Empower Feed Educate Single mother headed families

Family of the month: January, 2023
(Rita: Name Changed) Nepali Family (admitted in January 2023)     

Single mother:       (Rita: Name Changed, Aged 27

Beneficiaries:           (Rima: Name Changed), 8 years old daughter                             

Narrative:
(Rita: Name Changed) was born to poor, landless parents in a village on the outskirts of Pokhara valley. Both her parents were illiterate day-laborers and the family of five could barely survive with the revenues of the parents. Her older brothers joined Government school but (Rita: Name Changed) had to drop out at the age of 11, as she was forced to do the household-cores while her parents were working.

There was always food scarcity and (Rita: Name Changed) and her mother would eat the leftovers once the males in the family had their meal. Until today this is still a sad and utterly discriminating reality amongst the poor in Nepal.

At the age of 17 (Rita: Name Changed) fell in love with 19 year old (Raju: Name Changed) and they got married. Her parents did not consent to this and from this day (Rita: Name Changed) was ostracized from her family. Life with her in-laws was difficult and ends never met. (Raju: Name Changed) found occasional jobs as a construction worker and (Rita: Name Changed) worked temporarily in a garment factory.

 In the year 2015, in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal, (Rita: Name Changed) gave birth to a healthy baby-girl named (Rima: Name Changed).

2020/21, the years of the covid-pandemic were particularly difficult for the millions of the poorest people in Nepal, who found themselves without work and many died from the additional hardship imposed by the lockdowns.

In the year 2022, with the end of the pandemic, there was hope on the horizon for a new beginning and the young couple decided to move to Pokhara in search for a better life. But faith would have it otherwise!  

In September 2022 (Raju: Name Changed) was killed in a road-accident and for (Rita: Name Changed) and (Rima: Name Changed) this was the beginning of a terrible ordeal. Her in-law’s blamed her for the demise of their son which is common amongst the uneducated people, no matter what the cause of death has been.!?

This is one of the reasons why the suicide rate amongst young widow in Nepal is alarmingly high.

Not so long ago, “Sati” an ancient Hindu ritual of burning a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre was common practice. Although Sati has been banned all over Nepal, it has a dark history.

The young widow and her little girl were terrorized to such an extent, that (Rita: Name Changed) had no other choice but to leave.

She and her little girl ended up in Pokhara, begging for food in the streets and this in the cold winter 2022.

A social worker who became aware of (Rita: Name Changed) and the misery that she was facing, referred her to the “Bahini-EduCare-Foundation” in December 2022 and given the emergency of this case, we decided to admit them as new “EduCare-Family” with immediate effect.

From now on we will provide for them and care for them and we will make sure that they are safe, and that their basic needs are covered.

But more than this, we will educate them and provide livelihood-skill training to the mother in our aim to lead them to self-sufficiency and independence.

For them, our help is making all the difference and from now on, they will live in safety and dignity!

Its’ simple, it’s simply BEF!

With kind regards,

Surendra, Raymond & TEAM
Bahini EduCare Foundation       

       ANNUAL REPORT 2022

BAHINI EDUCARE FOUNDATION

Preamble:

Bahini Educare Foundation is an “NGO”, a Non-profit and Non-governmental organization. It was officially established in 2014. It has been registered with the District Administration Office, Kaski (Registered Number: 3154/2070/71), affiliated with the Social Welfare Council (Affiliation Number: 38527/2070/71) and with the NGO Federation (Registered Number 129) and is duly renewed every year.

VISION IN ACTION:

We have a vision and our vision is based on core values such as: optimism versus pessimism, empathy versus indifference, service versus selfishness, peace versus violence. We are sharing this vision with our partner-organizations, donors and all those that are supporting our work.

It is our vision that the worst forms of abuse, violence and exploitations on girls and women in Nepal will diminish and eventually be eradicated. That child marriage, bonded labor, forced prostitution, trafficking into the sex-trade and other worst forms of abuse on a large scale will no longer be an intolerable and a sad reality in Nepal!

For many centuries rigid patriarchal structures and a petrified religious belief system forced the female gender into demeaning submission.

We emphasize with our target groups who are the most vulnerable in Nepal, destitute widows/single mothers with dependent daughters and we are taking concrete action to abolish the root-cause for immeasurable suffering; namely utter poverty and ignorance!

ACTION-with a VISION: “Pragmatic-Direct-Efficient”

EduCare stands for education and care.

First and foremost, the basic needs of a human being have to be met before we can think of education. Attending school barefoot, in rags and on an empty stomach is not an option. The life of our target-groups is too demanding, the hard realities too hard to even consider education.

We make sure that the basic needs of our beneficiaries are met. To this end we are providing them with staple food, appropriate clothing for all seasons, medical care, hygiene-products, education, job-training and livelihood-skill training.

