CNN Heroes 2010: Anuradha Koirala

Ms. Anuradha Koirala is the Founder and Executive Director of Maiti Nepal. According to the Friends of Maiti Napal:

Born in Nepal and former English teacher, Ms. Koirala started Maiti Nepal in a small house in Kathmandu with her own savings. . . Her commitment has been an inspiration to her largely volunteer staff. Most of the workers are rescued girls and young women who are healthy enough to work. "They need little incentive from me," states Ms Koirala. "They are working to help their sisters and they know the horror of the victims." She adds, "Society rejects me and my girls, but they are the most important thing in my life."

According to their website: In the border areas, Maiti Nepal operates Twelve Intervention Outposts to prevent girls from being trafficked. Here, Maiti Nepal volunteers, who have been rescued from the Indian brothels themselves, watch for the pimps crossing the border with innocent girls who are ignorant of their fate.

Maiti Nepal also operates physical and mental health programs, and a vocational education program.

"We try to give them whatever work they want to do, whatever training they want to do, because when you're economically empowered, people forget everything. People even forget [she is] HIV-positive or was trafficked," Koirala said in an interview with CNN.

"Anuradha is a hero. ... She's courageous," Geeta [who was brought to Maiti Nepal after police extracted her from sex trafficking at the age of 14, and who is now a peer educator for Maiti Nepal] said in an interview with CNN. "She gave me my faith back. ... If Maiti Nepal wasn't there for me, I would be dead by now."

To vote for Ms. Koirala click here.

Final Two Days to Vote For Polaris Project in the Pepsi Refreash Contest

Currently, Polaris Project is number 6 in the September Pepsi Refreash contest, which ends in two days. The top ten organizations will receive $50,000. You can vote daily online and/or by texting your vote to Pepsi (73774) with Polaris Project’s number: 102318.

Pepsi Refresh is an online voting competition to give funds to good causes. Pepsi Refresh does a number of different voting competition each month to award different grant amounts. This month, from September 1st through September 30th, voting is open for the round of September grants. Polaris Project is part of this online voting competition, trying to raise $50K to support a number of its programs and anti-trafficking efforts, including its Fellowship program.

Polaris Project is one of the largest anti-trafficking organizations in the United States and Japan, with programs operating at international, national and local levels through our offices in Washington, DC; Newark, NJ; and Tokyo, Japan. Polaris Project is one of the few organizations working on all forms of trafficking and serving both citizen and foreign national victims of human trafficking.

Polaris Project's comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking includes conducting direct outreach and victim identification, providing social services and transitional housing to victims, operating the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) serving as the central national hotline on human trafficking, advocating for stronger state and Federal anti-trafficking legislation, and engaging community members in local and national grassroots efforts.

Vote here.

T-Shirt Design Contest from Stop Traffick Fashion

From Stop Traffick Fashion:

It’s 2010 and we’re excited to add T-shirts to our collection of items made by survivors of human trafficking! As you may know, we currently sell awesome jute totes from Freeset in Kolkata, India. We’ll be adding some great new tote bag designs to our website by the end of January but we are also thrilled that Freeset is now making fair trade, organic cotton t-shirts. A Freeset tee sustainably pulls people out of poverty, children and pesticides out of fields, and women out of the sex trade - what a deal!

There’s just one catch - we need some designs! And we’d like the designs to reflect our vision. At Stop Traffick Fashion we have 3 goals:

• Support the victims and survivors of human trafficking
• Support the organizations who are rescuing and providing rehabilitation for victims
• Raise awareness about human trafficking

Think hope. Think change. Think restoration. Think about a design that will get people’s attention and allow you to tell them about Stop Traffick Fashion and the 27 million slaves around the world. You can read more about our vision here.

The design should fit the following specifications:

• 1-3 colors on front (and back if desired)
• Black, White, Brown, Blue or Green T-shirt Background (see swatches below)
• Female or Unisex design
• PDF and PNG files

We’ll be choosing 1-2 designs to be printed and sold on Stop Traffick Fashion. The winner will receive 1 free T-shirt, a $25 gift certificate for Equal Exchange, plus the knowledge that you’re helping us spread the word about human trafficking and making a difference in the lives of survivors around the world! January is National Human Trafficking Awareness month (more on this later) so what a great way to contribute.

Final Details:

• Designs are due by February 1, 2010
• Email your submission to hello@stoptraffickfashion.com
• Please provide your email address and phone number so we can contact you!
• If your design is chosen the final version will be owned by Stop Traffick Fashion
• If you have any questions you can also email us at hello@stoptraffickfashion.com

What you are doing for civil rights today?

Inside the Ladies Locker Room, is running a Civil Rights Online Video Contest to recognize the efforts of civil rights activists.

They are asking people to submit a short video answering, "What you are doing for civil rights today?" and win $300 worth in prizes.

According to their site, the winner "will receive an official plaque from the Inside the Ladies Locker Room TV Talk Show recognizing their work in the Civil Rights arena. S/he will be invited to a taping of the Inside the Ladies Locker Room, and his/her winning video will play during the show. The winner will also receive Vegas Movie Studio HD editing software and iPod 8G Nano."

The contest ends 12.1.09 at 12 a.m. PST.

For official rules and to enter, please click here.