The awardees had a packed schedule from delivering public lectures to meeting several organizations, academic institutions and the local government activities in Malina, which allowed them to share their experiences to diverse audience. [break]
Though Sunita´s limited knowledge of English language posed a hurdle in her attempt to explain about her organization at the ceremony on Tuesday, she managed to inspire and move the listeners who gave her a thundering applause at the end.
Shakti Sumuha being the only organization established and run by trafficking survivors in the whole world, her story struck the right chord with many.
What even more engaged the audience was a short video "transforming from victims to survivors to leaders," Shakti Samuha´s journey that had captured the struggle.
In 1996, widespread police raids resulted in the rescue of 500 girls and women from Indian brothels of Mumbai. Among them were 148 Nepali girls and women who could, however, make it back to their homeland only six months after their rescue. Fifteen of the girls established the organization 17 years ago even though neither the society nor the government was still ready to accept them.
The award, which is considered equal to Asia´s Nobel Prize, carries a purse of US$ 50,000, certificates and medallion. The organizers said that Shakti Samuha was honored for “transforming their lives in service to other human trafficking survivors, their passionate dedication towards rooting out a pernicious social evil in Nepal, and the radiant example they have shown to the world in reclaiming the human dignity that is everybody´s right, including the abused women and children.”
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