Plan hopes to free 4,500 girls from bonded labour

Donal Keane, Plan's Country Director in Nepal,  originally from Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, can be a very proud man these days. Not only was he just honoured with a Global Plan Award last week, he also played a leading role in freeing almost 2,000 girls kept in bonded labour, a form of slavery still widely practiced in parts of Nepal.

But it doesn't stop there:

"We are in a process of rescuing a further 4,500 girls in two districts we have indentified, and are working with other non-governmental agencies because we can't do it on our own," Donal Keane explains.

Plan estimates that between 10,000 to 12,000 girls are kept in bonded labour.

An 8-year old servant

The girls are from extremely poor families in Western and Southern Nepal, where they are often seen as a little more than a drain on the families' income and sold out of financial desperation for around €15 a year. The practice is well-known as the Kamalari system, and girls are simply sent to work as domestic servants in the houses of the rich.

Alone and without family or community support, they are vulnerable to all sorts of harm, including physical violence and sexual abuse.

The girls are usually around eight or nine years old when they are sent to work.

She worked 18 hours a day

One of the first girls rescued was 17-year old Bishnu. Five years ago she was sent to work as a servant girl by her impoverished parents and spent two years working from 4am to 10pm, seven days a week. But with help from Plan she is now back in school and very active in lobbying against this problem of trafficking in Nepal.

"In addition to rescuing and rehabilitating these girls, we help them get back into to school or provide alternative education support," says Donal Keane, who has been working for Plan the last 25 years. Parents of the girls also get support in earning a decent living for their families so they don't have to sent away their children.

Bishu was with Donal Keane in London last week to collect the prize, and he was really delighted to show how well Bishu has progressed since she was rescued.

Take a look at our "Because I am a Girl" campaign 

Watch video about Kalmari Girls