Philanthropy for Equitable Justice and Peace

Operating as the only women's fund in Nepal, Tewa runs with the basic philosophy of community philanthropy. Tewa practices different approaches to engage community people for building their capacities and share ownership. One of the main program through which we transfer our practices of community philanthropy is Volunteer's Training. We organize volunteer's training twice a year to share our experience and learnings of community philanthropy and help capacitate our volunteers.

Most of the participants in the training are homemakers who have the willingness of doing something for the community. After the training, we see no. of changes in behavioral aspect within our volunteers.

Currently working as a staff of Tewa, Nikiba Pradhan Maharjan is a volunteer of the 42nd batch training program. Nikiba is working as a program officer and leads one of our program Young Women leadership. She also looks after our other core programs i.e. Volunteers Mobilization and Children's Program. Back in 2016, she was a homemaker who was unaware of the women's issues. The community had an existing women's groups. With the request from the members of the group, Nikiba was selected as a Vice-Chairperson of that group. She got exposure and started to work for the community. In this duration, she came to know about the volunteer's training through one of the community members.

After attending the three days volunteer's training, Nikiba came to know about the status of women in Nepal and that her voice matters. Then she started sharing her learnings in her community. For constant dedication and seeing her grow, Nikiba was awarded an appreciation award on international Volunteer's Day 2016 organized by Tewa. Eventually, she got involved in different events and programs of Tewa. Nikiba was selected as a program officer at Tewa to handle the programs Young Women Leadership, Volunteer's Mobilization, and Children's Program.

During the two years of time, we can see a lot of change in Nikiba. She is leading ten young mentees from this community to raise awareness and build a movement on Polygamy. She mobilizes the young women leaders to help build their capacity and also organize different programs relating to the issues of polygamy. It was a challenging task for her because the community people have conservative mindsets. Nikiba tried her best to defy all these obstacles and initiated the movement. She has already coordinated with local level government and they have agreed to work together with us.

Nikiba says, "I am thankful to Tewa for providing me with this opportunity. I can see the changes within me. I believe that I am also capable of bringing change in the society."

Links:

• Volunteer's Program and Appreciation
• Volunteer's Training