The committee members of WONDERWorks, co-founders Chulie Davey and Maxine Savidge, and Health Advisor DarinaWalsh, are among a team of long-term expats in Malaysia who have been spending their postretirement years going back and forth to Nepal, helping out women and children who have been trafficked and exploited for child labour, particularly in the entertainment sector.

Their vision is to empower women and children in Nepal who hope to break free from the entertainment sector, so that they may lead a life free from violence, exploitation, and stigma. They aim to support women and children by providing skills, knowledge, funds, and resources, to enable them to earn a dignified living for themselves and their families, as part of their community.

Part of their work includes helping to set up and fund small businesses, with ongoing support in the form of counselling, business advice, and follow ups, and also support the initiatives of local organisations in their outreach programmes and health schemes. This year, they also opened a Support Centre in Kathmandu, which will also provide skills training and an emergency safe house.

Back in January, they ran a sale featuring photos of Nepal by photographer Mazlim Husin, as well as a selection of items from Nepal, including Indian cotton dressing gowns which are made by tailoring graduates they’ve sponsored into home businesses, colourful shawls and blankets, cashmere ponchos, silk scarves, and handmade felt items.

Davey said, “The proceeds for the photography sale will mainly go towards our new Support Centre/Safe House/Training Centre that we plan to open.We want to be able to run the project for at least two years, so need to know we’ll have sufficient funds to cover rent and utilities for that time as well as buy basic furniture and necessities. With the money raised at the photographic exhibition and sale, it will help ensure that we will be able to run the project for at least two years.”

Davey added  that they are also hoping to be able to create awareness about trafficking in Nepal and have the opportunity to talk to people about their work through this venture.

“We’ve found people are surprised to find that just RM500 will cover the monthly salary of a full-time qualified health nurse or outreach worker or the cost of running our Safe House per month.

“We’re in the fortunate position to be able to put all our profits and donations into the charity as the Management Committee are unpaid and any costs involved to visit Nepal, including hotels and travel expenses, are personally covered by the individuals going over to implement the projects and directly oversee how the funds are spent. If someone donates RM100 for example, they know that exactly RM100 will go directly towards our work.”

She continued, “We hope that in future we’ll get more long term donors who might be interested in setting up a monthly standing order to pay for, perhaps, the doctor’s fee for his monthly visit to our baby clinic, the monthly or individual lesson cost of our self-defense teacher, monthly laundry costs for the towels, even the monthly cost of our utility bills, or simply the plain hot tea we’ll provide the ladies.

The list is endless and can suit any budget and area of interest! On our part we would then provide ongoing information, updates, and photos to the sponsor on how the small business is going, how an item is being used, student progress, and so on. Alternatively, if somebody has a particular skill that would help our ladies we’d love to hear from them. We’ll soon be announcing our new centre on our social media, with suggestions on how people might help in this way.”

This article was originally published in The Expat magazine (October 2016) which is available online or in print via a free subscription.