Story:

Nirmala was the only daughter born to a very poor family of farmers in rural Nepal. There was not a single day when there was enough food for all of them. Some days, she would go to bed hungry. At the age of 10, out of desperation, she ran away with friends to Kathmandu and eventually started to work in a carpet factory. Her hands became bloody and bruised, but she was never paid a single rupee. A GoodWeave inspector found Nirmala and brought her to our transit home for rescued children. When she arrived, Nirmala didn’t even have shoes on her feet. Our social worker and counselor, Rajendra, remembers her early days at our center. “We were focused on making her laugh and play. And slowly, she started coming back to normal.” With GoodWeave support, now 21, graduated a topnotch secondary school in Nepal (our partner the Laboratory School). After years of missed classes, she caught up to her peers and now works as a dance teacher for young children.