About the Together Women Rise Grants Program
The Together Women Rise Grants Program has two key components that support our overall mission to achieve global gender equality. Featured Grants are largely focused on delivering direct services by funding grassroots organizations that empower and support women and girls in low-income and marginalized communities in the Global South. Our Transformation Partnerships are designed to invest in areas where we can make the biggest impact on achieving global gender equality by addressing the root causes of gender inequality.
Through our Featured Grants Program, we highlight a different organization/project each month, providing a variety of learning materials on the issue and how the grant will be used. Through the Featured Grants program, we support capacity building, new programs, or expansion of existing programs. The following is information on the grant we are featuring for July 2025.
The Global Issue
Trafficking, Child Marriage, & Forced Labor of Girls
Trafficking, forced labor, and early marriage affect women and girls in every country in the world. In low-income countries, children are often trafficked for forced labor, and in high-income countries, trafficking for sexual exploitation is prevalent. The true number of victims may never be known. Education and awareness are critical protective elements that lie at the core of combating this issue – keeping girls in school reduces their risk.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, children account for 60% of the known trafficking victims. Forced labor is the most common purpose in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Central America and the Caribbean, most victims are teenaged girls, primarily trafficked for sexual exploitation, and in South Asia, nearly half of the victims are children, trafficked for forced labor or marriage. Overall, girls are more likely to be trafficked for sexual exploitation, while boys are more likely to be forced into labor, but the purposes and methods overlap and are widespread.
- Child trafficking – The two most common purposes for human trafficking are sexual exploitation and forced labor. Of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across international borders every year, 80% are women or girls and half are minors – and the problem is increasing. From 2019 to 2022, there was a 31% increase in the number of child victims trafficked around the world, with a 38% increase for girls. These girls may already face marginalization because they are orphans, have low literacy, or have physical disabilities. They may be recruited or lured with cash, gifts, shelter, or drugs. Ultimately, threats, intimidation, and aggression are used to enslave victims. And, once trafficked, girls face sexual exploitation, violence, abuse, and a host of human rights violations.
- Child marriage – Every year, 12 million girls marry before the age of 18. In low-income countries, 40% of girls are married before 18 and 12% before age 15. The numbers worsen in countries experiencing conflicts and humanitarian crises. Many child marriages have been prevented around the world thanks to an increase in girls’ education and government investment, but rates remain high – especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which account for 18% and 44% of the world’s married children, respectively.
- Forced labor – Worldwide, one in 10 children – 160 million – are forced into work. Approximately half engage in hazardous work that puts their health and development at significant risk, most often in agriculture, factories, mining, or as domestic workers. Children are especially vulnerable if they are migrants or refugees (especially if separated from family or unaccompanied), if they live in poverty, or if their caregiver has died, become ill, or lost a job. Many of these children suffer serious physical and mental harm, and most are cut off entirely from any education or healthcare. This is especially true for migrant and refugee children whose lives have been upended by conflict.
| It is difficult to estimate human trafficking within the United States, but it has been reported in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2024, the National Human Trafficking Hotline identified nearly 12,000 cases with more than 21,000 victims. |
About Our Grantee
Together Women Rise is funding a $50,000 Featured Grant to Rural Health and Education Service Trust (RHEST). This grant will support the Stop Girl Trafficking program (SGT), an initiative that aims to empower vulnerable girls and reduce their risk of trafficking and exploitation through education.
RHEST
RHEST’s mission is to reduce girl trafficking, early marriage, forced labor, domestic violence, and sexual abuse in Nepal It empowers Nepali girls through education and raising awareness, helping them fight against trafficking by supporting their education and teaching them about gender-based violence and exploitation. RHEST was founded in 1993 by Dr. Aruna Uprety, a Nepali doctor and women’s rights activist, with the goal of addressing the trafficking of girls by ensuring they went to school. In 1996, the organization began a partnership with the American Himalayan Foundation. The Stop Girl Trafficking program initially supported 54 girls and has grown to help more than 10,000 girls in grades 1-10. To date, more than 28,000 girls have received support from RHEST.
In addition to the Stop Girl Trafficking program, other RHEST initiatives include:
- In Honor of Amar: addresses the need for higher education for girls from the Stop Girl Trafficking program. This innovative initiative focuses on providing support to vulnerable, at-risk girls to complete their high school education in grades 11 and 12. The program targets girls from rural and semi-rural areas of Nepal who have graduated from SGT, and provides them with additional resources to learn about health and nutrition, rights, trafficking, and other protection-related topics.
