The Esther Benjamins Trust is a UK-registered charity which rescues and rehabilitates Nepali child trafficking victims, provides residential refuge to street children and dependents of prisoners and supports education programmes for deaf and disabled young people in Nepal.
Its two main programmes are PACT and CEDAR:
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PACT's focus is on the rescue and rehabilitation of Nepali children and young women who have been trafficked across the border to work in bonded labour in Indian circuses. Many of these children - primarily girls - were sold by their impoverished families for as little as £15 to trafficking agents who visited their villages. The girls were then sold to the circuses of India, where they are forced to work 18-hour days. Nearly all of the girls endure physical abuse; many are also sexually assaulted and raped.
After their rescue, any children who can be reunited with their families return home. Unfortunately, the majority would be immediately sold again (often into prostitution), or after anything up to 15 years in the circus have no family to return to. The Esther Benjamins Trust provides compassionate residential care to these children and young women, with a keen emphasis on psychological support, education, vocational training and employment creation to ensure their rehabilitation provides them with the opportunity to enjoy happy adult lives.
Art workshops are offered to older girls who are too scarred by their experiences to benefit from beginning a formal education. Many of the students from these courses go on to enjoy rewarding employment with a socially-responsible company, Himalayan Mosaics. Their work is commissioned by people all over the world, while any profits are invested into The Esther Benjamins Trust's efforts to fight child trafficking.
CEDAR is designed to assist street children, dependents of prisoners and at-risk siblings of existing trafficking victims through its residential refuges.
The children are encouraged to develop academically and socially so that they are equipped with the skills and resourcefulness to thrive upon their full reintegration into Nepali society.
The programme also supports education initiatives for deaf and disabled children and young people in Nepal, who are often denied any form of education and disregarded by society.