By Penny Carothers | Project Officer
More than a year has passed since PWA responded to Nepal’s worst disaster in a century. PWA has stayed the course, transitioning our response from immediate relief and shelter construction into recovery. PWA has focused its efforts on marginalized women and girls, providing livelihood support for home-based workers east of the capital of Kathmandu as well as reconstructing water and sanitation infrastructure in rural Ramechhap district.
Increasing Livelihoods of Home-based Women Workers
The earthquakes destroyed homes and most of the city center of Bhaktapur, a historical city east of Kathmandu. Friends and neighbors began sharing living quarters. This situation was untenable for traditional weavers who relied on home-based crafts to support their families.
“We wanted to start weaving to regain our livelihood but neighbors complained about the noise our weaving machines made,” said Nisa, a traditional weaver in Bhaktapur. In response to this community need PWA and its partner SABAH Nepal are constructing three community centers to provide space for women workers to regain their livelihoods and to bolster community recovery. The centers provide training and support including classes in economic education, adult literacy, on-the-job training, psychosocial counseling, and even access to water and sanitation. The construction of Bhaktapur Community Center is completed and job training has begun. PWA and SABAH are building two additional centers in rural Kavrepalanchok.
“Now I can work without worrying,” said Nisa, as she sat at her loom in the newly constructed center in Bhaktapur. “And I feel much safer here at the community center where I have many friends to work with.”
In June PWA conducted an interim evaluation and saw first-hand how the women were welcomed to the completed Bhaktapur Community Center which serves as a gathering place, a safe haven, and an entrepreneurial working center. The PWA on-site assessment verified the great joy and deep gratitude of the women and girls of Bhaktapur, who openly expressed their deepest appreciation to our donors who made this work possible.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
