By Sadhana Shrestha | Executive Director
Case Story 1
Khem Rani, of Gorkha district, is a 30 year old mother of two sons. But during the devastating earthquake of 25th April, she lost her elder son who was 8 years old. She suffered extreme grief, was in trauma and was very quiet and introverted. She isolated herself from all the social activities. Her grief was unbearable. Unaware of the mishap, the younger son, who is 4 years old kept asking her about his elder brother.
Khem’s parents were seriously concerned about her. When they came to know about the training provided by the Shadow Barefoot Volunteers of Tewa, they asked Khem Rani to join the tailoring training.
Few months later, she has now completed the course and learnt skills which has given her new hopes and opportunities. She was able to arrange a sewing machine after the training and sews clothes for the local community, thus generating income for her family. According to her parents, she is more optimistic now and has started to talk and laugh just like before. They thank the volunteers heartily for giving her a new life. She is an inspiration, of how a small support with love and empathy and a listening heart can bring about transformative changes in others lives.
Case story 2
Subhadra , a 24 year old woman from Dharmasthali, Kathmandu, whose husband was a drug-addict passed away a few months before the earthquake of April 2015 while Subhadra was pregnant.She gave birth to a daughter later who is now 1 years old. Although there were restrictions on her because she was a widow, she joined the training program organized by Tewa Grantee Organization. In a society bound by religion and patriarchal structures, widows are considered inauspicious and face a lot of discrimination.
She was not regular at the training and came late and left early. When she did not attend the training for a few days, the volunteers reached her home to check upon her. When they reached her home, she was busy building a temporary shelter. Her mother-in-law, sounded very unsupportive towards her.
Thereafter, for the next few months, she did not come to the training. Upon checking, it was found that she had fainted while working in the field. Her parents came and took her and the child, she had pneumonia and the child had typhoid. After returning from her parents home, the mother-in-law who was not pleased with her, asked her to live separately in the temporary shelter which she had been building.
The place lacked the basic necessities and was not appropriate to live in, especially with a child. The zinc sheet roof could be blown away anytime with the wind and if it rained heavy, would easily leak through. The place was very cold and there was no door or windows in place. Tewa Hamro Gaon Gharma volunteers supported her to build the temporary shelter which was convenient for her and her baby to live. She now has a safe space to live independently and picked up her threads , is a confident lady, ready to shoulder responsibilites for the sake of her child.
The earthquake, blockade and now the severe flooding has caused loss of many lives in Nepal.The earthquake affected districts have been hit both by floods as well as landslides with over 100 deaths, and over 500 families homeless. Tewa and Nagarik Aawaz, who have the same Founder, working in close collaboration have reached out to our volunteers working in the districts and have started our relief work to the families most affected by the floods.
Tewa and Nagarik Aawaz volunteers have built trust and confidence in the community with so many lives connected and stories of strength, to share the message that mobilization of local human resource and holding hands in times of need can bring about positive change.
Importantly, the volunteers are imbibing Tewa's example of local resource mobilization in the communities they serve. They even gifted to Tewa a community gift of Rs. 3600 ( $ 36) from Gorkha district! Similarly, the communities have been coming together to raise substantive money for a cancer patient and other community activities.
The women in various earthquake affected districts, with the help of HTG volunteers, have been able to get necessary legal papers for the community women which will facilitate their access to state benefits. Savings and credit groups run by 4 women’s organizations in Barpak of Gorkha district have also raised funds to enable them to start their own entrepreneurial activities. The self confidence and self worth that the community feels is remarkable. Instead of waiting for others to help them, they have slowly picked up the threads and are starting their own income generation economic activities as well as spreading awareness on rights. Currently, HTG volunteers are engaged in making the community women informed about their citizenship rights and other legal information which they were otherwise unaware of earlier. In another district in Lalitpur , the volunteers have started adult education and English language classes for women, so that the women are literate and can sign their own papers.
Tewa with additional help from a gender and development expert has been monitoring the recovery work of the HTG volunteers and is also looking into the situation and condition of the affected local communities.
Much work remains since the Government has not yet moved effectively with its recovery work. At least in communities where Tewa/Nagarik Aawaz is present, we know that many lives are changing for the better.
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