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Bhaktapur architecture and Durbar Square

Bodnath - Buddhist Stupa

The entire weekend was a holiday (it’s usually only the Saturday) and I’ve decided I just can’t keep up with them all. Since I’ve been here there have been holidays for all types of occasions; the Holi Festival of Color, New Year’s, different gods’ and goddesses’ birthdays, examination time, strikes – I just can’t keep up. Saturday I enjoyed a wonderful workout at a hotel in Kathmandu (clean and all, my lungs were in heaven) followed by a few hours of reading and swimming in the outdoor pool. Although I love participating whole-heartedly in their culture, I do find the conservative dress of long skirts and long-sleeved shirts to get too hot some days that I just really enjoyed being in a secluded hotel where I was permitted to wear a bikini. The sun was scorching hot and I thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing water and alone time. The weather is getting warmer, increasing proportionately to the amount of rainfall. The past week or two have been high twenties with the thundershowers steadying to every couple of days at least, if not every afternoon. The rain is only mildly cool and usually rather pleasant, but I’m still dreading these leeches that I’ve heard so much about in the monsoon season.

After my morning of lounging, I walked the back paths of the hotel until I reached Bodnath where I was meeting my friend from work and her son to walk around the temple. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s an enormous white-washed and gold dome depicting the eyes of the Buddha. The stupa is strategically proportioned to maintain specific religious significance, including the three-dimensional representation of the important elements of Buddhist philosophy and the path towards enlightenment. Key features are the Plinth, the lowest square level representing the earth and the four states of mindfulness – love, compassion, joy and equanimity; the Kumbha, a hemispherical dome symbolizing water that is freshly painted white every year and embellished with yellow paint symbolizing lotus petals; the Harnika, a square tower symbolizing fire and housing the eyes of Buddha; the Spire, a tower with 13 levels depicting the stages a human being must pass through to achieve nirvana; and finally, a protective umbrella at the top of the stupa to symbolize the void beyond space. At the base there are 108 images of Dhyani Buddha Amitbha and a circle of prayer wheels surrounding the stupa set in groups of four into 147 niches. Bodnath attracts thousands of pilgrams and is one of the few places in the world where Tibetan Buddhist culture is so openly accessible to the public. Originally the site was an important trading route and Tibetan traders would come to pray for a safe journey before driving their yaks on to the high passes of the Himalaya and today many of the villagers in the area are Tibetan refugees who fled China after 1959. Apparently in terms of grace and purity of line, no other stupa in Nepal comes close to Bodnath. We walked the stupa in a clockwise direction (auspicious), spinning the prayer wheels with our right hand (also auspicious) and watching the sun lower in the distant sky behind gleaming painted eyes. I definitely felt at peace being in the presence of the praying monks and I could sense the intense spiritual energy alive with every spin of the wheels. I wondered if part of the mystical feeling you get from Bodnath is due to the claim that a piece of bone from Siddhartha Gautama’s skeleton is buried under the stupa (the historical Buddha).

I have been patiently waiting to get the chance to visit Bhaktapur and that day finally came on Sunday. Bhaktapur is one of the three medieval city states in the Kathmandu Valley and is preserved as a UNESCO cultural heritage site. It has three main squares full of architecturally appealing and grandiose temples and narrow cobblestone streets winding through red brick buildings and secret courtyards. The best part of our day was the fact that there was no traffic permitted in the squares! And perhaps the lasagna I had for lunch, both were competitively enjoyable. Tess and I decided to wander around for the first part of the morning before lunch and then take ourselves on a two hour self-guided walking tour in the afternoon (compliments to Lonely Planet). We soaked in the Bhaktapur culture as we observed and admired multicolored shrines, intricate woodwork on balconies and rooftops, Buddhist stone carvings and fountains, and ancient looking water tanks that were historically used for social gatherings, religious rituals, drinking and bathing (so basically everything!). After a long day of feeling more touristy than normal, I was ready for a treat. On our way to the bus park we stopped for a quick sample of the famous juju dhau or “King of Curds”, a thick and creamy (and tad bit sour) local yogurt. We caught a bus home just in time for some dhal bhaat and veg curry, when it really did hit me that this had been my last weekend spent in Kathmandu. Where has the time gone?

