Livelihood Recovery for 252 Women in Nepal

 Women are geared up with new skills

Dwarika hurriedly finishes her household chores and rushes to the Common Facilitation Centre with some cow milk. ‘I am very excited to learn the methods of making various dairy products from milk.” Dwarika sounded excited to learn Khuwa making at SABAH Nepal’s Common Facility Centre. (Khuwa is a type of condensed milk from which various types of sweets and confections are made).

It’s been two years since the April ’15 earthquake and Dwarika continues to live in a makeshift house. The family savings was not enough to repair the house. Dwarika wants to contribute to the family’s income so that she could repair the house. For this she has bought a cow and has started selling milk to the local milk collection centre. “The income from selling cow’s milk only helps me to buy the essentials and pay the school fee of my son, I don’t know when will I be able to rebuild the house. I don’t think government will ever come to helps us”, Dwarika shared her situation.

Though the government’s reconstruction effort has been slow, a group of women are quickly acquiring new skills in SABAH Nepal’s Common Facility Centre. A group of 25 women have gathered in Khawa CFC to learn various milk products making methods such as Khuwa (condensed milk), Paneer(acid set farmer’s cheese), Cheese and varieties of sweets made from milk like Pustakari, Rasbari, Lalmohan, Barfi, surbit.

The main objective of the dairy processing training is to provide women the necessary skills so that they can make various products from milk and sell it in the market. This increases their involvement in additional nodes of milk value chain providing them increased income. For instance, by selling Khuwa, there will be a 150 percent increase in their income.

1 kilo Khuwa (can be made from 6 litre of milk) = Rs 490

6 litre Milk = Rs. 300

(The production of Khuwa uses a simple technology. Fuel and other expenses to make a kilo of Khuwa is less than Rs 100 per kilo)

‘We learned to make so many products from milk and it’s not that difficult to make these things. We are more excited to know that by selling products made of milk our profit margin increases upto 50 percent.’ Dwarika one of the participant of the training seemed determined to get into the milk processing business in her free time.

During the second quarter of the project, the training programmes ran full-fledged in both of the community centres. In January, the on-the-job trainings on Lapsi candy making were conducted in both Nala and Khawa CFCs. In the training, 12 women in Khawa and 14 women in Nala were involved. The training was conducted mainly to utilize and revive the learned skills from the Lapsi processing training from the 1^st quarter. During the trainings, 1 ton of Lapsi candy were produced. Designated marketing personnel from the community itself were provided with the market linkage support from SABAH which was also a learning experience for them.

Another set of training related to vegetable processing was conducted in SABAH Nepal’s The Village Café. A total of 19 women from Nala and Khawa participated in the training. In the training, they learned vegetable preservation method through brining, pickle making and vegetable grading. Most of the beneficiaries in both of these places are vegetable farmers. By using the learned skills they can now sell preserved vegetables to institutional buyers such as catering companies, hotels and restaurants as the off seasonal ready-to-cook vegetables. Similarly, by making pickles from the vegetables when the prices fall, they will be able to get higher profit margin.

By utilizing various skills they have learned through soft and technical trainings a group of women led by Shila of Nala has already increased her income by selling Lapsi candies. ‘As my house is near a school, I have setup a small kiosk and started selling Lapsi. We are very happy this has increased our income. In the next season, we are planning to make candies in a larger volume and sell it in the nearby town.’ Shila shares her plans.

In the coming days, SABAH Nepal will further help these women from Khawa and Nala to develop a business plan and run a community owned business enterprise. SABAH will also provide support on branding and marketing, based on their requirements.

With the acquired new skills, women are now dreaming big

Shila, lives in Nala, of Kavrepalanchok, the most affected district by April ’15 earthquake. Her family consists of a husband and three school going children. The family makes a living by selling vegetables that they grow in their farms. Her house including several others collapsed during the April ’15 earthquake. “After the earthquake, the situation of my village deteriorated. Many people just stopped working. They left the farm barren. The cattle began to die. Women were the worst affected as they had to take care of the children and the family. We didn’t get any support from the government. We lost hope, we didn’t know what to do. Even after more than a year we haven’t been able to completely recover from the trauma of the disaster.” Shila shares the tragedy after earthquake.

Shila along with other 20 women from Nala is now participating in various skill development trainings provided by SABAH Nepal under the project ‘Livelihood Recovery of 252 women in Nepal’ funded by Global Giving UK through grant received from Big Lottery Fund. A week long Community Enterprise Management training was conducted in November in which Shila participated. The training was conducted at SABAH Trade Facilitation Centre. After the training, they acquired skills on community enterprise management, business plan making, financial record keeping, business management and marketing. “From the training I have gained skills of managing a community based enterprise and how to make business plans, how to keep financial records, how to manage a group and so many other skills that is very necessary to run a community based business. After the training I am very confident that we can run a community enterprise in Nala,” Shova, one of the trainees of the Community Enterprise Management training shares after the training.

In December, a group of 20 women received seven day long Lapsi processing training. (Lapsi is a sour fruit which is used in the preparation of different types of titaura, candies and fruit leathers by adding various proportions of salt, sugar and spices. The peel is also used as a souring spice in many food items after drying and pulverizing). From the training the women gained knowledge on hygiene, raw material management and Lapsi processing and candy making by a food technician Chandra.

 “We should not just depend on the income from selling the vegetables grown in the farm as we only get low price as we don’t have direct access to the market. The middlemen take all the profit. Women do all the hard work and the dealers and middlemen are the ones who get rich. That’s why we have decided to work in a group process various farm products and sell it directly in the market. Now we know that rather than selling the Lapsi from our farm we can make various candies and sell it in the market. This way more women will get work and income will also increase.” Shova, 32, shares her plans after the training.  After various rounds of exposure visits, meetings and trainings, the women in Nala and Khawa has shown enthusiasm to work in a community enterprise. “I learned the importance of working in a group and how we can leverage the resources that we have, and after the training we are very confident how we can do it,” Shila shares her confidence.

The earthquake not only destroyed their houses but it also made these communities bereft of space for celebration of festivals. This further exasperated the psychological trauma of the disaster. Some symptoms shown by the women in these communities were lack of enthusiasm, depression, helplessness, worry, decreased self-esteem, loss of pleasure derived from familiar activities, irritability, disbelief, impaired decision making ability, impaired work performance etc.

But the situation has gradually changed after the construction of the Community center and the the trainings conducted. This year’s Teej festival (a festival celebrating womanhood) was celebrated at the Khawa community centre in conjunction with the inauguration of the centre The celebration and the support they are getting through trainings and exposure and community meetings have built back the confidence they had lost after the earthquake.

 In the coming days, SABAH through this project, plans to further train women and strengthen local community centre, and facilitate market access of the products they make. This will improve economic situation and increase resilience of the community. During the first quarter of the project SABAH carried out some preliminary assessment in Khawa for possible intervention which shows that the women are interested to take various kinds of food processing training and produce various products by setting up a community enterprise. In the coming days, SABAH will guide value chain activities designed to strengthen farm-to-market links, encourage investment, improve access inputs.