On November 24,2010 Anuradha Koirala, the founder and Executive Director of Maiti Nepal, won the CNN Hero of the Year Award for her commitment to save the lives of many women in need.
Ms. Koirala started Maiti Nepal, founded in 1993, in a small house in Kathmandu with her own savings. Maiti Nepal serves as a shelter for the protection and rehabilitation of trafficking victims forced into prostitution that have been rescued and returned to orphans and girls. The shelter home provides awareness training, informal education, vocational training, as well as voluntary testing and counseling and medical advice to survivors of trafficking. An average of 100 survivors live in this house of rehabilitation from time to time. This social organization also actively works to find justice for the victims against their abusers through legal means.
With Ms. Koirala and her workers, who are mostly rescued women, dedication to combating sexual exploitation of women and children, more than 12,000 Nepalese girls and women have been rescued from human trafficking and sexual exploitation, according to CNN.
"First you have to learn to take them as your own child. Then you will feel the sorrow and then the strength comes out from you to protect them.” – Anuradha Koirala
Although, Ms. Koirala’s work is often dangerous and requires great personal sacrifice, her dedication to her beliefs continues to stay strong. The criminal elements to victims are a ruthless enemy and have connections at the highest political level in India and Nepal. Maiti Nepal's main office in Kathmandu has been destroyed twice and Maiti workers must travel with a bodyguard when overseeing rescue missions in India.
“I ask everyone to join me to create a society free of trafficking. We need to do this for all our daughters," Koirala said at the CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute which aired Thanksgiving night.
Ms. Koirala and her group received an additional $100,000 award along with the $25,000 Hero award, which will be used in their work in Nepal and its borders. In doing so, their courageous efforts will continue to help victims live healthy, sustainable lives.
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