We want to end child trafficking into orphanages and stop the demand for ‘orphans’, through grassroots education and empowerment programs.
Currently working in Nepal, India and Uganda, we give families every opportunity of staying together and help them become self-reliant. Our approach is holistic and child-focused. Our strategy is to work collaboratively building brighter futures for children through healthcare, education and family support.
We currently work in these 5 key areas:
Prevention
We believe children belong in families. By providing essentials for families to stay together, we believe children have significantly brighter futures.
projectHELP focuses on Health, Education, Livelihood and Possibility. Our work here is child-focused and supports families to be self-sustaining so that their children can dive into the magical world of education head first!
Our Brighter Futures Study Centres equip children with the skills and knowledge to enrol in state-schools, and spark a life-long love of learning by encouraging immersion in every magnificent learning opportunity that presents. Children are given countless opportunities to experience new things and dream bigger dreams.
Sometimes children are unable to live with their parents. Kinship care offers substantial lifelong benefits because children are growing up in the loving care of family members who believe in them.
Our Nanna Project helps grandmothers to raise their grandchildren by providing financial assistance with school related costs. Our program also provides mentoring and individual career counselling.
Like projectHELP, the focus is on self-sustainability through health, education, livelihood and possibility.
We also help keep families together through our Home for Life program, encouraging brighter futures for children and young people who would otherwise be at risk of trafficking or slavery or worse.
Follow us on Facebook to receive regular updates.
Rescue
We receive regular requests to manage the rescue, transit care, family tracing and reunification process for children out of orphanages.
In November 2009 Forget Me Not was approached with the plight of children in a children’s home in Uganda. The children were starving, in desperate need of medical attention and the school fees were unpaid. Forget Me Not took immediate action and removed the children working closely with the Ministry of Gender, Welfare and Social Labour.
Upon removal, it was discovered that the children were victims of child trafficking and with this information in hand, we set about finding the family of each child.
This led to our thorough investigation of the children in our care in Nepal. Who we also discovered were victims of child trafficking. We worked tirelessly to trace the families of every single child in our care and have been working in Nepal for over a decade now strengthening relationships with government, non-government, social welfare organisations and businesses.
Our team is highly skilled with expertise in family tracing, reunification, monitoring, prevention and youth empowerment.
FMN mentors locals from rural and remote villages to raise awareness with families and communities about child rights, child trafficking and family preservation through our Change Agent Program established in 2015.
Follow us on Facebook to receive regular updates.
Reunification
Under the pretence of receiving the golden opportunity of education, families agree to have their child placed in an orphanage. Families are often promised the child will return home and liberate their families and communities from poverty.
Our Team build relationships with each child, so they are safe and supported through the entire process from rescue through to family tracing and reconnection and preparations to returning home.
Our transit home is a haven for children in the process of reintegration. The children staying here are safe and secure in a loving environment. They are provided with education, medical care, psychosocial support, nutritious food, and attentive and dedicated caretakers.
Once we locate a family, we begin the process of reconnection. Before first introduction we talk with the family to better understand the original reasons why the child was displaced. Once we are confident that the reconnection will not put the child at risk, we facilitate the child meeting their family.
We are careful to ensure the safety of the child at every step.
After the initial meeting, families begin to rebuild their relationships through phone calls and visits. A series of assessments are conducted over time to analyse the optimal case management for each child – whether that is full reunification, kinship care or another alternative.
Follow us on Facebook to receive regular updates.
Advocacy
Our major advocacy project is our Change Agent Program, recruiting and mentoring Change Agents to help end the global orphanage crisis. Change Agents educate families and communities on the harms of institutionalisation, empowering communities to better detect and report instances of child trafficking into orphanages.
The Change Agent Program in Australia mobilises young people to: raise awareness about child trafficking into ‘orphanages’; warn people about the consequences of ‘voluntourism’; and, raise funds to enable FMNs anti-child trafficking work.
Follow us on Facebook to receive regular updates.
Research
FMN Co-Founder Kate van Doore is an international children’s rights lawyer and an academic at Griffith Law School, Australia. Kate researches the intersections of child rights, institutionalisation and trafficking.
In 2017 the trafficking of children into institutions was recognised as a form of modern day slavery in the Trafficking in Persons Report issued by the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
In 2018 Australia made history to become the first nation in the world to recognise orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery, passing the Modern Slavery Bill through the House of Representatives. The Modern Slavery Act takes effect from 1 January 2019.
In Nepal our Change Agents recently surveyed 1084 households in remote Rhee village. Results show child marriage is prevalent with girls marrying early in teenage years and young mothers facing complications in birth.
The door-to-door survey with families revealed 69 children (including 49 post-quake) separated from their families into institutions, hostels and monasteries in Kathmandu, Dhading, Pokhara, Hetauda and other districts.
Research informs our work on every level. We are constantly evaluating our programs and services to find out what is needed, what we are doing well and how we can improve, from the people we serve – directly!
Follow us on Facebook to receive regular updates.
Learn more about ETC. our exciting initiative with the Intrepid Foundation to trial 5 tourism products as alternatives to orphanage volun/tourism.
We are a valued partner of the Australian Government, receiving funding through an Australian Aid: Friendship Grant.
