Your gifts are going to help girls like Kamala here to get the education they deserve and the opportunity to overcome poverty forever. Your gifts really will change lives, so first of all, thank you.
Hello and welcome to my first blog post from Nepal! The sights, smells and sounds of life in here are truly extraordinary. In the cities the smell of cooking and spices fills the air and everything, from the clothes to the lorries, is an explosion of colour. And in the countryside, miles of green rice paddies blend into the slopes of the world’s tallest mountains creating some amazing views.
But beneath all of this, Nepal is struggling with some of the highest poverty rates in Asia. And across the country women and girls are disproportionately affected and at the heart of this difference is education.
Fighting gender inequality in schools and communities
Around 60% of Nepali women are illiterate (higher in the villages), 7% of girls are married by the age of 10 and 40% by the age of 15. 30% more boys are sent to school as a parental priority and the girls are kept at home to look after younger siblings, work in the house or in the field.
I have been told that many girls are not seen as a priority, especially for those from some of the poorest families. This tragic consequence of poverty means girls’ education is overlooked and they are being denied the opportunity of a brighter future. In Nepal, just one more year in school can see average adult income rise by 10%.
This is why your support is so important. Thanks to the gifts that you give, VSO volunteers like me are able to support new projects that are changing attitudes to girls’ education for good. Projects like Sisters for Sisters.
Sisters for Sisters – the innovative approach that will change thousands of lives
Put simply, the Sisters for Sisters project has been set up to convince girls, their parents and communities of their right to education. The project works by providing young girls (Little Sisters) and their families, with role models and mentors in the form of older girls (Big Sisters) from their community who have all completed education.
These older girls are matched with younger girls to support them and mentor them through school. They will also work with families and wider communities to demonstrate the value of a girl’s education and encourage them to make the changes that will help keep all children in school for longer.
Each of the communities involved in this project have between 6 and 9 Big Sisters aged between 16 and 22. They in turn have 4 “Little Sisters” who have been identified as at risk of dropping out of education. This might be due to ethnic group, poverty, challenges of getting to school or family pressure.
My role within it all
My role here is as broad and flexible as the project itself. I am here to help with the mentoring process across the whole team, add support, facilitate the training of Big Sisters and encourage new ideas across the programme.
I will be mentoring older girls in how to address some of the resistance they will encounter from communities and families and also in how to work with younger girls who are faced with numerous challenges and tasks before they even get to school in the morning!
Your support ensures change lasts forever
I have already been to visit some of the schools and community mobilisers I will be working with over the coming months and have started to get a better idea of the challenges to girls education here.
My role as a volunteer is to equip people with the skills they need to build themselves a life free from poverty. The skills that I share will mean that local communities, families and Sisters involved in this project can take full ownership of their work, the changes they have implemented and the improvements they hope to see. Under their ownership, the Sisters for Sisters project can spread across Nepal and change the lives of generations of children here, long after my time here has come to an end.
Your support means vital projects like Sisters for Sisters can take place. Thank you so much and I can’t wait to tell you more about the girls whose lives you are changing.
Thank you
