I've been thinking about doing my final project on the older generation of our community- looking at how they are so excluded from the youth, put away in care homes and we wonder why they're so crazy! I see a lot of old people in the bus station and sometimes, they come up to me and start chatting straight away! I don't mind them doing so because most of the time, we end up having a lovely chat about their past and I just sit there listening to their life story!
I had been doing research and I came across some very interesting books about this photographer Tom wood and his two books called All Zones Off Peak and Bus Odyssey. Wood photographed people in and out of the bus over the years. I realised that from his collection of photos, most of the bus travellers are old people! I was so excited by this because I travel by bus everyday and I see old people EVERYWHERE! I also got told that in the next coming years, there will be a rise in the population of old people!
Well, whilst I was doing some extra "external" research for this project, I was going through some fashion blogs. This blogger Laxmi Ghotane caught my eye with one of her post where she's wearing a hand band that supports a very serious cause in Nepal.
"I am seen wearing I Love Nepal hand band. This hand band was handmade by the survivors of sexual trafficking. Every year a staggering number of around 20,000 Nepalese girls as small as 6 year old to women in their 20s + are exploited by sexual traffickers. These women and children mainly from poor village areas of Nepal are illiterate and easily lured by traffickers promising them with good paid jobs in the cities or even for marriage and sold to Indian brothels. Amidst all this human exploitation, there is one women who has shown true determination and dedication to end this inhumane trade. Her name is Anuradha Koirala. She founded Maiti Nepal ( a girl's maternal home or her mother's house) in 1993 after her own experience of domestic violence. Since then she has continuously fought against the large number of sexual traffickers with the help of Nepali Police Force and have rescued thousands of girls and women, given them a place to live, health care, education and skills to be independent. If you would like more information or would like to donate then click here! She also won the 2010 CNN Heroes Award.Me and my friends have created a Facebook group called Maiti Nepal UK which will give you information about our efforts to raise money and help our sisters back home. So please do not forget to join our group and contribute in saving the lives of innocent girls and women from being sexually trafficked."
After checking out the Maiti Nepal website and learning more about Anuradha Koirala, I was even more inspired. I knew I had to do my FML project on this issue! I scraped all my research I did about Old people and now I wanted to focus on this!
I have always been aware of the female abuse, the domestic violence and the sex trafficking that goes around the world. I read magazine articles about these issues, where real life people come forth with their stories. I always get affected emotionally by these stories even though I have never been involved in a situation like this myself and I have always wondered whether there are groups out there trying to wipe this cause but I have never actively searched thoroughly. So now that I am aware of this organisation, I am dyeing to do my part!
Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of people actively helping this organisation from the UK, even though there is a big community of Nepali people here. I wish to create an advertisement campaign in oder to raise awareness of this issue in the UK and hopefully soon there will be more Nepali people in near future contributing towards this amazing organisation! I am so excited to have found a live brief! The fact that it's happening and real, it motivates me towards making this a successful project! And also the fact that I am supporting a very good cause, even if they end up not using my work to advertise the organisation, I will still be very happy that I tried my part to raise awareness for an organisation that is doing something so special for all these innocent victims of sex trafficking and abuse in Nepal.
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