Programme/project details of ABC Nepal

Strategic objectives

• To prevent human trafficking, especially of women and girls
• To build the collective strengths and negotiation skills of client communities and NGOs on health, nutrition, water and sanitation, livelihood, child rights, education, and gender
• To protect the rights of the survivors to justice
• To facilitate economic empowerment of the survivors and marginalized people through viable income generation / livelihood improvement programs
• To lobby the government to formulate laws in accordance with international laws and convention
• To promote and protect the rights of women, children, dalit, and marginalized people

Soci-economic Empowerment with Dignity and Sustainability (SEEDS Programme)

This programme is envisioned to sustain the outcomes of an adolescent empowerment programme that encompasses the entire family with the concept of the family as a unit where parents, children and adolescents will benefit. The overall development goal of the programme is: By the end of 2018, 2500 poor families from vulnerable and marginalized communities enjoy socio economic life with dignity which is focused on four thematic areas: Quality Education, Social Protection, IGA/Livelihood Improvement, and strengthening sustainable community structure. The SEEDS programme facilitates the communities to engage in SHGs for collective voicing and build their capacities at the individual and group level. It encourages communities to put their voices and demands in local plans. The Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are the foundation of the SEEDS programme for all development initiatives; they adopt a right-based approach to empower the communities to claim and protect their rights. This project has been implementing VDCs of the Rupandehi and Nawalparasi districts of Western Nepal.

The programme is focused on removing structural barriers to change the social positions of the target groups, improving human conditions through livelihood support and enabling the environment through effective and accountable governance mechanisms in such a way that their vulnerability to poverty will be reduced and they will become aware of their rights, critically conscious of their role, and economically productive.

Right Based Education for Dalit Youths in Nepal (SAMVAD Programme)

The overall development goal of the programme is: By the end of 2017, 5,000 adolescents from Dalit, excluded and marginalized communities, become economically productive and empowered to promote their rights and protect them from trafficking. SAMVAD is a learning and action research process that builds analytical capacity and confidence among the participants and helps them to be self-reliant. It is an innovative initiative developed through synchronizing the liberating educational method of Paulo Freire, PRA tools and techniques, a spirit of mind management approach, and REFLECT. It focuses on social, economic, and political empowerment of the 5000 adolescents from Dalit, Janajati, Muslim, and other excluded families. Indispensable awareness in the adolescent’s life, income generation, and learning by doing are the main ingredients of SAMVAD. This project has been implementing VDCs of the Rupandehi and Nawalparasi districts of Western Nepal.

It is an interactive forum based on a participatory learning approach that helps adolescents (both girls and boys) to be aware of their own problems that are affecting their lives and communities. This programme also gives high priority to the participation of people with disabilities in SAMVAD Center in order to protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and promote respect for their inherent dignity. It empowers the adolescents in finding solutions by challenging themselves and equipping them with the knowledge. Another outlook of SAMVAD is to strengthen the future civil society by enabling them to unite themselves as community institutions and addressing their issues collectively for the overall development of families, communities, and the nation.

Community-based Interventions for the Empowerment of Women and Prevention of Labour (Work in Freedom Project)

An alarming aspect of labour migration from Nepal is trafficking of women and children across borders, for labour exploitation and other purposes. Notwithstanding the existence of some protective legislation, migration can lead to abusive employment practices at the place of destination. These abuses include unpaid wages, confiscation of ID documents, excessively long work hours without rest days, restrictions on freedom of movement, deception, and intimidation. Violence, including sexual violence, is another all too common experience faced by women migrant workers. Some of the root causes behind exploitative labour migration experiences are lack of information at the community level to take informed choice of decision on labour migration, inadequate skills to perform the job, language barriers, lack of awareness on risk of irregular migration, and weak monitoring mechanisms on recruitment practices at the origin and destination countries.

Focusing on these facts, ABC Nepal has been implementing the Work in Freedom Project in 15 VDCs of the Rupandehi district since 2014. The development objective of the programme is to reduce incidence of trafficking of women and girls from Rupandehi aiming for labour migration to the Middle East, with a particular focus on the domestic and garment sectors. Community-based interventions under the Work in Freedom Programme are aimed at identifying potential migrants in places of origin and providing information that can assist in informed decision-making about whether to migrate and how to migrate more safely. The objectives of the project are: Enhance capacity of project staff and key stakeholders to deliver and monitor project interventions; Empower potential women migrant workers with knowledge and support services on safe migration channels, skills training, rights and responsibilities at work, and how to avoid being trafficked; Strengthen coordination and advocacy mechanisms at local to national levels for prevention of trafficking; and Improve access to available support services for potential women and girls migrant workers through referral mechanisms in place.

Labor Market Information and Employment Services (LIfE) Project

ABC Nepal has been implementing “Community based intervention for employment promotion and services through Employment Service Center and Migrant Resource Center” under “Labour Market Information Employment Service (LIfE) Project” since December 2016, jointly implemented by the Employment Service Center, Butwal under Ministry of Labour and Employment of Nepal and ABC Nepal with the financial and technical support of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in one Sub-metropolitan City (Butwal), four Municipalities (Siddrathanagar, Tilottama,  Sainamaina, Devdaha), and Siyari Rural Municipal of Rupandehi district in Nepal. The overall objective of the LIfE project is to strengthen the capacity of the Employment Services Center to assess information on local employment and match demand and supply of skills training and promoting access to local employment for potential migrant workers to prevent forced labour migration.

Cracking Social Constraints through Technology

ABC Nepal has been implementing the “Cracking Social Constraints through Technology” project since June 2017. The project, partnered with Effect, has been focused on these two major constraints. This Partnership began with the participation of ABC Nepal in the Hackathon with International Volunteers aiming to support us in resolving the problems. A discussion of the problem and interactions on the way out led us with the development of this project where the organization has planned to work on the constraint by investing in technically sound data record and strategies for visibility of the work in national and international arenas. The aim of this project is well-equipped resources with technical updates and effective visibility of organizational achievement. Data records, social media updates and enhanced informative of organization are major interventions of this project.

Counselling and Rehabilitation Center

The organization has long experience of providing rehabilitation support for the survivors of trafficking and other forms of violence. Since 1996 the Rehabilitation Center has been running in Kathmandu for rescued girls/women, survivors of different forms of violence. The rehabilitation center has been providing counseling, residential services, health care services, formal and non-formal education, life skill training, vocational training, seed-money support to the survivors to income generation, and legal service as per requirement. Girls/women have been empowered through different services. ABC Nepal has coordinated and collaborated to Indian organization and concerned Nepalese Embassy/Consular Office to rescue trafficked girls and repatriate process of them. ABC Nepal has reintegrated more than 2000 girls/women into their families and society.