Key information
- Hotspot launch
- August 2015
- Lives impacted
- 49,169
- Focus areas
-
- Commercial sexual exploitation of children
What we did
When the hotspot was launched, research estimated around 12,000 women and girls were working in the adult entertainment sector (AES), with at least half of the sector’s workers estimated to be children. The Freedom Fund worked with 14 local NGO partners to implement a comprehensive strategy targeting minors and their communities; the government and the owners/managers and customers who drive the demand.
The program approach was threefold:
- Prevent children from entering the industry
- Remove them from situations of exploitation
- End the recruitment and use of children by employers and customers
The Freedom Fund decided to exit the hotspot in 2019 on the basis that significant progress had been made and new donors had been attracted to work on the issue, enabling the Freedom Fund to shift its focus to other areas of greater need. In December 2020, we reached the end of our managed phase-out period which prepared partners for our exit and closed the central Nepal hotspot program. This was the first hotspot to complete a full program cycle.