We are not institutionalizing our beneficiaries and we are supporting them in whatever conditions they live in; in a simple hut in the villages or in the slums around the city of Pokhara. We are only providing what is necessary to lift them out of a degrading and paralyzing poverty and thus we are creating a minimum of dependency. Our beneficiaries are not receiving any money from us and we encourage, empower and assist them on their way to self-sufficiency and independence.

We help them to gradually improve their living condition and we are encouraging and assisting them to leave the slums and move to safer neighborhoods.

BEF as CONNECTORS:

When disaster struck them, the families that we are supporting have been disconnected from society, they lived like outcasts and they were caught in a downward spiral ending in “MISERY”. We are acting as “CONNECTORS”, and we are connecting “Life with Life”, connecting what is with what could be and we are creating conditions conducive to life.

When the children are joining school they are connecting and when mothers are working they are connecting, and this is the most important link for a life in independence.

Only when connecting and bonding can human beings find the hope and the confidence that is required for a life in independence. We are reframing their life, for them to find meaning in their existence.

Thus we help them become free of the vicious cycle of ignorance, poverty and submission that has lasted for too many generations of girls and women in Nepal.

Our unique approach is pragmatic, down to earth, efficient, and cost-effective and it will ultimately lead to “SUSTAINABILITY” and this on an individual as well as a collective level.

OBJECTIVELY VERIFIABLE RESULTS:

Since we first implemented this program a total of 47 families have been admitted. Over the years 15 of these families have been reintegrated and are now self-sufficient.

To date, December 2022, a total of 32 families have remained under the wings of our organization.

 Facts & figures for 2022:

# Number of families admitted:        10
# Number of families reintegrated:   02        
# Current number of families:          30        

We are proud to be able to report that we didn’t have a single incident of child-marriage, rape or trafficking amongst our beneficiaries and our main objective, the prevention of these crimes has been fully achieved.

As shown in our monthly reports: “Family of the month” all the beneficiaries under our care are safe, filled with hope, thriving and confident and all of them were able to make the leap from despair, fear and hopelessness to hope, confidence and self-respect.

They are the living proof, that our simple but all-encompassing strategy is working and that “BEF” is successfully liberating and empowering the most underprivileged and at risk in Nepal, destitute widows/single mothers with dependent daughters.

HEALTH AND AWARENESS-PROGRAMS:

In addition the following programs have been conducted and in cooperation with our relevant network-partners:

1. Education and Scholarship:           120 Children
2. Vocational training and Life Skill Training:  

a) 2 Girls completed life skill training in our partner organization LP4Y in Kathmandu

b) 1 girl is enrolled in a government funded civil engineering course

c) 1 girl is enrolled in life skill training

d) 1 girl is interning in a hotel after training in LP4Y, while 2 girls and 1 boy are working after completing their education/training.

3. Prevention of CHILD-MARRIAGE: 2 girls have been prevented from likely getting married after a long gap in schooling due to lockdown. They were counseled and admitted to another school.

4. Advocacy for Women’s Health:
a) 120 girls for Dignified Menstruation & Menstrual Hygiene

b) 35 young girls for Sexual Awareness “Good Touch, Bad Touch”

5. Annual Health Camp:
a) 200 women and children

b) 32 families are benefitting from health insurance

6. First Aid Awareness: 140 women and young girls

7. Sleeping Bags Distribution: 70 sleeping bags

8. Women Empowerment/ Participation 500 + beneficiaries

Networking:

As “CONNECTORS” we are part of a large network including over 30 NGO’s, INGO’s, social workers, nurses, doctors, lawyers and volunteers from all walks of life. According to their need we are able to connect our beneficiaries to a large and interconnected system and an array of people with expertise in the diverse fields of social work.

In this way, a strong synergy effect has been created and we can extend our help beyond our proper radius of action.

OBJECTIVES FOR THE YEAR 2023

It is our objective to up the ante and admit 10 more “EduCare-Families” in the year 2023.

Moreover, we are always thriving to optimize and improve every aspect of our work. We are adhering to the principle called “Micro Excellence”, a simple method to improve one aspect of your work by 1% each day.

 Our donors, partners and friends:

As mentioned above we are planning to add 10 more EduCare-Families in the coming year. This can only be done due to the strong commitment and the pledge for long-term support by our donors.

This is remarkable given the actual global crisis and the fact that donations generally decreased considerably over the past two years.

This is the proof that our work is convincing an increasing number of donors and for us, this is very encouraging and inspiring.

On this note we would like to express our gratitude to our friends and our donor-community for their increasing support and their allegiance to our common cause.

As “CONNECTORS” we are connecting each and every one from our donor-community to our beneficiaries and thus the “Vicious Cycle of poverty, exclusion and exploitation”, is transformed into a “Magical-Cycle of inclusion, empowerment, self-sufficiency and sustainability.”