Organized picketing at Constituent Assembly Hall in Kathmandu

Monday morning everyone in the office along with several of the executive committee members were planning on going to Ms Sahana Pradham’s house to bring anniversary gifts and offer her thanks and recognition for starting Women Security Pressure Group 20 years ago. She has enjoyed an outstanding lifelong commitment and dedication to improving women’s rights in Nepal. I had read about Ms Pradham before arriving in Nepal as she is a former foreign minister and has made milestones on many advancements in the legal and political climate for Nepali women. She continues to hold Honorary Member status at WSPG in addition to her recognition as the founder, although because of her age and declining health she no longer has an active role in the organization. I would have very much liked to meet her but unfortunately she was not feeling in good enough health this day to have any visitors.

This week was dedicated to the submission of the fundraising proposals I had finally completed as well as updating and amending a brochure for WSPG and an organized picketing at the CA Hall. Submitting the proposals was a major relief and left me feeling great because I’m hopeful they will bring in some much-needed funding to the organization as well as provide some longevity to my assistance in the office. I ran into some language difficulties towards the end of their completion and I was finding it challenging to communicate around more complex and specific issues that the proposals and financial documentation section demanded. After some patience and persistence from both sides, I was relieved to have the concerns sorted out but it definitely has been one of the major challenges I’ve found working in an office in another language.

The Constitution of Nepal has still not been promulgated and the latest deadline is fast-approaching. The people of Nepal as well as interest groups are becoming increasingly frustrated and pessimistic that the May 28^th deadline will in fact be met and there are frequent opinions being voiced as to what this will mean for the new Democratic Republic of Nepal. I’ve often heard and read cited that the CA Members are to blame for not taking the deadline seriously, where others point their finger at simply the difficulty of reaching an agreement with the interests of all of the drastic variations of people, regions and cultures the members are representing. WSPG and other women’s groups are also concerned about the level of regard for women’s best interests in the new Constitution and how their voices and issues of concern will be addressed. We therefore staged a three-day picketing outside of the Constituent Assembly Hall in order to bring awareness and apply pressure to the CA Members to not only have the Constitution complete by the 28^th of May but to also ensure women are being fairly represented in the country’s declaration. I recognized several of the women coming and going throughout the afternoon, including presidents, executives and advisory board members of WSPG’s network organizations. We held 4 or 5 purple banners demanding priority to the drafting and women blew whistles and shouted until ears were ringing and voices were cracking. We were joined on the street by other interest groups also picketing, including a teacher’s association and political party supporters. I had the chance to talk with the CEO of a peace organization, whom I had only briefly met previously. Her organization mainly counsels and supports youth whose parent or parents were killed during the Maoist violence that was rampant for over a decade before the peace agreement in 2006. She told me the youth they are targeting often grow up retaining feelings of anger, resentment and revenge, which leads them to make poor decisions and lifestyle choices. Once the youth have gone through the program they can be recruited as Peace Ambassadors to then assist with programs and the support of other youth in need. The name of the organization translates in English to “Citizens Voice”. After chatting for awhile and learning more about her organization, she asked me if I would mind taking a break from picketing to help her with an English document. She was being flown to Germany for a three week training course in assisting victims from post-conflict areas and I helped her clarify and confirm the visa requirements. For my help she drove me home after the picketing which I was very thankful for as the rain started to come down!

The Last Resort: Canyon swinging from a 160m bridge for a 6 second free fall and swinging at 150km/hour - it gets the blood pumping!

The three of us (volunteers) took a bus up near the Tibetan border for a weekend of both adrenaline and tranquility at the Last Resort. We arrived to a beautiful secluded mountain resort, lush with greenery, stocked with hammocks, and echoing with the sound of the flowing river below. We checked into our four-bed tent before making our way to the suspension bridge along with the rest of the first group of bungee jumpers and canyon swingers of the day. I love the sensation of heights, that “safe” fearful feeling that creeps into your consciousness and the instinctive reactions of your body and mind when you’re doing something neither of them seems to agree with. My knees were a bit knobbly and my palms were sweaty but the smile on my face stretching from ear to ear was more telling of my true feelings. What I viewed as unfortunate but what others beside me saw as a blessing was the fact that we saw almost a couple dozen people jump before us and my nerves had time to relax to the idea that I would be following. Everyone’s reaction to the jump was different, some silenced by their terror and others shrieking loud enough to echo miles down the canyon. We laughed taking note of the varying postures too; jumpers would dive gracefully or awkwardly tumble forward and swingers were stiff as a board or frantically kicking their legs as an attempt to control what looked like an endless free fall. My turn was up, my harness was tight, and I was ready. I walked out onto what I imagined as a pirate’s plank, waiting to be blindfolded and pushed into a sea of crocodiles. But fortunately there were no crocs, no blindfold, only a 160 meter drop, a 6 second free fall, and a 150 km per hour swing of a 240 meter arch. Only. It went by faster than I could say ‘Go Team’ and before I knew it I was gliding over the rocky canyon with the Bhote Kosi River roaring underneath me. My arms and legs immediately fanned open to welcome the fresh breeze and my heart felt pleased to have passed the test. I’ve never felt anything like it and I can’t wait to experience that feeling again!

