Relief rebuilding to 25 communities in Nepal

At Ramechhap there is a small community of Majhi. Majhi indigenous are one of the indigenous communities categorized under the highly marginalized category in Nepal.They have been residing alongside of the banks of the river and streams, make living fishing and ferrying people across Rivers. There are almost about 0.025% of Majhi living in Ramechhap out of total population of district and almost all are nearby Tamakoshi River or in the bank of Tamakoshi. Most of the Majhi group is illiterate which have deprived them from different skill and knowledge due to which they are unaware about the social and political condition, about women rights and many more.

However in the context of mobilizing our Shadow Barefoot Volunteers at Ramechhap, our volunteers connected with this Majhi Community and a small awareness campaign regarding the rights of women was conducted. After that program –Aaiti aged 27 came direct in touch with our volunteers. Getting inspired by the work done by our volunteers she took an initiation to work for women of her Majhi community. Therefore with the help of our volunteers Aaiti created a women group in 2015. In coordination with our volunteers she successfully conducted capacity building training program to all the members of her group and then finally they created an organization and got legally registered. Their organization name is "Paurakhi Mahila Samaj."

Aaiti is the one who took an initiation by saying that "Majhi does not have to necessarily do fishing all the time, so let us start a new occupation by we women." Then she thought of making soap as one of the income generation. In 2015/16 she submitted a proposal on " Income Generation and Awareness For Majhi Women" where the concept was for making soap as income generation and at the same time awareness regarding women's right and she received her first grant of USD 537.00 from Tewa . She is an example for the Majhi community who did the best work within short span of time and then after she received grants from District Development Committee, Village Development Committee for different projects.

As a funding organization we can see lots of changes in her and her community women. Now she has a strong network and a passion to work for women of Majhi community. With her extraordinary work for the community in 2016/17 she received her second grant of USD 2,680.00 from Tewa for "Leadership Development and Economic Empowerment of Majhi Community".

Nepal is always in risk during monsoon season no matter either it is due to flood or it is due to landslides in various parts of our country and this is our every year's story. In 16 June 2017, 37 of the 75 districts in Nepal were impacted by floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains. More than 1000 people have been affected directly and at the same time there is much human causality. And this flood also affected Ramechhap district. Aaiti could not resist herself because five households of Majhi communities who live in the bank of river were in very vulnerable situation and out of these five houses three households have been completely swept away. Hence in her leadership Tewa provided immediate relief of USD 100.00 each to 3 houses and few tarpaulins to all five houses caused by this natural disaster.

Although the Majhi community is patrilineal, in many ways today all members of Paurakhi Mahila Samaj are powerful in decision making. Most of the men follow whatever the women prescribe. They equally share the responsibilities whether it is outside or inside of the house. Most of the Majhi people are below the poverty line. The economic status of the Majhi is very poor. However through Aaiti's initiation apart from catching fish in the rivers for feeding by the help of self-made hooks and nets, nowadays they also do different income generation activities. Aaiti proved that if someone moves ahead with determined mission then there is no age limit to do good work for the society.