You Give Me Child; I Give You Organ

Little girls are taken from their family villages and sold to India for prostitution.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Kathmandu with one purpose; to set up meetings with INGOs and make an inquiry at the U.S. Embassy regarding Nepal's 'orphan problem.'

I met my American friend in Kathmandu (she is furthering her nursing skills at a hospital near Chitwan National Park), and we both ventured down to the U.S. Embassy.  When I attended the 4th of July party last summer at their park, I was able to speak frankly with a diplomat at a nearby picnic table.  He helped me with my vision to start an NGO.

U.S. Embassy, Kathmandu Nepal

However, entering the U.S. Embassy was far different.  Speaking through a thick glass pane was not what I had hoped for.  Once being able to hide notice of this obstacle, I switched my first impression of 'pretentious' towards the woman to something more flattering like 'genuine' -- which she was.

It must be hard working for an embassy in a 3rd world country that is shifting from a liberation movement into a communist society.  You know all the evils that lurk in the politics, and the corruption, and who's involved.  But!  As a good diplomatic organization, you are bound by ethics to not get involved.  You must stay jurisdictional while sitting in the heart of the vulture's nest.

I was redirected to ask elsewhere.

The problem with orphan homes in Nepal is that they all have children with living parents.  Volunteerism is the biggest money-making scheme in Nepal.

The Money-Making Business of Orphan Homes:

Right, so let's get down to the nit-and-gritty.  There are two pressing issues why children are being placed into orphan homes.

1. The widowed or abandoned mothers are forced to give them up.
2. The children are being taken from their families and trafficked into the orphan homes.

Through my website www.GlobalOrphanPrevention.com, we are aware of the situation surrounding widowed and abandoned mothers.  However, child trafficking is a whole new can of worms.

Following two leads, I contacted two organizations that are involved.  But just like the Embassy, they too cannot get involved on a personal level.  It would jeopardize their current projects going on in the country.

The situation is much deeper than any of us could imagine.  People in power convince small villages to trust them with their children.  The families pay 20,000 Rs (US$233) to send their child to a private boarding school in Kathmandu.  However, once the trafficker and the child reach Kathmandu, the girls are sold to India for prostitution while the boys are taken to Orphan Homes.  The orphan home directors on 'in' on this operation.  They gladly accept the child (even though they fully have knowledge of their living parents).  They accept the children because they can make money off the volunteers who come to Nepal.  They over-charge the Westerner money to volunteer claiming this is for rent, food, and utilities.  This amount is sometimes double or triple the actual cost to run one of these homes.

In other cases, the boys (particularly around the age of 12) are also sold to India, but in this case it's for their organs.

The Street-Children of Nepal:

There are 3,000 street children in Kathmandu.  Most of them are boys.  They have been taken from their families and many don’t remember where they came from. 

Children that have been trafficked from the villages to Kathmandu.

They belong to a ring (think Oliver Twist) and beg for money.  The ring adults keep their earnings.  Any spare change they receive, is used for the purchase of glue (to huff).  This suppresses their hunger pains.  The children are beaten, kicked, and sleep on the sidewalks while loud cars and motorbikes blow smog into their sleeping faces. 

These 3,000 street children have no where to go.

They ask me for money.  I must refuse.  I know where their money goes.  I cannot help you my little boy I think.  But they don’t understand and tug on your shirt and with their tiny voices and plead “Please money, money. Money please. Hunger. Please.”

Perhaps the only three English words they know.

I must stop them.  I know where it goes.  I can’t even buy them milk.  These young ones have figured it out.  The milk is sold back to the shop keepers for 10 rupees less than what the tourist paid. 

My breaking point was two days ago.  I had been having to turn down the children all week, and at this moment, I had just got out of a meeting about the trafficking problem.  My brain was on sensory overload.

A disabled boy with no legs at the knee was pulling his body along the sidewalk.  I was waiting for my street food from the nice couple who make the best Nepalese chapatti wraps in the capital.

Homeless child on the street. There are over 3,000 street children in Kathmandu.

The boy sat at my feet and tugged on my dress.  I stepped away and positioned myself with the street cart between us.

He crawled toward me, dragging his frail body against the hard, black asphalt.  I was cornered completely.  I waited anxiously hoping that my food would be finished.  I kept thinking about how badly I wanted to give this little innocent boy some Rupees.  For God sake, he has the most arduous life.

When social programs and disability help is minimal, if non-existent at all, these children are left to fend for themselves.  So who helps the untouchable?  I fear they too are apart of that same ring.

The tugging was relentless.  It took everything in me to refuse his demand.

It broke my heart to say ‘no’.  I was angry that I couldn’t help him.  Angry that another adult human being made his life so harsh.  Angry that another human being took him from his parents with false promises.

But that’s Nepal.  It’s India too.

Corruption 101:

I’ve never seen this kind of corruption in any of the countries I have visited.  Of course, some degrees of corruption exist in most developing nations, but to me it seems like Nepal has a serious problem.

The varying degrees of corruption can and do change between the continents; but within a subcontinent, the type of corruption seems to follow a pattern, in my opinion.

In East Africa, for example, wildlife refuges, national parks, and protected areas generate a large portion of the GDP.  Gorilla trek in Uganda ($500).  Climbing Kilimanjaro ($1000).  Multi-day safari though Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti ($350).

The large money coming in from tourism teemed with endless poverty and terrible infrastructure gives wise to the notion that the money is being handled improperly.

Think the Gilded Age.  A Boss Tweed for every country.  It was America at the height of our Industrial Age and it has now fully hit the 3rd world.  If history repeats itself, then perhaps there is a ray of hope for these nations -- but at the moment this is the cold, hard truth.

So yes, to think that corruption does not exist in every facet of this world is naive, but to use corruption to take advantage of the volunteer is beyond precedent.  While Nepal too generates a lot of income from tourism, it's in a far more dismal way.  The orphan home directors are getting rich from the innocence of the good-hearted volunteer.  And who's backing the orphan homes -- several well-known public officials.

Police officer accepting a bribe so we could leave Kathmandu

They have a saying in Nepal when one decides to become a politician; the salary is the bonus.

I can't even begin to tell you the sadness that overcomes the volunteers' face when I tell them the children not only have living parents, but have most likely been trafficked from the poor villages in the far reaches of the country.

It's heart breaking for me as well, but they need to know.  And they need to know alternative solutions on how they can help (solutions I will suggest in a future blog).

Keep a look-out for a continuation looking into the evils of voluntourism, child trafficking, and corruption...