The rest of the day was perfect – a great lunch, hot shower, meeting new friends from all corners of the world, and making a mile in my “Water for Elephants” novel. Dinner that night was delicious, but even more enjoyable was the glass of red and card game that followed.

Sunday we packed up and headed out to raft a few kilometers down the Bhote Kosi. We were warned that because Nepal was just moving out of the dry season the rafting would be unpredictable. I didn’t realize unpredictable meant terrifying! We had three rafts out on the water along with three small single kayakers. The landscape was unreal, again I was awestruck by the beauty surrounding me at all angles. In our boat there was Tess and I, two English girls who were also volunteers (both at a hospital and doing a trekking clinic, one a med-student and the other pre-med), two guys from Lebanon, and our river guide, Ram. Right away we realized the implication of being on the river too early before the monsoon…the rocks! If we weren’t working hard to dodge the rocks we were working hard to redistribute our weight so we could get off the rocks we had high-centered on or wedged between. At one point, we rushed into a vertical rock at such a speed that our raft had no choice but to parallel itself to the rock, in turn rotating our raft perpendicular to the river before flipping over in what felt like slow motion. Thankful for safety meetings (and for actually paying attention to this one) when I surfaced from underneath the water and realized I was trapped underneath the boat, I didn’t panic. I was choking on water so I waited until I could take in a big, deep breath before I dove underwater and swam in the direction I believed was upstream towards the riverbank, until I knew I had cleared the raft. When I came up I saw all of my boatmates safely at shore. I was okay but still shaken up at the thought of being dragged underneath the raft and swept down current into an obstacle course of rocks! I much prefer to jump off a 160m bridge and have a fabricated sense of unsafety than flip a raft into a rocky river with a feeling of genuine concern for my life. All was good in the end, even laughable when we reached one bend in the river that the kayakers deemed too dangerous to go through so we got out and walked on the riverside for a distance before getting back into our rafts. Thank you Nepal for yet another weekend of adventure mixed with just the right amount of danger.

Pashupatinath Temple

After our meeting with Maite Nepal, we stopped at Pashupatinath temple. I was greeted by a Sadhu (holy man) who was sporting dreadlocks, a loin cloth and red and white paint stripes and he joyfully faceted a red tikka on my forehead. Pashupati is Nepal’s most important Hindu temple, known as a powerhouse of spiritual energy. Shiva is worshipped at this temple as the lord of the beasts, one of the many forms this Hindu god takes. One of the most significant aspects of the area is the Bagmati River as many Nepalis are cremated along the bank side overlooked by the temple. Pashupatinath is the Nepali equivalent of the Varanasi on the sacred River Ganges. While we walked around admiring the stupas and collections of sadhus gathering on the steps, there was a funeral pyre burning on the riverside and another beside it, the body wrapped in shrouds waiting to be lit. It was at first startling to see such an open air and public funeral proceeding, but it was peaceful to see the wooden platform covered in flowers, offerings and roaring flames. The family scattered around the sacred place in silence while onlookers quietly observed, everyone contemplating mortality and the cultural and religious traditions of death. In Hindu culture the eldest son must be the one to light the funeral pyre of his parent. This is actually one of many reasons why women are under pressure to give birth to a boy and girls are negatively discriminated against, as this ritual is of utmost importance in the culture and cannot be performed by a daughter. After a family member passes, it is also customary for the next-of-kin to wear only white for an entire year after their loss, signifying mourning. I’ve noticed women in particular wearing white kurta salwars and sarees, sometimes the most beautiful garments I’ve seen embellished with beads, embroidery and veils.

