Running for Lotus Outreach

By Dan Leak

Firstly thank you so much to everyone who supported me throughout my somewhat amateur and haphazard training for my run last Saturday. I was touched by the generosity of those who sponsored me, gave me advice and took the time to help spread awareness of what I was doing. This generosity only confirmed to me what an inspiring organisation Lotus Outreach is and the very evident dedication its staff and supporters have is testament to that.

Erika asked if I would write about my fundraising run and what inspired me to do it in aid of Lotus Outreach. As I presume you are reading this on the Lotus Outreach website, there is no need for me to repeat again what amazing work this charity does. That speaks for itself and is well documented here.

Dan at Silbury Hill in 2010

My own personal interest, however, stems from a meeting of two slightly different streams; from wanting in some small way to offer support to the vast vision of its original founder, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche as well as having had the urge for a number of years to do something practical to help combat the outrage of human trafficking.

A few years ago, in Nepal, I came across a shop in Thamel which is run by an organization which provides support for young women who had been caught up in sex trafficking by teaching them skills to make handicrafts and then providing employment in the production of these goods. This inspired me so much. I bought a whole load of goods to sell in England, but it also set my mind into making plans to attempt to take the law into my own hands and to go to a brothel in the infamous GB road in Delhi, where I’d heard some girls can end up, and ‘rescue’ a girl and support her education and welfare. A terribly naive and ill thought out plan, which could have compromised everyone’s safety. Whilst with hindsight I’m glad it never came into fruition, I think it came from a reasonably good motivation.

So still having retained that motivation but having shelved a little of the naiveté, I find that the work of Lotus Outreach really inspires me, and felt drawn to helping with fundraising. I can support a cause I feel strongly drawn to support, knowing that the projects that Lotus Outreach funds and organizes are well thought out, sustainable, safe and truly beneficial. Qualities that my impulsive idea was missing.

Thus I was inspired to raise money for Lotus Outreach by running 33 miles across the hills of the South West of the UK last Saturday. It was an enjoyable day, despite having a few 'moments', an ‘ultra’ race across an exquisitely beautiful part of the country, steeped in Neolithic history. The Marlborough Downs is the location of key settlements and sites built in the ancient times of Goddess and Lunar worship. One plausible theory is that various sites around that area represented a composite figure of the Goddess and at different parts of the year, festivals would be held at sites representing different parts of her form, such as Avebury as the heart, Silbury Hill as the belly and Tan Hill as the head. I don’t want to get too fanciful here, but there was something poignant about running across this very feminine landscape in order to raise money for a charity that aims to protect and nurture vulnerable women and children. Below are a couple of photos of parts of the route.

Between two fundraising pages on two sites, First Giving and Just Giving, people have been kind enough to donate around £1000/$1600 dollars so far which is around 70% of my target. Thank you. The pages are open to taking donations for the next couple of months, so it would be great if the target could be reached. Just Giving is for sterling, and First Giving is for dollars.

Milk Hill







The Marlborough Downs



Interested in planning your own run for Lotus Outreach? Contact info@lotusoutreach.org or visit http://lotusoutreach.org/run.php to get started.

Dining for Women San Diego Raises Funds for Trafficking and VAW Victims in Cambodia

On May 7, 2011, Lotus Outreach and Dining for Women San Diego hosted a special fundraiser at the Pimento Fine Art Gallery in Little Italy, San Diego. The event featured Southeast Asian cuisine and as well as an exhibition of original works by San Diego artist, Jill Joy. Jill generously donated an original work of art for a raffle, as well as 100% of print sales that evening.

The event collectively raised over $800 to provide critical aftercare to victims of human trafficking, rape and domestic violence residing at a safe shelter near the Thai-Cambodian border. Aftercare services include trauma therapy, skills training, start-up financial assistance, small business grants and more. Funds raised at the event, for example, will provide 16 women with enough money to cover their rent, food and other expenses in their life beyond the shelter while they search for employment or get their business ventures underway.

