Page 6 - SASANE With Love Cookbook-2nd Edition

SASANE - Sisterhood of Survivors

Foreward:

SASANE, meaning “Let’s Protect Ourselves” is an NGO founded by a Nepali Human Rights Lawyer and a group
of women survivors of human trafficking, to help rehabilitate and educate other survivors of human
trafficking. Their mission is to end the physical and sexual exploitation of young girls in Nepal.

SASANE believes that the most important tool for preventing trafficking is education, and runs 4 programs:
1. Paralegal training - for those survivors who have a high school education, these women have 1 month
theory class and 6 months internship at a police station before passing an exam. These studies increase their
self esteem and teach them marketable job skills so they can go on to lead free and dignified lives.
2. Sisterhood of Survivors program - for those with minimal education this is a tourist venture where
travellers come to SASANE to learn to make momo, enjoy a typical Nepali lunch and learn about the harsh
realities of human trafficking. They are now also running a cooking class. The girls learn English,
presentation, cooking and leadership skills.
3. School Awareness Program - run in both city and rural schools to teach young girls to be alert to the most
common schemes traffickers use namely offering false declarations of love and false promises of education
and jobs abroad.
4. Community Outreach Program – run in the rural mountain villages of Ghyangfedie where young teenage
girls are most vulnerable to traffickers offering exciting possibilities to work and earn an income in new cities
and countries. SASANE runs education classes, hygiene classes and trafficking awareness programs for
women and children, and now also men (this is important as it is the men that hold the decision power within
the family unit.)

While volunteering for SASANE in August 2016 I wanted to come up with a unique idea that would be an
ongoing source of raising funds, and hence the idea for a cookbook was born. It was a privilege to work with
the sisters at SASANE who showed me such warmth, kindness and generosity. They are all beautiful and
inspiring women and this cookbook is some of their traditional Nepali recipes. It was an interesting feat with
lots of laughs getting the recipes down on paper (in English!) as all the dishes are cooked from memory and
without measurements, however we got there in the end and I am very pleased with the result!

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