This week Nepal also celebrated their New Year – Happy 2068! It’s bizarre, I have to say, to see calendars and memorandums marking that we’ve just entered into the month of January, almost 57 years from now. The occasion is celebrated with a unique festival in Bhaktapur where one man continues to single-handedly keep the tradition alive by his willingness to have a long rod pierced through his tongue while thousands of people dance around him offering thanks to the gods and well wishes for the New Year. For the holiday, three of us made our way to “Freak Street” - the tourist hub of Kathmandu back in the 60s and 70s when foreigners first started infiltrating the country for trekking. It’s historically known for the colorful restaurants, abundance of hash, and hippy frequenters, and as we observed first-hand is the place to go to scope out where the expats hang out. We found one such restaurant and it was an experience to say the least. Friday night I wanted to spend some time outside of the office with my coworker and her son, both who I adore, and who deserved to be spoiled a little. Her sister’s daughter and Tess joined us as well and the four of us met at the cinema at Civil Mall to see Rio 3D. None of us had any idea such a Western and modern place existed here and I also didn’t realize it would be such a treat for the kids! We bought popcorn for them and they bought jeeris for us (a treat that’s soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and dripping in syrup…and you’re absolutely right, it is the most delicious treat I’ve ever had!). Everyone had an absolutely perfect evening and I’ve never met such gracious, sweet people in my life. We went straight home after the movie because the next day was going to be a big one…

Anuradha Koirala named CNN Hero

The morning of Monday the 11^th I headed to Maite Nepal for a meeting that was arranged for me to learn more about their organization and their trafficking aid programs. My coworker at WSPG and I arrived to the gated entrance of the compound and checked in with the security booth before being permitted to pass through the white and gold painted gates. I peaked my nose into the adjacent courtyard where I saw the organization’s daycare and about a dozen children were playing jump rope and coloring with chalk. There was a parking pad inside the entrance with two private ambulances, for what I assume were to transport rescued girls from brothels to the hospices the organization runs. Maiti Nepal has two hospices, one in Kathmandu and one in Jhapa district, where they provide holistic care for the children and women who are terminally ill from AIDS or other diseases that require palliative care as well as care and support for survivors who have been outcast by their families because of their infection or drug addiction. Several beautiful buildings surrounded the entrance in a semi-circle and after checking in at another reception desk we were led to one of the buildings and greeted by a man dressed in a sharp suit and a warm smile. Seated in his office, I explained how I was volunteering with Women Security Pressure Group for a couple of months, that I had recently completed a BA in Psychology and that I was planning on obtaining a Masters degree in human rights or human rights law with a career focus on helping women. I told him I had a strong interest in learning more about girl trafficking and how their organization manages to make a difference in Nepal. He was very learned and had a Bachelor degree in sciences, a Masters degree in sociology and development as well as a law degree, and he openly and willingly shared with me background information on the organization, their major programs and projects, their international support, and some of his perspectives on the difficulty of their work and the progress they anticipate.

Maite Nepal was founded by Anuradha Koirala, a strong woman who was on a mission to protect Nepali girls and women from being trafficked into the flesh trade. Before forming the organization in 1993, she started out offering personal loans of Rs. 1000 ($20 US) to female beggars and prostitutes in Kathmandu so they could set up a produce or candy stall and reshape their lives. Now Maiti Nepal focuses on preventing girls from being trafficked into forced prostitution, rescuing flesh victims from brothels, rehabilitating girls and women, and helping with criminal investigations and legal battles against traffickers and brothel owners. The population aided by Maiti Nepal involves a wide array of victims, including sexually abused girls, abandoned children, potential victims of trafficking, destitute women, prisoner’s children, returnees from Indian brothels, girls and children affected with HIV and Hepatitis B and intercepted girls. The most accurate translation of “Maiti” signifies a girl’s real family, which is what the organization has come to represent for so many girls.

Their prevention programs are trail-blazing - they set up prevention houses in the rural districts where girls are at highest risk for being sold to a trafficker because of their level of poverty, illiteracy and the remoteness of their village. The staff members at Maite Nepal basically enter into their homes and recruit young girls as part of an “anti-trafficking safety network” and establish surveillance systems as well as empowerment and skill training to at-risk girls. They can house the girls for 4-6 months where they receive counseling, training on income-generating skills, health care education, non-formal education and information on girl trafficking and what type of people and false promises to be suspicious of. In addition, the prevention homes encourage the girls to become social activists and leaders for child’s rights and women’s rights themselves and encourage mobilization among the newly empowered girls.