All of you, our donors and benefactors are the key to this magic and a vital part in our common endeavor to stop worst forms of violence and exploitation on girls and women in Nepal.

Only together we can do and we as “CONNECTERS” are grateful to be an essential part in this “SCENARIO” for a better Nepal.

This is not a time for complacency, let us continue and increase our efforts, many more are desperately waiting for help!

Our vision is right, our action is right, our donor-community is right and for our beneficiaries it is RIGHT!

It’s simple, it’s simply “Bahini-EduCare-Foundation”

Surendra, Raymond & the TEAM

• Annual_Report_BEF_2022.pdf (PDF)
  

“Bahini Educare Family number: 44"

Single mother:       Mother (Name With drawan for Privacy) Sarki, Aged 40

4 daughters and one son:     

Elder Daughter, 22 years old daughter (Married)

Second daughter, 19 years old daughter (Married)

Beneficiaries:

Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy) aged 40                    

Reeta (Name changed), 16 years old daughter (deprived of education)

Reema (Name changed), 14 years old daughter (Grade VII)

Rem (Name changed), 9 years old son (Grade II)

Family Details :

Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy) was born in a small village in the vicinity of Pokhara. Her parents were traditional cobblers a profession of a particular caste that is passed on from generation to generation. These people never had a chance to escape the vicious cycle of poverty. With the income of the father ends never met and Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy) was denied education after fifth grade and had to work at the age of eleven.

Aged 15, her parents arranged a marriage with Ram S (Name changed), a 20-year-old from a neighboring village who was a construction worker.

In the following years, Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy) gave birth to 4 daughters, always in the hope for a male heir. Five years on Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy)’s wish for a male heir was eventually fulfilled, according to her this this was the happiest day in her life.

Her husband was a hard working and caring husband and father and although it was difficult to provide for a family of six, with their basic needs met, this family was fairly happy. For them, this was reality!

One evening in August 2021, during relentless torrential monsoon rains, after they had their evening rice and prepared to sleep it came to a massive landslide in their village and their cottage was crashed by the sliding mud. Ram S (Name changed) and the youngest daughter were severely injured, while the other members of the family escaped with minor injuries. After endless hours they were taken to a hospital but too late for the father, he died from his injuries at the age of 43 Reema (Name changed), aged 13 at the time received medical treatment and recovered after a few weeks.

The family had lost their only bread earner, their house and almost all their belongings and there was nowhere to turn for help! There was no other choice but to work for their survival. Wrecked and in desperation, they somehow managed to make the journey to Pokhara. They were roaming the streets, begging for food and sleeping rough. After some time Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy) started to sell vegetables in the street and her children shared the fate of the legion of “Les-Miserables” that are roaming the streets in the cities of Nepal

The teenage daughters were constantly hassled by men, pimps and traffickers, who tried to lure them to work in “Dance-Restaurants” or dubious Hotels, where adolescents are manipulated and coerced into prostitution.

One of our board-members noticed this family, talked to them and inquired about their faith.

She immediately informed “BEF” about this and we assessed the situation and have started supporting them.

For Mother (Name Withdrawn for Privacy) and her children, a long ordeal is coming to the end and from now they will live under the wings of “BEF”, and this in safety and cared for in the best possible way! This would not have been possible without the commitment of a donor to provide the funds needed.

Thank you!

It’s simple, it’s “simply BEF”!

 New Family Admitted in March, 2022

Single mother:       Name Withheld for Privacy, Aged 36

Children:               Anjila (Name changed), Aged 9 (Daughter)

                             Reet (Name changed) Aged 12 (Daughter)

                              Ram (Name changed) Aged 16 (son)

Narrative:
Name Withheld for Privacy was born to a farmer’s family in the hills in Kaski district. Her parents owned a small farm and some livestock, enough to feed a family of seven.

Name Withheld for Privacy attended the local school around 6 KM away and every day she would walk to her school and this barefoot lest her black-school-shoes would be damaged. She was a very good and diligent student, staying up late at night for her studies and this by candle-light due to frequent “load shedding”, as power cuts are called in Nepal. Name Withheld for Privacy had high aspirations, she wanted to become a nurse and encouraged by her teachers she was inspired and filled with hope.

But her parents decided otherwise and at the age of 17 they arranged a marriage with a 19-year-old from their village.

Name Withheld for Privacy did everything in her means, from trying to escape to threaten with suicide to avoid the faith in marrying a man she didn’t want and continue her studies. But it was all in vain, the collective pressure from her family and the whole village was too powerful and she had no choice but to surrender and accept her faith.

As the tradition in Nepal holds, Name Withheld for Privacy moved to the house of her in-laws. A young woman’s status when moving to the house of her in-law’s is often reduced to the status of a bonded laborer and they are treated like servants. A faith that Name Withheld for Privacy was now sharing with countless young women in Nepal.

