The Washington Post
   
The crusader behind Maiti Nepal: Mrs. Koirala
Girl-Trafficking Meets a Determined Roadblock
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By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post

 Anuradha Koirala does not go by the book. Life is too short, the bureaucracy
 too large and the system too corrupt to get bogged down in fine print, especially\
 when you're trying to help little girls who are rape victims or enslaved prostitutes.

Koirala marches around her small four-bedroom house like a drill sergeant--face
stern, manner crisp. Discipline is important when your home is shelter to more
than 80 abused and exploited children no one else wants.

"The children have to learn to be bold--they can't sit around and weep,"
she says, jaw set and eyes flashing, as if by sheer willpower the frail former 
schoolteacher could drive this lesson home.

A 12-year-old girl who was raped by her father walks past, and
Koirala reaches out to sneak a mischievous tickle. The stiffness
melts into a puddle of giggles and hugs and tenderness.

Later, the horrors that these children have suffered, the personal
debt that Koirala has piled up while helping them, the legal battles
to arrest their abusers seem to crash down upon her. Her shoulders
stoop in fatigue and her weathered face softens, deepening the
creases and making her appear 10 years older than her 44 years.

But a consuming anger propels Anuradha Koirala forward. It prompted her to form 
Maiti Nepal, meaning Mother's House. She started by making personal loans of 1,000
rupees ($20) to nine female beggars and prostitutes in Kathmandu so they could set up
stalls to sell vegetables, cigarettes and candies--and, she hoped, reshape their lives.
The shelter is now the centerpiece of Koirala's crusade. There she has surrounded
herself with the human residue of Nepal's most insidious social evils: child prostitution
and international trafficking in women, particularly to brothels in India.