Film to showcase rippling impact of education on rural
Nepalese girls
By Michael SomerbyEBS ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
BIG SKY – Imagine, for a moment, the ground beneath your
feet begins to quiver. You exchange nervous glances with your family, who, like
you, work the terraced farmlands that canvas the foothills of the Nepalese
Himalayas, just as your ancestors have for generations.
As the tremors intensify, fear freezes you in place. It’s an
earthquake, nothing new for people that live along one of the world’s most
actively changing mountainous landscapes, but this one is different. The earth
begins to crumble beneath your feet. Landslides wipe out neighboring farms
right before your eyes, swallowing friends, neighbors, relatives and croplands like
some insatiable beast.
Suddenly, and without warning, you have nothing.
For many living in rural Nepal, this was the reality of
April 25, 2015, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake buckled the region, killing over
9,000 people and injuring some 22,000 more. In the cities like Kathmandu,
people frantically, mostly in vain, picked apart piles of crumbled buildings
for survivors. In the countryside, landslides and avalanches crushed loved
ones, with similarly futile rescue efforts to follow.
It would prove to be the worst natural disaster the region
faced in over eight decades, causing approximately $10 billion in damage to the
small Southeast Asian nation- roughly 50 percent of Nepal’s annual GDP.
Worse still, Nepal was already gripped by a troubling
phenomenon, the selling of girls and young women into indentured slavery and
sex work, but the financial turmoil that followed the 2015 Nepal earthquake exacerbated
the practice to offset individual losses.
Ramila’s village, complete with terraced agricultural developments. PHOTO COURTESY OF TSERINGS FUND
This was especially true in the countryside, where a lack of
physical and financial access to education perpetuates cycles of poverty and
people have virtually no options outside of subsistence farming.
Tsering’s Fund, while founded in the mid-90s, responded with
swift boots-on-the-ground work following the 2015 earthquake. The organization’s
original mission was to provide children of both genders, along with their
families, access to education, medical care and basic living assistance, but the
tragedy really focused the mission on girls and young women, the most at-risk
individuals in the region.
Students of Jyugal Boarding High School, smiling for the camera. PHOTO COURTESY OF TSERING’S FUND
According to the organization’s website, “[Tsering’s Fund
wants] to change the lives of Nepali children for the better. Although our
mission is to support both boys and girls from the poorest backgrounds who have
no parents or whose parents cannot afford school fees, it is clear that
cultural and economic factors are more likely to prevent girls from accessing
uninterrupted education throughout their childhood. The chronic
underdevelopment of Nepal will not be resolved until girls in Nepal have the
same opportunities as boys to pursue a quality education.”
Ramila, the film’s protagonist, and her mother. PHOTO COURTESY OF TSERING’S FUND
“Namaste Ramila,” a 13-minute film that will premiere at the
Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky on Aug. 21 at 7:00 p.m.,
highlights the experiences of six girls who were trafficked and the ways in
which education saved their lives.
You see, traffickers and families exercise loopholes in
Nepalese policy, which holds that a citizen can’t leave for work in an outside
nation until they reach 16 years of age. In rural communities, where birth
records are all but nonexistent, parents and traffickers will tell officials
their daughter or ward is of age, and the government officials are compelled to
believe them with no evidence to suggest otherwise.
The girls are then shipped to far away cities, like Delhi,
India, or those in several Arab nations, where they are subject to what is
essentially slave work, or in other cases, confined solely to the role of a
prostitute.
“The government officials have to take their word, but they
know what’s going on, and off [the girls] go to Delhi or to Middle East, often
into the sex world or labor,” said Pete Schmieding,
a dentist in Big Sky and Tsering’s Fund’s chairman and president. “We
spent a day with six girls that had been trafficked. The opening scene [of
“Namaste Ramila”] is an interview with two of these girls about their
experiences in Nepal. There’s just no opportunity.”
While it’s easy to become incensed with the actions of these
rural parents, often they too are duped by traffickers that promise education
and employment in faraway cities, believing their child will send money home
from honest work. Unfortunately, in many instances, they never see their child
again.
Filmmakers entering Ramila’s home in a remote Nepalese village. PHOTO COURTESY OF TSERINGS FUND
Tsering’s Fund’s shifted mission seeks to upend the cycles
of poverty and gross accounts of human suffering through education. By
providing a solid education, one that is founded on speaking English and
opening eyes to possibilities outside of those available in rural Nepal,
Tsering’s Fund volunteers find they are able to disrupt conventional beliefs, nefarious
social practices and myopic perspectives on what can be achieved in an
individual’s lifetime—particularly a woman’s.
For Schmieding and
other volunteer workers of Tsering’s Fund, the documentary is an opportunity to
further raise awareness for the cause and inspire activism.
“Child
trafficking is a huge issue, even in the United Sates, but most people never
see the practice on a personal level. But where we were filming was ‘ground
zero,’ this is where it happens in great numbers. It’s the real thing,” said Schmieding. “I want to raise awareness
about the issue and show what happens when you decide to raise a girl through
Tsering’s Fund. You get to see what your getting involved means to this family,
in human terms.”
In Big Sky, Montana, far from the nation where an estimated
20,000, minimum, girls are trafficked annually, it’s easy to feel detached from
the problem. However, all it takes is $600 a year to cover the annual costs of
a top-notch boarding school, including room and board, for a child, effectively
removing them from the circles where they are vulnerable to trafficking.
Naturally, the lasting outcomes from such an experience are
profound, and unlike many similar programs geared toward aiding children in
need around the world, contributions aren’t compiled into a single fund that is
then divvied up amongst the organization’s total needs, rather specified donations
are applied to a unique child. To cement the candor of the practice, the donor
is encouraged to establish a connection with said child, whether that means
choosing to correspond via a pen pal arrangement or even an in-person visit to
Nepal.
This directness is a hallmark of the organization, making
realized progress for contributors and donors a very discernable reward.
“We just want to educate these girls so they can be
independent and be leaders for their communities and families. There’s a cycle
of poverty that goes on in rural Nepal, there’s truly no escape,” said Schmieding. “They gain an awareness of
the world that helps them seek other places, other pursuits, and therefore
elevate their own communities.”
Members of the Big Sky
community are encouraged to join the volunteers of Tsering’s Fund, along with
the filmmakers of “Namaste Ramila,” for the free, eye-opening viewing of the
film at the WMPAC, where there will be opportunity to interact with volunteers
and organizers, for anyone seeking involvement in the cause.