Kissed my blonde haired blue eyed little miss on the head again just now and sent her back to bed. It’s the 4th time she’s bounced back out to see me again tonight.

Relentless and all fizz and bubble as she’s realised that Christmas is not so far away and wish lists are in order.

She handed me a little folded note with the latest updated dreams scribbled down in lime green pen and swanned back into bed .. dreamy-eyed and full of joyful expectation.

I unfold the little slip of paper and read.

  • Glitter please the white one that looks like snow.
  • A bone for Gypsy (her dog ) .. a really big one mum!
  • A new skateboard please, maybe purple or blue.

Relieved I pop it down, that’s easy enough.

Although there are 4 little misses under this roof and each has her own Christmas dreams.

Listening to the low hum of girls chatting instead of sleeping I settle in for the evening. Reclining back in the armchair my mind wanders from my own babes to another mother home.

9382km as the crow flies from where I sit .. at the base of the majestic Himalayan alps and bordering on India’s mystical doorstep lies Nepal. Bucket list destination for hundreds the world over.

Steeped in mystique, ancient culture and incredible natural beauty lies this little country.

My mind wanders through the cities with its restaurants and tea shops ..streets lined with statues of gods, deities and prayer flags, billboards and the hum of traffic and onto spice markets then further west out to the countryside.

Here cattle bells ding and the earthen aroma of village life wafts through the air.

There are hilly landscapes dotted with crops. Huts and livestock. Little villages spring up here and there along the roadside. The humble home yards are strung with makeshift washing lines hung with every colour of cloth imaginable.

My mind wanders further into the other mammas home ..its a traditionally built mudbrick with its straw roof and little cook stove in the corner of the main room that serves as the kitchen as well.

Here this mamma, whos not so different than myself, raise her little daughters. She’s trying to make ends meet too. She knows its good for children to go to school but more often then not her girls are needed to help the family and earn a living. Education seems is only for the better off. Here there is a dark-haired love who has her wish list but she isn’t dreaming of Christmas gifts, she’s wishing for a bit more dinner .. full bellies aren’t a thing around here.

Second, on her list is a better job .. maybe she could go abroad and work .. earning more than she ever could here in the village .. then she could make enough so her mamma and sisters are taken care of. Have enough to eat. Maybe her sisters could finish school then too.

This is a pretty common wish among young ones in this community.

She’s the same age as one of mine. At just 14 my little blonde babe loves to play guitar and loses herself in books regularly. This little dark-haired love, however, is illiterate just like her mamma. The best she can hope for is to be a dancer or house help in one of the bigger cities and the thought of better paying work away from this little mountain village is so exciting.

But she’s 14 years old .. not all grown up .. 14, still a child !! She doesn’t know the danger.

My heart cracks. She’s not mine .. but she matters just as much.

When the smartly dressed man and a lady came to tell her mamma that they could get her daughter a job she was so excited.

Mumma was nervous at first but they promise her a better life for her girl so how could she refuse.. finally some hope in a life that’s been full of hardship.

This opportunity seems to promise freedom from poverty, dignity, hope .. but it is wolf in sheep’s clothing. A trap, a rouse. A lie so big that this family will never be the same.

But this isn’t an unusual story, it is a well-worn path in a business almost as old as time itself.

Human trafficking is the fastest-growing black-market business in the world.

Statistics tell us that there are more people in slavery, children in slavery, now then there has ever been in all of human history.

Read that again, slowly …

More ……now ……then ……ever ……before.

1.5 million are at risk annually.

71%of these are women and children.

71% of these are someone’s daughters.

They are our friends, our sisters, daughters, the little girl next door.

There is a huge profit margin to be made on the sale of Girls, after all, “You can sell a bag of drugs once but you can sell a person multiple times”.

Once successfully trafficked out of the country only around 2% are ever rescued 2% of the 20 thousand estimated trafficked persons that go missing every year.

These are our daughters and this is our watch.

What are we doing? How can this be?!

My mind stops here. The problem is so mammoth it rivals Mount Everest itself in stature.

When you don’t know where to start …start with what you know.

All I know is that when its darkest Light is the only source that still breaks through and chases shadows away.

As a mamma …it doesn’t get much darker than this.

We start by bringing the light.

Light is Exposure.

Education and advancement.

We must turn the light on for these daughters.

The open border that runs all 1758km ( approx. ) between India and Nepal is one of the busiest human trafficking highways in the world…

#EVERYDAUGHTERMATTERS is co-labouring with other NGOs and border patrols to educate people to stand guard at border checkpoints. The goal is to rescue these daughters before they are taken out of the country.

It’s a two-fold benefit. Its enables rescue but also builds cases to catch and prosecute the traffickers themselves. Stopping them in their tracks.

Rescue and prevention all in one.

This is how we turn the light on.

Start small and watch it grow…

The border is some 1758 km long and open wide .. there are roughly 23 checkpoints currently for trade purposes. 7 of which have trained staff to identify at-risk travellers and intervene.

This is a beginning … but more is needed …

Just as tiny sparks start wildfires …

No amount is too small, it all counts and every daughter matters…

Like, Share, Tag, Post, Donate.

Raise the roof if you must ..and you must!

This is our watch. These are our daughters.

What would you do if she was yours?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
– Edmund Burk

Silence is compliance.

Speak up. Speak out.

#EverydaughterMatters

Article written by Aimee McCloskey