For those of you in the Boston area: the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights is hosting a screening of “The Day My God Died,” a documentary film about the child sex trade in Nepal and India this Thursday, August 12 at 5pm (large conference room on 7th floor of the FXB Building Room 710).
The event will start with opening remarks from Brigitte Cazalis-Collins and Joseph Collins, who have lived and worked in Nepal intermittently for the past 20 years. Brigitte and Joseph founded “Friends of Maiti Nepal” to work against human trafficking and sex slavery. Maiti Nepal is a large NGO providing shelter and care to repatriated Nepalese sex trafficking survivors. It is part of a network of NGOs across South Asia providing trafficking prevention and intervention services for individuals detained in brothels and other venues for prostitution against their will. In years past, the organization has worked in conjunction with researchers at HSPH to assess HIV prevalence and predictors in sex-trafficked women and girls; study findings have been published in leading medical journals.
A link to a landmark research study published in JAMA is available here.
Brigitte Cazalis Collins has directed and implemented major outreach projects assisting refugees and women in the United States and in Nepal. In the U.S., she was a founding board member of the Tibetan Resettlement Project, which provided sponsors, housing, employment and counseling to Tibetan families who immigrated to the U.S. under the Immigration Act of 1992. Since 2001, she has devoted her efforts to representing Maiti Nepal in the United States, focusing on fundraising and increasing awareness of sex slavery and human trafficking facts. Joseph H. Collins has worked for many years as an economic advisor to various government ministries and to the Central Bank of Nepal on a pro-bono basis. His company, J. H. Collins and Associates, together with the Harvard Law School Program On International Financial Systems and KPMG (India) has written and supervised the passage of legislation in Nepal to encourage foreign investment and economic development.
Trafficking survivors in their own words
“I would not wish that life on an enemy. It was pure hell. It would be better to hang yourself and die.”
– Sita, sold at age 15
“The people of my village hold me in contempt. They treat me badly. People don’t understand that I was tricked and that I suffered a lot.
– Meena, who returned to her village after being rescued at age 14
“I am not actually a victim. I am a survivor working as a strong activist against trafficking. I will live and work to help others and eventually die here.”
– Anita, who now lives in a shelter for rescued child sex slaves