A recent example of the impact of the reintegration project, Pich’s story underscores the degree of exploitation that women and girls face in Cambodia. A survivor of sex trafficking and torture, the project has given Pich the support and resources she needs to look forward to a new life.

To learn more about Dining for Women and the selected Lotus Outreach project, please click here.

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Gender bias transcends class and caste in India

By Glenn Fawcett

Executive Director of Field Operations

Over the past couple of weeks and since my first blog on this subject more Indian Census data has been coming to light about the practice of prenatal sex determination and the issue has remained one of the most written about and reported in the Indian media.

A mother with her two sons

A wry twist in the census data reported that while Haryana, the state in which our work area Mewat is located, has turned in some of the worst gender ratios in the country, rural Mewat's ratio is among the best. This was reflected in a The Tribune article dated April 5: “Mewat, considered to be the most backward area in the state, has the lowest literacy rate of 56.1 per cent but the best sex ratio of 906 women per 1000 men.” The state itself is ranked lowest in the country on that count with 877 girls per 1000 boys!  The article further reveals that Gurgaon, the shining IT capital of north India, with one of highest female literacy figures in the state at 77.64%, has one of the worst sex ratios at 853 per 1000.

The data appears to support the case that more literate, well-to-do urban families are exercising their preference for boy children, but I suspect there are plenty of examples of villages like the Gurha village in Jhajjar district of Haryana, population 3,000. Locals there blame the alarming sex ratio of 774 girls for every 1,000 boys (for ages 0-6, the lowest in not only Haryana but all of India) on the widespread availability of ultrasound services and the lack of regulation of its use for sex determination. The argument is not so clearly defined between urban and rural as it may appear.

While there is a divide between largely unlettered rustics and literate urbanites, I suggest their reasons for preferring boys are not much different – in Indian society the risk and burden of raising a girl is greater, no matter what caste or economic class.  An urban family may have to pay an arm and a leg in dowry to get a “good, educated boy with earning prospects.” Villagers will not be economically impacted to the same degree, but in terms of keeping the girl “safe” their worries are greater. Villages are notorious for elopements, which could ruin the family name. At the very least, the young lovers are excommunicated from their family and community for all time. The most extreme cases end up in double murders of the children, perpetrated by and with consent of their families.

Thus the problem is much greater than economics, education and lifestyle. In subsequent posts, I will suggest policy solutions  as well as discuss what Lotus Outreach is doing on the ground to change pervasive attitudes against women.

Precious and equal

"Red Light" puts sexual slavery on display

By Rachel Curtis, Development Manager

This Thursday, LO’s executive director, Erika Keaveney, will present the horrors of child sexploitation and trafficking to the national chapter of Dining for Women, a philanthropic group that has selected our Consoling Through Counseling aftercare project as their featured initiative for April. Pictures will be powerful, and there is no shortage of statistics to convey the shocking reality faced by beneficiaries at our safe shelter in Sisophon, Cambodia: there are an estimated 100,000 prostitutes in Cambodia, 70,000 of whom were forced into the trade. Worse still, 40,000 of them are less than 16 years old.

While these figures send chills down one’s spine, short of traveling to Cambodia the grim universe to which these women and girls belong may still feel remote. This May and June, those who wish to get closer to the gritty realm of sexual slavery can do so via a heart-wrenching documentary called Red Light, which will be aired on Showtime.

Narrated by actress Lucy Liu, Red Light was filmed over the course of four years and follows two Nobel Peace Prize nominees, and several child slaves they hope to help. Cambodian parliament member Mu Sochua and former sex slave Somaly Mam navigate the treacherous innards of a country still reeling from the trauma of genocide, of a collective psyche that is battered and self-destructive. First-hand accounts of abuse and coercion are supplemented with footage smuggled from inside brothels, where young girls wear numbers and are shuffled before customers like cattle.

It is a long and heavy 72 minutes. But the bravery and indignation of girls like Srey Peuv, whose mother sold her to a brothel at the age of eight, and Reena, who rescued her younger sister from forced prostitution and marched relentlessly until she had - against all odds – the perpetrators put behind bars, are blinding points of light in the darkness.

