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Writer's pictureHarriet Cole

Women Empowerment Internship in Pokhara, Nepal Harriet Cole

I was welcomed to Pokhara by a very bumpy taxi ride that resulted in feelings of nausea. Fortunately, I was greeted by Tara, the program manager at GVI Nepal, who comforted me and introduced me to my home for the next 4 weeks and my fellow volunteers. 

GVI Nepal run volunteering projects in construction, health, teaching and women empowerment. The expenses that volunteers pay go directly towards running and supporting the projects. GVI carry out specific fundraising for certain projects, such as the sewing enterprise. They also support local schools with a daily children’s club. These were both chaotic and rewarding and would include reading followed by a specific activity, such as arts and craft. 


Festivities

I was privileged enough to be visiting Nepal during two of their festivals; Dasain and Tihar, both a time for family to come together and dance, eat and pray. 

After meeting the fellow volunteers, we emerged straight away into the Dasain celebrations, with being blessed with a tika by elders, eating traditional dal bhati by hand and learning some useful Nepalese words. Other festival traditions included designing rangoli outside our homestay during Tihar and watching a dance performance from orphans. 


Culture

Evenings were busy with many people cramming the streets, locals selling street food, mopeds speeding around and people gambling around scribbles of chalk on the ground. The lakeside was beautiful and popular with tourists. On clear days you could look across the lake at the Peace Pagoda and the Lord Shiva. We hiked up to Peace Pagoda on our first weekend where the views were exquisite. A sunrise morning cable car up to Sarangkot gave us views across the Himalayas. As with fellow tourists I fell into the trap of paying too much for certain items, however as time progressed, I became a lot savvier with my bartering technique. I never felt unsafe, people were unintrusive and greeted with hands together followed by namaste.

Arranged marriages, a concept new to the Western world and one that honestly took me some time to get my head around. Arranged marriages have been a traditional routine for years, they usually take place between groups of family friends in the same caste. That is what they know, and it is what everyone does, parents have this duty, and it has been ingrained into their cultural furniture.

Like the old Western world, mental health was not spoken off. Instead of therapy sessions, it was common to have sessions with an astronomer, where family’s reflections, energy and feelings were discussed. Using this information the astronomer would offer guidance on which god the family should pray for. 

We fortunately had a western style toilet in our shared ensuite; however, ‘out and about’ squat toilets were used, perfumed with a dull fragrance of urine. I persevered to remain open-minded and during this whole experience considered the rearrangement of my ‘cultural furniture’!


Women empowerment

It has been tradition for girls not to have the same opportunities to progress their education as boys, and either only attend government schools up to the age of 16 or not even go to school. This way of operating is slowly changing as generations progress, as families see the importance of a proper education for both girls and boys. 

The women empowerment project offers support to women who haven’t received education and volunteers teach English one-on-one. Learning English supports these women giving them opportunities for work in the tourism area.

We went to three different locations around Pokhara, where I taught women who were all in their 20s or 30s. They all had children, and their husbands who they hadn’t seen for months, were working abroad. My heart went out to these women, as being a single mother with limited support must be hard. 

All the women understood the importance of learning English and were so grateful for the support. Their English abilities varied, however they all lacked confidence in speaking out loud and needed translation support regularly. I covered a variety of topics including tenses, vocab and sentence structure. I have a new appreciation on how difficult it is to learn English!

From my daily interactions with the locals, women and children, I learnt that body language is such an important form of communication. Even though we didn’t speak the same language, nor share the same cultural upbringing, we could smile and use our facial gestures in ways that meant something. 


Other volunteering

Due to the festivities, we had numerous days where project work was not going on, therefore I had a taste of other volunteer experiences, such as litter picking and supporting the reconstruction of a local school and a dog charity, Hart.


Sasane

Human trafficking is the use of violence, threats, deception and debt bondage to force people to engage in sex acts, provide labour or servitude against their will. Human trafficking is prevalent in Nepalese countryside villages due to lower incomes, high poverty and illiteracy. Sasane is a charity that offers legal, mental and physical support to female victims that have been caught up in human trafficking. The charity was set up in 2008 by a professional human rights lawyer, with their head offices in Kathmandu and a supporting hub in Pokhara. They offer a home stay for volunteers and a safe house for victims in Kathmandu. Sasane work with other organisations, such as Maiti Nepal, and supports females after they have been identified as being trafficked. They offer victims access to legal services, vocational training and empowerment support. The outreach activities capture both female victims and female non-victims. It includes training women to offer paralegal advice to victims. School and community awareness programmes to raise advocacy and awareness. Fundraising in the form of cooking classes, walking tour guides and selling a range of handmade crafts. The charity also supports the young girls (16 years) with advancements in English. As GVI volunteers we supported Sasane with these English lessons for both victims and non-victims. 

As previously mentioned, the current generation of girls are usually going to school and getting taught English, therefore the lessons we conducted for these girls were tailored to be more advanced. I enjoyed these sessions as we went into detail on certain topics such as women in leadership. One thing I learnt from the young girls was how technology and social media is becoming so ingrained into their lives. They use AI to help them with homework and watch influencers on TikTok to gain inspiration. AI is not encouraged as it hinders their learning progression, and we discussed this with them to ensure they understood the pros and cons. 


Menopause and Women’s Health Presentation

As the women varied in ages I chose to present on menopause (signs, steps, solutions) and for the Sasane girls women’s health (menstruation, sanitary aid options). As the women had never heard of menopause, the menopause presentation had to be simple, clear and translated, so women could learn and share with others. The women were interested to hear about Hormonal Replacement Therapy however unfortunately it is not easily accessible in Nepal. I learnt from the women’s health presentation, disposable pads were the most popular aid for girls and due to the poor disposal waste streams, can consume landfills. Girls are not opposed to exploring reusable sanitary aid (cups/ reusable pads) however they are not able to access them easily.


Sisterhood Sewing Project

The sewing project funded by previous donations, involves teaching women how to use a manual sewing machine to make clothes, with the outlook of them being able to support their own communities and generate an income. It is important for the women to have this life changing opportunity and develop long term independence, considering most of the women are reliant on their husbands and family. The sewing project started in Buddhachowk, Pokhara in December 2023 with 7 machines, one finishing machine and one employed teacher. The impact assessment that took place in February 2024 by a GVI intern concluded the project was on the way to being a huge success. A total of 27 local women have been taught the basic course in 2024! 

The next two phases of the sewing enterprise include: 

  1. Teaching the basic sewing course to another group of women from the Gaurishankar area and transporting them to the facility at Buddachowk (4 courses in 1 year).

  2. Development of a more advanced course supporting women at Malepatan (2 courses in 6 month).

The next steps will require funding for 5 sewing machines, a teacher’s salary, transportation, raw material, chairs and maintenance of the machines. 


I will be conducting a fundraising event in 2025 to support these next two phases, so please look out for further details.


Namaste 

Remaining open-minded and present was so important during my experience with GVI in Pokhara. It was fantastic to support the women, learn about the current and future projects and get immersed into their culture and traditions. I have come away with a greater understanding of how important access to health care is for a decent quality of life. I have also learnt that we shouldn’t compare ‘ways of life’ and what may be lucky to one person may not be lucky to another. We are all unaware of how others live or whether they have it ‘better’ or are ‘happier’ than us. Therefore, I am left feeling inspired and honored to have met those solo mothers and orphaned children from this different culture and appreciate even more how wonderful this world and its people are. 

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