For many of us, our childhood is a time of joy, innocence and the feeling of safety. But for thousands of young girls, it brings danger — the risk of child labour, child marriage, and brutal exploitation.
Across Nepal and around the world, girls are forced to grow up too soon. Trapped by poverty, inequality and violence, they are denied the safety and opportunities every child deserves.
Can you make a special gift to help young girls keep themselves free from child labour and the crushing reality of child marriage?
Your generosity will help provide urgent safe spaces, counselling, and livelihood supports to young girls and women. It will provide young girls with options that will empower them to end child labour and to choose a better path than child marriage.
Tanuja was just a child when strangers arrived at her family’s home with false promises. Her father, desperate and poor, agreed to let her go, believing she’d receive an education and a chance of a better future. Instead, she was trapped in child labour, suffering years of violence, isolation, and abuse.
At 16, with help from another girl in the home, she escaped. But her homecoming was painful – her family barely recognised her. Later, Tanuja married young and had a daughter while still a teenager. Life remained hard.
Everything changed when she joined an ActionAid supported Safe Space in her village. There, she found support, training, and purpose. She’s now learning tailoring, planning a poultry business, and earning a living.
Tanuja and her daughter are building a new life full of hope.
“Without the group, I would still be living in the dark, alone, not understanding what I went through.” – Tanuja
Today, Tanuja is 21. She is healing, building a future, and determined to give her daughter a life free from exploitation.
Women and girls like Tanuja are leading change. But they need your support to keep going.
In Nepal and elsewhere around the world, ActionAid is working with young women like Tanuja so that they can build the futures that they and their communities deserve.
In Tanuja’s community, the local ActionAid Women’s Group provides a safe space for women and girls. Before the group formed, women had nowhere to go when they encountered domestic and gender-based violence. There was no voice to speak out against child marriage.
The Women’s Group offers a lifeline to women by:
Last year in Nepal, groups like this supported 29,560 women and over 6,000 children.
Donations from kind supporters like you will help fund all this – building Safe Spaces for survivors of gender-based violence and child marriage, and empowering women and girls to live safer, happier and more financially secure lives.
The gift you make today has never been more vital. Thank you.
