Before joining Nomi Network I did not have any skills, and I was working as a seasonal wage labourer on other people’s land. After joining Nomi Network, I learned stitching, basic reading and writing skills, and now I am training other women from the red light community…This entire training program gave me the strength and knowledge to train other women. — Roshan
We are proud to support Nomi Network, drawing on inspiration from Sasha’s personal involvement with the organization and its close alignment with the mission of the foundation. Nomi provides resources for survivors and women and girls at risk of human trafficking to attain economic stability.
This year, despite massive flooding in Bihar affecting Nomi’s field offices, Nomi helped create 1,630 jobs in India and Cambodia and trained 250 women.
Nomi’s greatest need is support for program expansion in Bihar and Kolkata. Please consider a donation to help us support Nomi to transform the dark pasts of survivors of trafficking into brighter futures.
Nomi Network began with a simple embrace in 2007. While in Cambodia, Diana Mao and Alissa Moore visited a rehabilitation center for sexually abused and trafficked Cambodian children. There, they met a special young girl named Nomi. She smiled and threw her arms around them, befriending them immediately. Nomi is mentally disabled and her advocates at the shelter believe the abuse she endured worsened her condition.
Nomi’s story inspired the creation of Nomi Network and the mission to aid vulnerable girls like her. Donations provide the women of Nomi the opportunity to learn vocational skills in order to secure jobs. Specifically, funds go towards job training, technical skills, leadership development, introduction to entrepreneurship, and program materials. Already, during the training program, the women are able to earn 200-250% above their average daily wage!
Survivors trained by NOMI become skilled in design and manufacture of high-quality fashion-forward products some of which are available for sale at Buy Her Bag, Not Her Body®.
Nomi is currently building a new production and training facility in the Bihar region of India to increase scale, train more women, and improve the skill level of the women they have already trained in order to increase job security.
According to Nomi’s Annual Report, Bihar is the poorest state in India, where there is persistent poverty, social inequality, caste discrimination, and poor infrastructure.
- More than half of the state’s children are malnourished.
- More than three-quarters of the children under the age of three are anemic.
- Half of Bihar’s girls marry before they are 18 years old, and about two-thirds of the women are illiterate.
The Sasha G.M. Shaikh Foundation is proud to support Nomi Network to empower survivors of human trafficking and those at risk in South Asia and South East Asia. We can and must work together to stop the injustice of inhumane treatment of innocent girls and women.