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ePaper created 2016-06-01, 12:05:37 | version 1.38.0
Sex trafficking remains a major issue in many parts of Asia, not only in sex tourism hot spots like in Indonesia or Thailand but also in smaller countries like Nepal. UK-based charity Asha Nepal (hope for Nepal) tries to prevent children becoming involved in the sex trade and helps victims of traf- ficking and sexual abuse in the country to re-establish themselves in society. Dental Tribune spoke about the organisation’s work and its impact on the lives of survivors with one of the charity’s trustees, Dr Andrea Ubhi from York, who is to take over as chairperson later this year and who runs one of the country’s leading private dental practices. Dental Tribune: Dr Ubhi, you run a successful dental practice in York. How did you first become involved with Asha Nepal? Andrea Ubhi: I have been in- volved with a few charities over the years; however, it has been difficult for me to find as much time as I wanted to give to charity work, as I have been busy building up dental businesses, in addition to bringing up three children. Several years ago, I sold one of mypractices,anNHSpractice,and that reduced my workload, finally giving me the time and money to expand my interest in charity. Al- though I had never really focused on women’s issues before, know- ing that men and women are equal in the world, I decided to be- come involved in Asha Nepal, as I had been becoming increasingly aware of the issue of trafficking and Asha was at a small size where I thought my management skills would be of better use than in a larger organisation and, frankly, I wanted to know exactly where my money was going. Nepal usually does not make the headlines when it comes to sex trafficking.Toyourknowledge,how extensive is the problem in the country? Although its neighbour India has much more children involved insextrafficking,estimatedatone million, about 30,000 girls from Nepal are tricked into going over the border each year and traf- ficked, and they end up as sex workers in the major cities. When you actually consider the differ- enceinsizeofpopulationbetween the two countries, proportionally this is a large number. One of the greatest issues is poverty. Attending a reasonably good school requires school fees. That is why many children in Nepal do not have the opportunity to go to school. The only thing they are often left to do is to work in domestic labour, often from as young as the age of four, and they are at risk of sexual abuse. Once a child is in domestic labour, there is also a high risk of being trafficked. Sometimes, thishappensinsidiously:someone mightsaythatheorshehasabetter jobinthenexttown,thensomeone might offer the child a job in Delhi, which in the end turns out to be captivity in a brothel. How is your organisation helping victims of sex trafficking in Nepal itself? Some of the girls who come to Asha have been trafficked and rescued from cabin bars in the tourist district of Kathmandu. They started as dancers and were then forced into the sex trade. What is great about Asha Nepal is thatitdoesnotprovideanorphan- age or children’s home as such but a transitional home. Asha seeks to work with the child’s or teenager’s immediatefamilyortheextended family to help the child/teenager transition back safely into the community. Asha offers coun- sellingaftertrauma,providesedu- cation and a safe home, and then Asha’s social workers work with their families to give parenting training, life skills and access to safe accommodation so that the child/teenagercanreturntoliving at home and be reintegrated into the community. Independence is one of our main aims. Asha Nepal considers the whole picture and tries to prevent chil- dren being trafficked by provid- ingfundingtoverypoorfamiliesto help give their children an education, which in turn provides the hope of dignified employment when the child reaches adulthood. If children are attending school, their families do not allow them into domestic servitude. Asha Nepal also works with the mothers of poor families; for ex- ample, the father may be unem- ployed, drink too much or aban- don his family altogether. If there are issues with providing for the family, Asha Nepal assists with emergency rent and food so that the mothers can get on their feet. Asha has a job coordinator who helps mothers or trafficking sur- vivors obtain a place in a training programme and then work. How many of the children you look after find their way back into society? All of them. In some cases in which children have been traf- ficked or are victims of sexual abuse by their own family and are in high danger of being re- trafficked, there is no hope of safe reintegration with their own family.Asha assigns suchchildren to foster families. They remain there with Asha until they are old enough to be integrated into so- ciety independently when they are adults. The April earthquake last year had a devastating effect on the coun- try’s infrastructure. Has this af- fected your work and,if so, to what extent? When I went over in September, they were still terrified because it was not just only one earthquake, but about 300. There were con- tinual tremors and many people were sleeping outside, even when it was cold and raining. While the destruction in Kathmandu was significant, in the north-eastern 15 Dental TribuneAsia Pacific Edition | 3/2016 TRENDS&APPLICATIONS “Prevention of sex trafficking is our ultimate aim” An interview with York dentist Dr Andrea Ubhi “I want to see the team consolidate.” WhenIwentoverinSeptember,theywerestillterrifiedbecauseitwasnotjustonlyoneearthquake,butabout300.©AshaNepal,UK Dr Andrea Ubhi (second from right) with Asha Nepal children.© Asha Nepal,UK DTAP0316_15-16_Ubhi 04.03.16 13:15 Seite 1 DTAP0316_15-16_Ubhi 04.03.1613:15 Seite 1