The Clinic

(This post was written before we left Kathmandu, we just didn't have a chance to post it due to the lack of internet access)

We had an opportunity today to meet with Dr. Pushpa Bhatt, a physician here in Kathmandu that tells us about her work with “sex workers”. As we walk to the clinic we see signs everywhere for “massage”. One of our Scottish friends tells us he did some ‘undercover’ work and went into a business offering “Foot Massage”. Once inside, he tells us that it was clearly a brothel. Dr. Pushpa wants to especially help the children of these women avoid ending up on the streets or worse yet, in this lifestyle. She is hoping to set up some "day facilities" where these children can go. She also told us that she has approximately 50 HIV+ patients in her practice – primarily those trafficked or “sex workers”. Sex worker is a term that has been coined in recent years to make this sound more like a legitimate job than what it really is – prostitution. Period. But that sounds cold, and points out the harsh reality of what life is like for these young women. Used as objects, very often abused, STD’s, AIDS - this is an extremely high risk and degrading lifestyle. Thus the term sex worker or sex industry worker has become popular around the world…

Massage parlors are abundant here in the Thamel area of Kathmandu

Today we have about 16-18 girls present, all admitting to be “sex workers”. Fortunately, none of these girls are HIV+. We had the opportunity to ask questions and several of them are ex-trafficking victims who have now resigned themselves to this lifestyle. One tells us that if they just knew how to read, they would have realized that they were being taken into Delhi, tricked into forced prostitution, trafficked into the brothels of Delhi, India. The girls say that they make decent money (for a Nepali woman) and according to Dr. Pushpa as far as they are concerned it is too late for them. She says that her research shows that they now are more concerned about their children.

One sad fact we learn is that most of the girls clients are Westerners, Europeans, Americans, with a lesser amount being African, and very few Nepali clients. This is a business of supply and demand. And 'our people' are part of the problem, driving this business to be a multi-billion dollar business in virtually every corner of every country in the world.

Some of the girls we were interviewing

Then David Headley, part of the “Scottish contingency” with us, asks a very telling question: 'If there was a place here in Kathmandu that would take you in with your children, give you an education, feed you, teach you a trade, send your children to school… would you be interested in going?' The answer is a unanimous YES, OF COURSE. Well, P.R.C. is such a facility, and we realize that generally they don’t know about such an option, and wonder how many really would take that step if they knew...

We get a chance to meet some of their adorable children, and as we walk away we are left very saddened by the fact that young women from as young as 16 up to the age of middle or late twenties would think that their life is over. These young women need to be shown love. These young women need to be shown acceptance. Someone needs to invest in their lives, show them that they care, show them that they have a future and a hope. They need to be shown what true love really is – a love that can only be found from the Lord. These girls need the life changing knowledge of Jesus Christ. For without this, they are destined to continue to live the same unfulfilled life that they have been living, and their children are extremely likely to either end up on the streets or becoming trafficking victims themselves.

Before we leave, Colette makes sure that they hear that God loves them, that there IS a future and hope for them, that they ARE “worth everything” in the eyes of the Lord. We pray after we leave that the Lord will touch each and every one of these young women and their families. It is a prayer that we are believing in…