Naya Shristi’s mission and vision haven’t changed. Our vision is to make things new in terms of lives, futures, opportunities, systems, and structures. We seek to do this by creating opportunities that give people the chance to create lives they might not have been able to create otherwise.

In a recent conversation, I realized that desperation and a lack of choices is basically the drive behind human trafficking. Families sell their family members not because they are bad people necessarily, but because they have no option. Also, an old statistic says that 80% of people who come out of trafficking end up going back into the system because they don’t have a way to make a living. This is the same reality fueling the poverty system in places like Nepal. People are trapped without resources and options. Basically, its the same root cause to both awful situations. While Naya Shristi may not be able to change the whole system single handedly, we have a responsibility to do what we can do.

The Freedom Business Alliance seeks to resource Freedom Businesses which are for-profit ventures whose work provides jobs and opportunities to survivors of human trafficking. Many of the businesses work in and with many different underprivileged communities but have a focus on supporting survivors of human trafficking. Naya Shristi doesn’t currently have a freedom business but has plans to start one in the near future. Currently we support education, but education should lead to a job, which is where we would like to go also.

Also since Freedom Business Alliance is itself a non-profit organization, they are a wealth of resources and information that Naya Shristi is benefitting from.

If you want to learn more about the Freedom Business Alliance, please watch this short video and check out their website at www.freedombusinessalliance.org. You can also email me at executivedirector@nayashristi.org for more information.

My hope is to continue to be transparent with you about the journey that Naya Shristi is on and how we continue to view our work and the impact we hope to make. Thank you for joining us in this journey.