Outreach for Women and Girls in Post-Quake Nepal

Aura Freedom’s Outreach program in Nepal puts the needs of its program participants first. One of these needs that our staff have identified is access to reproductive health and family planning education for young women. This became apparent when staff realized that many of the adolescent girls attending our awareness sessions on child marriage were already married and pregnant or nursing.

In order to address the needs of these young, economically disadvantaged mothers, Aura Freedom is distributing Mommy Kits to adolescent girls and young women who are pregnant and nursing. Designed by local staff with the help of local health experts, these kits contain life-saving items, including:

• Bathing soap
• Laundry soap
• Flannel blanket
• Towel
• Nail clippers
• Comb
• Undergarments
• Dressing gown
• Sanitary napkins
• Lentils and rice
• Cloth bag

These items prove essential in ensuring the health of new mothers and their babies, and, ultimately, increase the autonomy of young mothers who lack the financial resources to properly care for their newborn children.

The Mommy Kits are distributed along with additional education:

• Local health experts to deliver awareness sessions on sexual and reproductive health, family planning, and maternal, newborn and child health
• Visits from local government agencies who discuss the different birth control methods available
• Dialogue on the importance of shared decision-making in family planning and childcare – husbands were included in these conversations to facilitate improved co-parenting and address gender roles
• Discussions on the legal rights of married women and girls

In receiving both the Mommy Kits and practical information on reproductive health, these young mothers are now equipped to properly care for their families. Not only does this empower them both as mothers and as women, it also enables them to do things differently with their own children, breaking the cycle of poverty, violence, and inequality for entire communities.

What better way to empower the future generation of youth than to empower their mothers in pregnancy and shortly after birth?

Anju (pictured below with one of her sons) is an amazing example of this empowerment.

Married as a child and a mother of two, 18-year-old Anju believes Outreach has opened up a whole new world of knowledge for her. She is learning for the first time about family planning, which she and her husband now openly discuss in their home.

As a result, the young couple are now using contraception and recognize the importance of reproductive health. Anju also remains committed to sharing her newfound knowledge with her friends and other community members, and is eager to start teaching her young sons about women’s rights and equality.

Your contributions have made this possible for Anju and for so many women like her. More kits are needed, let's continue to work together and ensure that no woman or girl in need is left behind. 

Thank you all for your continued support! 

Over the past few months, Aura Freedom’s Outreach program has successfully supported hundreds of vulnerable girls and women. This support has come in several forms.

The backbone and core components of Outreach are education and awareness. These sessions are delivered on a daily basis and are aimed at informing women and girls on their human and legal rights – something many of them are hearing about for the first time.

Key topics include violence against women, gender equality, reproductive and sexual health, and harmful cultural practices, particularly witch-blaming, polygamy, and child marriage. Simply by learning about these rights to which they are entitled, these women have become empowered to demand respect, humanity, and justice.

Trauma counselling is another powerful, significant Outreach activity. Also done daily, counselling is a relatively new service in this region of Nepal, and the need is great – especially for women and girls suffering from violence and abuse. For the first time, with the help of our highly skilled counsellor, they have a safe space to open up, come forward with their stories, and begin their healing process on their own terms.

This program also provides local women with service referrals. In cases when a woman is in need of specialized health or legal assistance, they can easily be referred to the appropriate professional through Outreach. This process is facilitated by the positive working relationships our staff have developed with various stakeholders throughout the communities.

With all of these activities in place, our Outreach program has already begun to create lasting change and transform the lives of countless local women.

Take Sujaya, for instance (photo below). Sujaya is a mother of two. Recently, her husband married a second wife, abandoning both her and their children. Polygamy is a common practice in Nepal.

But Sujaya is a warrior.

With the help of Aura Freedom's Outreach program, she learned about polygamy and filed a case against her husband. Sujaya was successful, gaining full legal ownership of her land along with government compensation. She also secured her own citizenship and a birth certificate for her daughter.

However, for Sujaya, the greatest victory of all is the confidence and strength she now has to fearlessly tackle any obstacle standing in her way. Your donations continue to make this possible for Sujaya and for so many others. It is the difference between a life of violence and isolation, and one of peace and opportunity.

Thank you for your support. Stay tuned for upcoming stories on more women like Sujaya!