- Health Care: addresses women’s health issues, with a focus on preventive measures, including nutrition education, preventing and treating pelvic organ prolapse, and offering nursing scholarships.
- Empowering Girls and Youth of Rural Communities of Nepal to Prevent Human Trafficking: a three-year project that aims to build the capacity of young girls, transforming them into change agents in their communities to prevent human trafficking and gender-based violence through advocacy and awareness activities.
- Mental Health: programs include community mental health support, Mental Health First Aid training, publication of a handbook on adolescent mental health, and other work, such as research into post- traumatic disorder in a rural area that experienced a massive earthquake in 2015.
Life Challenges of the Women & Girls Served
Nepal ranks among the world’s poorest countries, and deeply rooted patriarchy fuels child labor, early marriage, and gender-based violence.
Many women and children are unhoused in Nepal due to poverty. As a result, girls in rural Nepal are at risk of violence, malnutrition, trafficking, early marriage, and forced labor. Last year, up to 35,000 Nepalese persons were subjected to human trafficking, including an estimated 15,000 women and 5,000 children.
In Nepal, it is common for women and girls to work harder than men – often in physically demanding jobs. Many of the children come from poor families and are used as cheap laborers who work hard seven days a week and do not attend school. Trapped by extreme poverty, parents feel they have no other choice but to marry off their daughters. One out of three Nepalese girls marry before age 18, and 8% marry before age 15. These girls often marry much older men and they themselves become trapped by domestic violence and sexual abuse. Most of these cases are never reported, and effective investigations are rare.
Many Nepalese women are malnourished because of gender discrimination and harmful cultural practices that prioritize limited resources for men and boys. Children are also malnourished because their parents do not have knowledge about the value of local food. In addition, health workers are not trained to provide information to the community on health and nutrition.
LEARN MORE ABOUT NEPAL.
How the Grant Will be Used
Together Women Rise will fund RHEST’s Stop Girl Trafficking (SGT) program, using education to keep girls safe from trafficking, early marriage, and forced labor in Nepal.
As part of the SGT program, RHEST provides all-encompassing support that includes:
- Enrolling and re-enrolling girls in school: The goal is to identify girls who are at risk, keep them in school, and surround them with a safety net of support.
- Paying school fees: SGT relieves the family of the financial burden of education.
- Distributing school supplies: Each participating girl receives a uniform plus educational materials such as school bags, books, stationery, and other materials.
- Visiting the schools four times per academic year, two of which are for paying school fees and the other two are follow-up visits.
- Holding interactive sessions with students and their families on topics such as women’s health, education, domestic violence, and child marriage. Members of the local community also participate.
- Conducting 3,000 home visits each year to monitor the girls’ progress and to provide any necessary counseling or intervention.
- Hosting community meetings to discuss the risks to girls and the importance of education: There are three monitoring visits to each SGT community each year.
- Holding Friday classes exclusively for SGT girls to provide coaching and tutoring to improve academic performance. These sessions are facilitated by Friday teachers, usually alumnae, as mentors and counselors. In total, 350 Friday teachers conduct over 8,000 Friday classes to 85 percent of the girls in SGT. Friday Facilitators are responsible for leading a two-hour interaction with students once a week. They provide awareness-raising information to the students on human trafficking, child labor, and child marriage, along with homework support up to Grade 10.
- Committing to keeping every girl in the program until they graduate grade 12: Once a girl graduates, her risk of trafficking, early marriage, and forced labor is minimal.
- Publishing and distributing a wide range of materials on trafficking, women’s rights, and health and nutrition to students in grades 6-12, RHEST alumnae, Friday/school facilitators, local government bodies, and schools. These materials include questionnaires for the girls to express their learning, awareness of risk factors, and topics of interest for future discussions, as well as letters, stories, and poems submitted by the girls and their teachers, and information about RHEST’s programs.
- Measuring and evaluating the program to monitor project implementation, track progress, and identify challenges.
This program has far-reaching benefits and outcomes. Based on the success RHEST has already achieved, the expectation is that girls participating in the SGT program will stay in school, stay safe, marry later, and grow into independent, productive members of their communities.
RHEST’s Stop Girl Trafficking Program has translated to life-changing benefits for the girls including:
- Fewer child brides: Less than 1.5 percent of SGT girls got married and dropped out of school. Many married later and had their first child older than similar girls who were not part of the program.
- Fewer dropouts: Less than 2.5% of SGT girls dropped out of school in 2023-24.
- No trafficking: SGT has never lost a girl to trafficking.
