By Sarah Beckhaus | Communications Manager
Most mornings, sisters Sabina and Puja walk to school together through their rural community in the hills northwest of Kathmandu. As they walk, the girls sing lok dohori songs, traditional Nepali folk duets in which two voices answer one another, trading verses back and forth. Their teacher has come to recognize the sound long before she sees them coming.
Sabina, 12, is in grade five and loves to draw. Puja, 14, is in grade nine and enjoys writing poetry. They are two of six sisters from an Indigenous family that has faced more hardship than most. After their father died of cancer several years ago, their visually impaired mother was left to raise all six daughters on her own.
The family’s income is extremely limited. Their mother receives a government pension of about $15 a month and earns a little extra by weaving mats and ropes from locally grown materials. Covering the cost of her children’s education has been one of her greatest struggles, leaving the daughters at real risk of dropping out.
For Sabina and Puja, SGT support has helped make staying in school possible.
Both girls attend regularly and take an active part in the program’s Friday classes, where they receive guidance and learn about the risks girls and young women face in Nepal. Their Friday teacher also provides something less tangible but equally important: a trusted adult who knows them, follows their progress, and can recognize when they may need additional help.
Neither sister has decided what she wants to become yet. For now, that is exactly as it should be. They are still in school, learning and enjoying their hobbies and time with friends, with the freedom to imagine what their futures might hold. For girls growing up in rural Nepal, whose families are under financial pressure, that freedom cannot be taken for granted.
Because of your support, SGT can continue to create opportunities for girls just like Sabina and Puja. And the impact is extending beyond the classroom, as many girls who graduate from the SGT program stay involved, becoming teachers, mentors, and advocates for women’s rights in their communities. Some have even come together to form alumnae groups that have now been trained to lead the program themselves. Thank you for your generosity, and for keeping girls in Nepal safe and in school.
To learn more about our work and the SGT Program please visit the links below:
All names have been changed for privacy and images are representative.
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