This month, we have the opportunity to partner with Agape Missions, a local Nepal ministry that mainly works with women in the sex trafficking industry and kids that live on the streets or in the slums. They do an amazing job at bringing the women and children in and helping to restore their lives. Last week, we got a little glimpse of what it looks like to find women and help restore their lives.
If you walk through Kathmandu during the day, you will see the streets packed with tourists, shop owners trying to sell you their “unique items that they made by hand,” and so many smiling, friendly faces. But during the night, those same streets are filled with men walking around to different dance bars, looking to buy his nightly pleasure.
Here in Nepal, dance bars are not like a dance bar back in America where all can go to get down on the dance floor. Here, they are more like brothels where girls as young as 12 are put on stage and forced to dance. Most of the people that come to the dance bar are travelling men who are returning home and looking to spend all their money so they go home with an empty wallet. The girls go on stage to dance for a song and if a man likes what he sees, he will call the girl over to his table after she is done. The two of them cozy up together and make small talk. The men have the option to get the girl’s number to come pick her up after her shift is over so he can take her away for the night.
These girls come to working in these dance bars by several different ways. The most popular is that they are originally from the villages and these bar owners come and tell the girls that they can offer them a well-paying job or good education. They say yes without fully realizing what is about to happen to them. Then there are the girls that fully know what is going to happen but they still say yes because they can’t get money any other way. And there’s also the heartbreaking situation where parents force the girls to work there because they need extra income.
Dance bars are legally open according to the government until 11pm. However, they usually stay open until 1 or 2am. During these times of being illegally open, anything is allowed to happen at the dance bar.
One night for ministry, we set out to visit these dance bars for ourselves. As soon as I walked in, I noticed that the place was completely empty even though 9:30pm. Then a noticed a girl dancing on stage who couldn’t be older than 16. As hard as that was to see, that didn’t compare to what was about to happen. I’ve been reading and studying about sex trafficking ever since I found out about the Race so I knew all about it and that it is something that continues to happen everyday. Yet, it did not actually become reality to me until I saw an older white man, maybe late 50’s, walk into the bar, and immediately cuddle up with a young Nepali girl who is only 22. I kept my eye on her for the remaining of the hour and half that we were there. While the man was looking at her, she had a fake smile on and when he looked to the stage to watch the other girls dance, fake smile faded and you could easily see the misery come alive in her face. As we were getting ready to go because it was about to turn 11pm, the man took the young girl and escorted her towards the door.
This is where we came into the picture. A few girls from my group had gone to the bathroom and on the way back, they ran into the girl and started up a conversation with her. She said that she would love to meet up for coffee and talk more!
Over the past week, our girls have met up with this young girl and another girl that works at the same dance bar several times. They were so excited to hear that there is a very strong possibility of them getting out of this industry and starting to live the life God has planned for them.
Please continue to pray for these girls and our ministry host as they work together to get them out and that everything goes smoothly. Also, prayers for all the other girls who are stuck dancing and giving their bodies away to these strangers, whether they want to or not, prayers for the men who run these dance bars, and prayers for the men who come to spend every last rupee on these girls.