Over the next ten years Name Withheld for Privacy gave birth to three children, first a boy named Ram (Name changed), followed by a girl named Reet (Name changed) and the youngest daughter Anjila (Name changed).

In the year 2015 when a devastating earthquake struck the western part of Nepal, their house was destroyed and things turned from bad to worse.

They had no other choice than moving to Pokhara in search for work and a place to live. They ended up in a makeshift-shanti in a slum in the vicinity of Pokhara and Roka (Name changed) found work as a day laborer.

Somehow, they managed to survive and the children attended Government school, but ends never met! For many slumdwellers the environment in the slums is conducive to drugs, gambling, prostitution and alcoholism and soon Roka (Name changed) would be wasting his daily wage in drinking and gambling and life became increasingly harsh for the family members.

Food insecurity and an increasingly violent husband and father made life hell for Name Withheld for Privacy and her three children. She worked day and night to feed her children and her abusive husband who stopped working. The compensation for her sacrifice was physical violence and abuse by her alcoholic husband.

Roka (Name changed) died in December 2021 at the age of 36, and this from the consequences of advanced alcoholism. A couple of months after his demise Name Withheld for Privacy applied for support at “BEF”.

Soon after the assessment of their situation, in March 2022, this Family was admitted as a new “Bahini-Educare-Family”.

When we informed Name Withheld for Privacy that from now, we would support her and her children and care for them, she said the following:

“When I was 17 years old all my dreams were shattered and I wanted to die; and the following 20 years have been a nightmare for me.

And now I can dream again, I can dream that my son will be an engineer and I can dream that my daughters will be nurses and that they will have a good life in independence! Thank you!!!”

Name Withheld for Privacy, your tears of joy and gratitude are our inspiration and we will do our best to make your dreams come true.

IT’S SIMPE; IT’S SIMPLY “BEF”

Sincerely yours

Surendra & the TEAM

Single mother:       Name Withheld for Privacy, Aged 29

Beneficiaries:      Rasmi (Name Changed), Aged 12 (Daughter)

                             Kriya (Name Changed), Aged 9 (Daughter)                                            

Narrative :

Name Withheld for Privacy was born in a small village in the hills of Parbat district. According to her she had a happy childhood, helping with the daily chores in the small family farm and attending Government-school up to grade eight. Like the majority of the girls in rural Nepal she lived a simple life, just as their ancestors did for many generations. They had no demands other than satisfying the most basic needs and life followed the natural flow of the seasons. When she was 15, electricity first reached her village and this was the biggest event on record for her and her whole village. When the first TV was bought by a villager, the whole community would gather around his house in the evening to witness a different, fascinating reality from their own.

Moved by a Bollywood-romance that she was watching on TV, Name Withheld for Privacy fell in love with Karma (Name Changed), a boy she met in her school and as this love-story has it, she became pregnant.

Rejected by their families the couple moved to a different district where her husband found a job as a construction worker.

In the year 2010 their first daughter Rasmi (Name Changed) was born followed by the second daughter Kriya (Name Changed) two years later.

When pregnant with her second child, Karma (Name Changed) took to drinking Raksi, a homemade liqueur that is cheaply available and widely consumed by the poor people in Nepal. It can be stated that “Raksi” and consequent alcoholism are the main cause for the destruction of many families and livelihoods, for domestic violence, rape and abuse in Nepal!

After the birth of the second daughter Kriya (Name Changed), he had turned into a violent alcoholic who constantly terrorized and abused his family. Name Withheld for Privacy and her daughters suffered from food insecurity and the lack of the most basic needs. After another terrible night of violence, Name Withheld for Privacy, shattered and traumatized, fled the terror of her raging husband empty handed with her daughters, five and one year old at the time.

They found temporary shelter in her sister’s house in the vicinity of Pokhara until Name Withheld for Privacy found work on a farm, and this in the village of Ghachowk where another of our “EduCare-Families” is located. Her meager income is barely sufficient to cover the most basic needs; but there is no money for education, appropriate clothing and medical care.

She applied for our support recently, and given the circumstances and the vulnerability of this family we decided to admit them as a new “EduCare-Family” as from May 2022.

We will support this family with direct and concrete action! As well as satisfying their basic needs such as food-security and education, we also help ensure that human rights are upheld and the way is paved for the girls and the mother concerned to a life in dignity and safety.

We do not have the funds required for the support of this family. The yearly expenses for their support will amount to plus/minus Euro 1.100,-

Please give generously and promptly, no one is more deserving of our help than these vulnerable mothers and their children!

We are ready and eager to increase our capacity for many more of our target groups who are in dire need of our help and this provided that we are successful in raising additional funds.

It’s simple “It’s simply BEF”

 Sincerely yours,

Surendra, Raymond & the TEAM