Laxmi Chaudhary is a member of the Janachetana community group which is located in Bardiya district in South West Nepal. Like Laxmi, most of the group members of this community are landless, whose main source of income is daily wages for agricultural labour in their area. The landlords have determined the wage of NRs 130 per day (approx. USD 1.3) per worker, which is very low in comparison with the labour law. But people like “Laxmi” did not have any choice except accepting their offer. The average size of a family in this community is 5-6 members so it is extremely difficult to cover family expenses on these wages. The villagers were being exploited as they were not getting the minimum wages rate set by the government. Families were compelled to take loans from ‘loan sharks’ every year to cover their family expenses.
As low wages was such a fundamental problem in the community, the Janachetana community group held extensive discussions amongst themselves and prepared an action plan. As a part of it, the group organised discussion program between the other villagers to create pressure on the landlords and local leaders to participate in further discussions. As a result, eventually, the big farmers and landlords agreed to increase the wages rate for all kinds of agricultural labour. Because of this action, Laxmi and her fellow villagers are now receiving the amount “Nepal government” has determined for their work.
Laxmi explains that they learned how to work together as a group, provide mutual support and to move forward collectively. She adds that they realised and learned that they themselves had the ability to solve major problems and did not need to rely on outside help through series of interaction, meetings and mainly through CODE sessions.
Ramdulari Rana, 15, from Kanchanpur district of Province 7 had to drop her dream of getting educated after completing grade 5, but she became able to resume her studies thanks to the FEST approach of Sahakarmi Samaj.
Her parents decided not to send her to school as they wanted help in the daily chores at their home. Whenever she saw her friends going to school, she felt upset but she could not do anything. Years of gap had created a difference between her and her friend’s level of education. Although she expressed her desire to join school, it went in vain. However, earlier this year, she got a big surprise when her mother told her that she would do all household chores herself and that Ramdulari could go back to school.
Sahakarmi Samaj was about to form a group and as per the FEST approach, during group formation her mother expressed her interest to join the group, which was later named “Laligurans Community Group”. She, as per the approach, simultaneously participated in various discussions, interactions on and for identifying the generative themes and participating in CODE facilitation session. Her mother said, “One day, discussion on drop out of girl children from school was going on, which we ourselves identified as a generative theme”. During discussion, every member put forth their thoughts and I was impressed with the explanations of our colleagues as to why they thought stopping girl children from education is wrong”. She realised then she had been extremely unfair to her daughter and that was the point she decided to resend her back to school. It dawned to her that girl children need more education and empowerment. Although it was not easy to convince her husband, she finally won.
Ramdulari rejoined school, and although it was a challenge for her to re-establish herself as she has to study with her juniors, she is more than happy and her strong will power is overcoming the hurdles. She is now regularly going to her school and performing well and is only focused on her target of getting better in her studies.
Foreign employment has become a central of attraction for many youths of rural Nepal; but there are many examples where people are making more income than foreign employment at their own place. Surya Bahadur Roka, 41, from Saigha-7 Dang also chased the dream of going abroad for the livelihood of his family as he did not get good employment opportunity back home. After spending nine years in a foreign land, he realised that he could not make sufficient earning for improving the livelihood of his family as he was only be able to solve the problem of two meals a day. Finally, he decided to return back to his homeland and do something here.
After returning back, he decided to do vegetable farming in his area but was not sure whether he was taking the right step or not. However, he did not have any other choice than experimenting on his strong determination of doing something in his area. With limited work, he earned NRs 30,000 (approx. USD 260) in the first year. He was quiet encouraged from the income although it was not significant, as he became confident that vegetable farming is profitable and he could make more income if he was able to scale it up. He did not have skills and sufficient resources to scale it up. Fortunately, he came into contact with the COSELI Project where he was trained on various skills, knowledge and ideas to improve his vegetable farming. As a process of training delivery organised by Sahakarmi Samaj, the participants were made to prepare individual action plans and during this, Surya Bahadur decided to start vegetable nursery at his own place.
To add to his self-confidence, SS supported him with the plastic tunnels and vegetable seeds. He took NRs 25,000 (approx. USD 250) as loan from his community group to increase his business to a larger scale. He established nursery from which 36 households purchased vegetable plants for their kitchen garden. On the other side, he used new gained techniques and ideas to increase his ongoing vegetable farming. These days, buyers from Gorahi, Dang regularly purchase vegetables from him. According to him, he had sold the vegetables and plants amounting to approximately NRs 300,000 (approx. USD 3,000), which is quite a good shift in his income.