These bright spots are the force behind Lotus Outreach. It is their courage and tenacity which inspire us to venture into the harshest, most desperate places we can find, knowing there is always something beautiful that can bloom from within.

Girls at our safe shelter in Sisophon

Celebrate! What?

By Anjum, a beneficiary of the Blossom Bus
(transcribed/translated by Suraj Kumar, LEARN Program Officer)



Anjum (left) with her classmate Farana

My name is Anjum and I am 16 years old. I am the first girl along with my classmate Farana (who also goes to school with me on the Blossom Bus) in the history of my village Babupur in Mewat, Haryana to reach grade 10 in a school. I am told that this is an achievement. How? My parents are not much happy about this achievement as they are happier with the money they are expecting from the harvest being done. Nobody in the village congratulated me. I do not know how to celebrate and with whom. The girls of my age are busy harvesting and helping their mothers. Not many girls from my village go to school and none go to a school after grade five as we do not have an upper primary school in the village. I know most of the girls my age are married and most of them have kids at 16 in Mewat. And nobody is complaining because every parent is trying to get rid of their daughters by marrying them off as early as possible as we are considered vulnerable.

A question comes to my mind when I do not find any other girls from my village to celebrate with. Who is responsible for this situation where no girl has studied till grade 8 or 10 in my village? Parents? Teachers? School authorities or the girls themselves are blamed by some parents. I think everyone. The parents never took any initiative to send the girls to school beyond grade five, away from the village because it is not safe. But is it not unsafe at home or when working in the fields alone and unprotected? Is it not true that girls, if educated, are better prepared to protect themselves? The parents are escaping from their responsibility by putting the blame on the society in Mewat. It requires courage to stand apart from the masses and do something which seems to be difficult, but is better.

The lethargic and insensitive teachers taking advantage of the attitude of the parents also discourage girls from coming to school, as more students means more work for some teachers who only want to come to school to mark attendance to justify their salaries and no parents are complaining. We have some very good teachers but the bad teachers are spoiling the atmosphere in the schools and discouraging girls. We have lethargic higher authorities as I have never seen a Block Education Officer or District Education Officer coming to our school and patting our backs for coming to a school four kilometers away from our homes.

We are never taught anything apart from our books. Never encouraged to play games and never given the liberty to do something other than reading a book and do something we like the most. That is, talking to my friends and sharing my thoughts, like my desire to fly on an airplane so I can see my home from the sky.

Anjum and Farana studying at Anjum's house

Then one day I found a reason to celebrate. Celebrate with my 45 school mates who are eagerly waiting for the Blossom Bus every morning, travelling with me on the Blossom Bus to school and they are also like me very happy to achieve something which never happened in our village. This was the day when we all were given a report card showing that we are all promoted to next classes.

We all had the opportunity to celebrate with the person who took initiative and stood apart [Project Director Suraj Kumar]. Mr. Kumar motivated our parents to send us to school by providing us protection in Blossom Bus; he motivated our teachers to give some thought to sports and recreation; he motivated the village elders, who decide the rules for the society, by inviting them to the school to distribute sweaters to all the girls in the school in acute winters. I could see some shyness in the eyes of the elders when they were distributing sweaters. Maybe they were thinking that this is the right thing, maybe a difficult but better option.

My mother says good things are always difficult to achieve. I know that Suraj, who took all the courage to challenge this lethargic and insensitive system, was threatened by more than 20 teachers who look more like goons than the GURU in the very school where he is doing a very good work by showing a right path for the education of girls of Mewat. I also know that he never gave up under the threat and rather made the teachers who threatened him in a closed room apologize to him before the whole school, all students and elders of the village in a function to distribute sweaters. This has strengthened my belief that ‘Truth Prevails’.

We all 46 girls pray to GOD for Lotus Outreach and its officers and salute the Blossom Bus. God Bless Blossom Bus!