By Mark Rikkers | Executive Director
Dear GlobalGiving Partners --
The construction of our current partnership project, the earthquake-safe Sisu Secondary School serving over 230 students in the remote village of Maheshwori, Khotang, is underway. We are using innovative Light Gauge Steel technology for this project, and we are very excited about how this new approach will change the way we build more schools in years to come! In the near future we will have more to report on this school specifically, but right now I want to recognize the recent International Women's Day and share an inspiring and beautiful story that one of our full-time female staff members wrote and took pictures for.
It has never been easy to be a woman in Nepal. For centuries, women there have faced unequal treatment under the law, in general society, and in the home. However, this is starting to change. At dZi, we owe so much of our success to the wisdom, strength and efforts of the thousands of women who participate in our work across the globe.
"A village cannot prosper without first involving women," says our Deputy Country Director, Ang Chokpa Sherpa. "Men in the villages often leave to find work. Women are the ones who stay, and they receive the most benefit from projects such as clean drinking water systems and agriculture. This makes them invest in the projects and the future of the community."
At dZi, we specifically train women to construct and maintain our complex gravity-fed clean drinking water systems. "Maintaining drinking water systems is seen as a man's job. But we don't see any reason that women can't do it. Once we train them, they do a better job than then men!" adds Ang.
And she is right. Our drinking water user committees, farmer's groups, local NGOs, and other community groups are often led by women who are redefining the role that women can - and must - play in shaping the future of Nepal's rural communities. We are so proud to be a part of this.
To learn more about how women in rural Nepal are changing their own communities, click on the line below for the full story and many beautiful images from the field!
Thank you so much for your support! Mark and the whole dZi Team
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