If you’ve read the article, “Sold on Changing the World,” then you know that it is about two different countries: India and Nepal. For the purpose of our lessons we’re only going to focus on one of those countries—Nepal.

Here’s why. While the article is about one woman’s travels to India and Nepal, it is also about something else: Human trafficking.

A person who is involved in drug trafficking is a person who is involved in the transportation and selling of drugs.

A person who is involved in human trafficking is a person who is involved in the transportation and selling of people.

Human trafficking happens when someone uses force, threats or lies in order to recruit, transport and trade another person who is weaker or more vulnerable.

Money, or some other type of profit, motivates a human trafficker.

We could spend hours discussing the morals of people who make a living selling human beings, but we’re not going to do that. Instead, we’re going to focus our attention on the victims. Who are the people who get sold?

Sadly, women and children are the most common victims. Sometimes men are sold. If a man is sold, he is often forced into long hours of hard, physical labor. If women or children are sold, however, they are often forced into prostitution.

The victims usually come from extremely poor backgrounds, they are usually uneducated and they are usually tricked into their situations. Unfortunately, many women and children from Nepal have found themselves victims of human trafficking. Let’s find out why.

Nepal isn’t a very big country. It’s size is often compared to the state of Arkansas.

Nevertheless, it is home to Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak. Mt. Everest is 29,035 feet above sea level. If you’re using the metric system, that comes out to 8,850 meters.

This massive mountain straddles the border of Nepal and Tibet, China. For years, adventurous explorers have tried to make their way to the top. Some have succeeded, but many more have died in their attempts. They might have plummeted through a crack of ice or slipped off the edge of a mountain wall. They might have run out of food and frozen to death.

It’s not easy to climb Mt. Everest and it’s just as difficult to get there. The mountain is buried deep within the Great Himalaya Range.

And Everest isn’t the only big mountain found in Nepal. Eight of the ten tallest mountains in the world are located there. In fact, mountains cover 80 percent of Nepal.

Even though much of the country is located at a very high altitude, at its southern border with India, Nepal sinks to only 220 feet above sea level (70 meters).

Let’s think about that for a second.

The elevation of Nepal swings from 220 feet above sea level to 29,035.

That’s a difference of 28,815 feet in a space the size of Arkansas.

When you stop to consider what that must look like, it surely means that there isn’t a lot of flat land in Nepal.

Take a look at this topographical map of Nepal. It shows the drastic changes in elevation throughout the country.

Most people don’t want to live where it’s really cold, really windy, and really harsh. It’s no fun to constantly battle the weather. Besides, you can’t have a garden, or even a tree to shade your house, if the land you live on is so rocky, steep, and frigid that nothing can grow. For Nepal, this means that huge portions of land are inhabitable.

The majority of Nepal’s population makes its living as farmers. Would it be easy to farm the side of a mountain?

Some people do. They build retaining walls into the mountain sides to create steps of flat land. These steps are called terraces, and for the most part, terraces work quite well. They give farmers continuous portions of flat land where they can plant crops. However, problems occur when the rainy months arrive.

In Nepal, gentle rain showers are rare. Instead, rain comes in heavy waves called monsoons. Nepal’s monsoon season starts in June and doesn’t end until September. During this season, it rains almost every day.

The constant rain means that the dirt becomes very wet and very heavy. Landslides are common and this means all those intricately built farming terraces are at risk. Every year, many are washed away.

It would be hard to make a living in the mountains of Nepal. This population density map of the country reflects that.

Follow this link to the Merriam-Webster homepage.

A 25-minute video called “Journey to Hell & Back, Nepal” is posted on YouTube. In it, a camera crew travels to India and Nepal and interviews of number of people about the issue of human trafficking.

Before you press play, you should know that the narrator speaks clear, clean English, but other people in the video do not. Subtitles run through much of the show. Plus, sometimes the person on screen does speak English, but talks with a thick accent.

There is an activity sheet that follows the video, but even if your teacher didn’t assign the work, you can still watch the show to learn more about human trafficking in Nepal.