Maite Nepal is set up at randomized border posts across the Indo-Nepal border, where they scan the traffic crossing back and forth, looking for suspicious persons with young girls or traffickers at large. They really truly take matters into their own hands, as it’s become apparent not enough is being done on the government’s end. The organization hires many of the girls they rescue from brothels as employees after they receive medical help, counseling and training, and these girls are placed at the border posts as who would be more likely to spot a trafficker than an ex-victim? They can intervene and rescue as many as 15 girls per day at these border posts alone. The rehabilitation programs provide the girls and women with non-formal education on health, laws and basic reading and writing, as well as skill-based training such as hairdressing, beautician, floriculture, advanced sewing and baking, as well as help with job placements or assistance with entrepreneurial ventures, so they can generate an income and provide for themselves once no longer housed at the shelter. The prevention and rehabilitation homes are thorough and expansive because Maite Nepal understands that rescuing the girls can be the easy part, its keeping them from returning that is the challenge. Girls who return to their communities after being in the sex trade are stigmatized by the society and are often not accepted back into their family. They can often suffer from drug dependences as well as threats from pimps that unfortunately, without assistance like what is offered by Maite Nepal, leads them to return to the brothel once they’ve escape.

I was told that one of the major challenges is facing the expectations that the international world has of the success of the programs. Local and international organizations expect a rapid return, demonstrated by quick results such as high arrests of traffickers, high numbers of successful interference at the border, and effective, long-lasting rescue missions. What must be understood is that time is required, not every success or fail is cut and dry, and the key to making a substantial difference at curbing girl trafficking in Nepal is the sustainability and persistence of the organization and their programs. I’m very thankful I had the opportunity to visit Maite Nepal and it definitely had (and continues to have) my mind and racing.

Two major causes have contributed to my personal and professional feelings of empowerment in the past 7 weeks: volunteering at WSPG and reading “Half the Sky” by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Two married New York Times journalists co-researched and wrote this life-changing book recording personal anecdotes and jarring statistics on turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide. They believe the global central moral challenge of the 21st century is gender equality, as was slavery in the 19th century and totalitarianism in the 20th century. In the past fifty years, more girls have been killed precisely because they were girls, than men have been killed in all of the battles of the 20th century. In China, 39,000 baby girls die annually because parents don’t give them the same medical attention boys receive in the first year of life, for example taking a boy to the hospital when he is sick but waiting it out if a girl falls ill. There are 107 males for every 100 females in the Chinese population, also in part because of ultrasounds being used to determine gender (although now illegal). In the Muslim world, “bride burning” occurs every two hours and is employed to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so the man can remarry. In India, girls ages one to five are 50% more likely to die than boys the same age (because they are less likely to be vaccinated, less likely to be fed if there is a food shortage, etc.) causing an Indian girl to die from gender discrimination every four minutes.

Human trafficking, also known as the flesh trade, is an enormous concern for Nepal whose girls and women are sold into Indian brothels. There are 2-3 million prostitutes in India, half of which are enslaved and working unwillingly. There tends to be this twisted rationale in the more sexually conservative societies (India, Pakistan, Iran) that because young men rarely sleep with their girlfriends until marriage, it’s therefore acceptable for them to relieve their sexual frustrations with enslaved prostitutes. This keeps the society harmonious because the young men find satisfaction, the upper class girls keep their virtue, and only the poor, low-caste, uneducated girls from rural areas are sacrificed. Apparently a cycle many people in the society are willing to turn a blind eye to for the so-called “better good”. Girls can be sold into brothels as young as 8 or 9 years old so the owners can ensure a good price from customers for their virginity once they reach puberty. The age of trafficked girls is also devastatingly low in part because customers prefer younger girls hoping they are less likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS. Enslaved girls are often kept locked up in a room in the brothel for 10-15 hours per day, servicing 10 or more customers daily. They receive no pay, barely enough food, and if they complain or resist in any way they are beaten, burned, humiliated and drugged. Some brothels even welcome pregnancies in the brothels, seeing it as an opportunity to breed a new generation of victims where the girls are raised as prostitutes and the boys as servants.