With increased self-confidence from the initial success, he rented one bigha land and expanded his farm. He also started poultry farming and expanded the vegetable garden. He is quiet happy with his achievement. He even bought a motorbike to deliver the vegetables to the buyers in the market from the earnings as he gets a good price by selling vegetables and plants at the market. He shares that anything is possible but patience and will power is required. He is thankful to the donors and Sahakarmi Samaj for supporting him to fulfil his dreams. He encourages other people to also look at the possibility of becoming entrepreneurs rather than going abroad for employment as he feels he has been transformed into a successful entrepreneur from a person depending on the foreign employment and getting to spend a quality life together with his family.
Broken dream hurts more than everything and this implies to Yamsari Pun, 18, of Saigha-9, Dang who had to drop her studies due to poor economic condition. She got frustrated as she could not continue her education and become independent by being involved in some enterprise.
After supporting her parents for two years she decided to do something on her own regardless of the challenges she had to face. She went to Rolpa with her aunt, who was running a tailoring shop, with the dream of learning tailoring and making it as a profession. She devoted almost a year in Rolpa learning tailoring and decided to make a profession. She returned to Dang and started a tailoring shop near her house in April 2017. However, the business did not do well as she did not have sufficient money to invest and neither did she has entrepreneurship skills. After bearing loss for three months, she was about to stop the venture but as it is said ‘Where there is a will there is a way’, she also found a ray of hope in the darkness when she got selected as one of the five members of Januthan Main Committee for taking entrepreneurship development training organised by SBS (Samajik Bikash Sanjal), Dang with support from Sahakarmi Samaj funded by Development Fund, Norway.
The training not only helped her identifying the gaps in operating her business, but also helped to generate new ideas of operating it successfully. She realised that earlier she was bearing losses as the business was started at a wrong location. In addition to the required skill and knowledge, she even received of NRs 20,000 (approx. USD 150) as a start-up support for running the enterprise.
Nowadays, she is making good income from the venture. Apart from doing tailoring business, she is also providing training to other girls who are also chasing their dreams of being entrepreneurs. She is also hired by other programs to provide tailoring training. For example, she was selected as a trainer by COSELI (Community Organising for Sustainable and Empowerment based Livelihood Improvement Program) as a trainer and has been earning NRs 11,000 (approx. USD 90) per month apart from her regular business. She is quiet happy from the profession as she believes that she could do more in the future.
As she has the painful past of dropping her studies due to economic reasons, she is giving top priority to the education of her sister, who is studying in grade 5. I do not want my sister to face similar challenges and problems, so I am supporting for her education and trying to provide conducive environment for her study, she shares. “I am always grateful towards the opportunities and guidance provided by SBS. I have learnt the importance of support so I am supporting my sister towards completing her education and I want to pass my skills to all those female members of marginalised and poor families who want to start their business for earning,” she shares with confidence.
Phulmaya Gadharva, like many Gandharva, used to limit herself within the four walls of her house and spend a miserable life as she did not have any information about what was going outside, but now she is leading the transformation process of her society.
The main occupation of the Gandharva community is to entertain people by playing traditional music but the income was not enough to feed their family and also meet their emergency needs. Being the so called lower caste people, it was very difficult for them to raise their issues in the community and voice about their rights. It used to be a dream for Phulmaya to talk in the community and this became possible with support from project implemented by Sahakarmi Samaj. The organisation lent support for uniting the community and facilitated for their empowerment. Initially, the empowerment process seemed impossible to many including Phulmaya, who was more worried about livelihoods of her family including three children, but they gradually noticed the change. The project united them into groups and provided awareness about their rights and duties including social mobilisation. “I used to shiver in anguish when I had to confront any outsider. I even used to be flustered when I was asked my own name”, recalls Phulmaya Gadharva. But now she comfortably tells her story to anyone and shows her active participation in monthly meetings and other programs organised in the community groups she is affiliated with. Her husband used to work in India and she had to live separately in despair and poverty. It was a struggle to feed three children and afford them a good schooling, she shares. She was economically vulnerable even after holding a piece of land, as the income from the agriculture production was NRs 50,000 (approx. 400 USD) per year, which covered the expense for less than six months .Whereas, the money brought by her husband from India was never enough to fulfill the basic need of all her children and she was in debt with no hope of repayment.
After being involved in the group, she participated in entrepreneurship development training organised in the community group, through which she understood and realised the importance of being self-reliant. She showed her interest in starting micro-enterprise and that was made possible with the revolving fund support. Initially, she started fish farming at her own premises and simultaneously started another business: a retail shop at her own house. Within the span of one year, her income reach NRs 150,000 (approx. 1200 USD) per year as net profit through two businesses. As she became confident that they can economically transform their lives through enterprise, she called back her husband from India and purchased an auto-rickshaw for him. Now he is also making good income from it and the family is quiet happy to provide quality education to their children apart from meeting household expenses. They do not have to worry for what will happen if they became sick or face some family emergency as they have made some savings as well.
“I am now able to prove ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ as my will power and back support from Sahakarmi Samaj helped me increase my income and made me independent as well and finally helped me enhanced my livelihood,” she shares.