- Increased gender equality: By prioritizing education, RHEST helps girls increase their position in their families and communities.
- Enhanced community standing: Girls in the SGT program are more likely to become community leaders. SGT graduates have been elected as local government representatives, while others excel as doctors, engineers, nurses, pharmacists, and IT experts.
- Improved health: RHEST has provided healthcare services to more than 40,000 women, trained 3,000 health workers, and benefitted 1,000 women through support for prolapsed uterus surgery.
- Advocacy: RHEST has established 10 anti-trafficking advocacy groups in six districts that work with local governments to raise awareness about girl trafficking and domestic violence. These advocacy groups work on behalf of the girls with schools, local government, and law enforcement agencies, raising awareness and assisting victims and their families in filing complaints.
- Greater confidence: RHEST conducts extracurricular activities in schools to boost students’ confidence and inspire curiosity. These activities include competitions for writing essays, reciting poetry, drawing, debating, and acting in dramas. These activities have helped raise awareness about trafficking, child marriages, child labor, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and menstrual taboos.
- Generational change: An educated woman is more likely to ensure her daughters receive an education. Girls who graduate high school are more likely to marry later, have children later, and more likely to be community leaders.
- New books and articles: RHEST publishes books and articles on anti-trafficking, health and nutrition, women’s rights, and children’s rights.
- Graduates as mentors: Local graduate groups support younger students. They receive training in management, finance, leadership, and personal development, and they mentor younger students, participate in programs to reduce dropout rates, raise awareness in communities, and identify and support at-risk girls.
IMPACT – Direct: 480 women and girls; Indirect: 2,400 women and girls
Budget
Why We Love This Project/Organization
We love RHEST’s clear focus on preventing girls from being trafficked by keeping them in school. The delivery of the program is through long-standing relationships with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the organization has a solid, long record of accomplishment. The annual cost per girl is just $104!
Impact Story
Meet Maya*
*To protect her privacy, Maya’s name has been changed, and her picture is not used.
Maya*, a 15-year-old girl from the Raute community, embodies the resilience of Nepal’s Indigenous nomadic groups. The Rautes, who live on the fringes of society in the forests of Kanchanpur near the border with India, face extreme poverty and lack essential services such as healthcare and education.
Despite growing up in these challenging conditions, Maya has always dreamed of becoming a health worker and breaking the cycle of poverty in her community. Maya’s mother never had the opportunity to attend school, and the family has struggled with basic survival. Maya’s father passed away seven years ago due to a lack of proper medical treatment. Growing up, Maya and her five siblings didn’t have access to education – their family survived by foraging wild fruits and roots. Maya feared that, like her siblings, she would never have the chance to go to school.
| But Maya’s life changed after her family relocated to a different area in Kanchanpur. RHEST entered her life when she was in grade 2 and enrolled her in the Stop Girl Trafficking program, providing the support she desperately needed to cover her tuition, school supplies, and other educational costs. Each Raute family member receives about $29 USD (Rs 4000) per month in government support, which is used primarily for basic needs, but despite the financial strain, Maya thrived in school. Her elder brother works as a laborer in India and Nepal, but the family remains without significant support from him. Maya’s older sister faces mental health challenges, adding another layer of difficulty to the family’s struggles. Now in grade 8, Maya remains focused on her dream. “I want to become a health worker, not only for myself but for the people in my community who have limited access to medical care,” Maya says. “Without RHEST (and its partner organization, the American Himalayan Foundation), I would never have had the chance to go to school. Their support through the SGT Program has changed my life.” |
Maya’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of education. With RHEST’s support, she has the opportunity to fulfil her dreams and become a source of hope for her community.
Learn More
Source Materials
UNODC global human trafficking report
UNODC report on human trafficking
Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls
Global Report: 50 Million People Trapped in Modern Slavery Worldwide
Is child labor increasing in the US?
Spirit Me Away: The women and girls lost to trafficking in Nepal
A qualitative study on gender inequality and gender-based violence in Nepal
UNICEF and the Fight Against Child Trafficking
Gender, nutritional disparities, and child survival in Nepal
National Human Trafficking Hotline
Glossary
SGT: Stop Girl Trafficking
RHEST: Rural Health and Education Service Trust
UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund
UNODC: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
The Global South: The Global South includes the countries that experience higher levels of poverty, income inequality, lower life expectancy, and harsh living conditions compared to the wealthier nations in the “Global North” – located mostly in North America and Europe. The Global South primarily includes many of the countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East.
