Many of the exceptional girls and women Art to Healing works with suffer tremendously from reproductive and sexual health issues. It is common for survivors of sex slavery to experience:

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s)

HIV/AIDS

Painful or absent menstrual periods

Low self esteem

Depression and anxiety

Throughout Asia, women and young girls are not valued, respected and loved in the same way as their male counterparts.  Many girls and women wish they were born male. This cultural mindset, that men are inherently more valuable that women leads to many girls and women being abused and sold into the violent sex trade.

In the remote western region of Nepal, girls, even today, frequently die from menarche (their first menstrual period). Menarche practices that involve girls being shunned by their families and locked up in small sheds without food and water to reinforce the stigma and shame many girls experience for being born a girl.

Our transformation and vital health programming brings women and children with unique experiences together to support one another and heal the wounds of abuse and trauma through:

• Expressive and arts-based therapy for self-worth and self-esteem
• Trauma informed counseling and support
• Life-skills education
• Comprehensive reproductive and sexual health education
• Feminine leadership training empowering participants to be educators, leaders and role models to others within their communities
• Research with Queensland University of Technology measuring how art therapy and education in reproductive health impacts post-traumatic growth in women and children who have experienced the illegal sex trade as workers