The targeted girls are usually from rural areas where the families are naive and so desperate for money that when a stranger comes along promising to give the girl a prosperous job in the city as a maid or at a fruit stand to be able to send money home, the families agree. Even worse, a family member (uncle, brother, parent), will intentionally sell their own daughter to a trafficker out of desperation. Nepali girls are trafficked into India, usually Kolkata, across the open border and are valued for the lighter skin, docility and inability to speak the local language, thereby decreasing their chance of escape. The journalist, Kristof, asked a border patroller why they were only looking for terrorists, terror supplies and pirated goods and not trafficked girls, and he replied that prostitution is inevitable and that poor girls are sacrificed so order is maintained in society and the “good girls” are kept safe. The poor girls being peasant, uneducated, country-side Nepali girls and the good girls being middle-class Indian girls.

As a side note, I think it is critical to acknowledge the difference between sex workers in general and forced prostitution and I really appreciated Half the Sky taking the time to discuss this. Many sex workers in other countries, like America, Japan and Brazil, are not truly enslaved (although there is still an argument to be had over their lack of choice in economic desperation). The girls I’m referring to, the conservative estimate of 3 million worldwide, do not have a choice. They are enslaved in the sex trade. They are taken from their homes and locked up in a room to be raped for someone else’s profit. They are beaten and humiliated until they have no self esteem, no self worth and barely a desire to live. They are drugged with methamphetamines so they will concede to perform sexual acts and develop drug dependencies so they will be likely to survive outside of the brothel. Even while it can appear to foreigners that they are willing to work and are free to leave, they are living in fear of not only torture and threats but of what the world outside holds for them because they have been convinced their families will never take them back for the sins they have committed. As Kristof and WuDunn put it, “complying with the brothel owner out of terror, fear and shattered self esteem does not signify consent”.

I agree with the authors of Half the Sky and their opinion that the legalize-and-regulate model of the sex trade just doesn’t work well in countries where prostitution is coerced. Governance is poor, officials are corrupt, and the legalization tends to act as a front for a parallel illegal business for trafficking young girls and enslaving women. Countries have adopted different approaches to tackling the issue, including the Sonagachi Project in the red-light district of Kolkata, India, the “big-stick” approach in Mumbai, India, the legalize-and-regulate model in the Netherlands and the criminalization of the purchase of sexual services in Sweden. While the Sonagachi regulation project in Kolkata has received praise for curbing the spread of AIDS in the area, in contrast to Mumbai’s crackdown on brothels following international pressure, the results are interesting. Mumbai’s brothels were historically worse than Kolkata’s, but now the central red light district has seen a drop to approximately 6 thousand prostitutes down from 35 thousand previous to the crackdown, where Kolkata’s numbers have remained unchanged. In comparison, while in Mumbai it may unfortunately be more difficult to provide medical attention to prostitutes and monitor HIV numbers, it has also made prostitution less profitable for brothel owners there. Many aid workers deny Kolkata’s superficial success and claim the project has been a front for illegal trafficking and that the regulations in place for condom use, fair pay and monitoring of underage girls is simply an illusion to outsiders. I admire the philosophy behind Sweden’s approach which was adopted in 1999 by criminalizing the purchase of sexual services but not the sale, therefore charging a man paying for sex but not punishing the prostitute. This model has an understanding of the prostitute as more of a victim than a criminal. This approach, in contrast to the legalization model in Amsterdam, has been more successful in reducing trafficking and forced prostitution and the number of prostitutes in the first 5 years of its enforcement dropped 41%, making Sweden a less attractive destination for traffickers. Accordingly, Amsterdam has yet to show evidence that STDs and HIV has declined in legalized brothels and it is known the sale of underage girls and forced prostitution continues despite.

In economically poor countries it is difficult to focus on changing laws as they are often ubiquitous considering prostitution is usually illegal (eg. India and Cambodia). The overarching perspective in Half the Sky is that by attracting negative media attention, publicized crackdowns, and enforcing continued international reporting on how governments are tackling trafficking (TIP Report - Trafficking in Persons Report), governments and officials will be forced to decide that the bribes paid by brothel owners are no longer worth the international embarrassment and hassle. This is the case in Cambodia after the extreme negative coverage of Svay Pak, and the numbers of young virgin girls available and the ease with which they can be obtained is decreasing. In addition, there must be strong programs in place by NGOs that work on the prevention, rehabilitation, education, awareness and advocacy in girl trafficking.