to be raised, to help victims break free from this vicious, violent circle.

Working with Nepali partner organisations, we offer a safe haven, psycho-social support, healthcare, legal support, education and training, to help women and girls to become self-sufficient and fully re-integrate into society. We aim to give them the hope, the opportunities and independence to create a new world for themselves.

Personal Story

Nanda, 16, was married when she was seven, and moved in with her husband on her 14th birthday. She is from Nepalgung; her husband's family live in a village two hours' walk away.

She was visiting her mother in Nepalgung and had been left alone in the house when a man professing to be a friend of the family came into the home. He offered Nanda sweetmeats, which she ate. She started to feel distracted and confused. The man suggested they go for a walk; though unhappy she was unable to refuse and did as she was instructed. He took her to a house across the border. Nanda was sold to a brothel for IR 60,000 (NR96,000, approximately £800).

She was held there for six months, during which time Rita, head of NGO Maiti Nepal's Transit Home, along with workers from an NGO in India and the Indian police, raided the place looking for her. Terrified, Nanda told them she was working there as a housemaid of her own will. Rita palmed her a Maiti Nepal contact leaflet before she left. Several weeks later Nanda escaped and came to the Transit Home. She had been raped by the Goondha (brothel keeper) and forced to sleep with between five to eight men a day. She received no pay but was told that she had to stay until she had paid off her purchase price, rent, food and clothing.

The day after her rescue, Rita arranged with the police to raid the house and arrest the brothel owner and the trafficker; this was successful. Nanda, her family and husband had come to push the prosecution further. It was impossible to say at this stage whether or not her mother was complicit in her abduction.

It is impossible to describe the look on Nanda’s face as we talked but it haunted me for several days. Both fortunately and unusually, Nanda was being supported by both her husband and her in-laws.

for more detailed info please visit:

http://www.asha-nepal.org/pages/what_we_do