“Skill training and Seed-Fund Support helps young woman (separated from husband) to become self-employed”

Participant’s Name: Nilam Gurung
Address: Barju RMP-01, Sunsari District
Date of birth: 1/24/1995
Skill Training received: Mushroom Farming

Nilam Gurung was only eighteen years of age when she decided to get married to her fellow class mate from a different caste. While she was deeply in love with her husband when they got married, she slowly started to realize that her husband had a drinking problem which started creating distance between them. On top of that, she was constantly verbally abused by her in-laws who were never happy with the inter-caste marriage. In less than three years of their marriage, Nilam’s husband moved to another district and got married to another woman there. With no income of her own and no support from her husband’s family, she decided to file for a divorce and moved back to live in her parents’ home with her son. At present, Nilam lives in her parents’ home with her parents, her younger brother, and her son.

“Skill training enables three young women to benefit from local provisions and to collectively establish tailoring enterprise”

Participants’ Name: Mina B.K, Kamala B.K, and Dharma B.K
Address: Badimalika MP-8, Bajura district
Vocational skill training received: Tailoring
Mina, Kamala, and Dharma live in the same ward of Badimalika Municipality in Bajura district. They are all from the same age group and also share similar socio-economic background. All three of these young women were born into economically backward poor Dalit households, had to drop out of school due to financial constraints, and were married off at a very young age. They became mothers at a young age and started facing even more difficulty to support their livelihood as their family started to grow in size. For instance, Kamala B.K lives in a joint family and says that it is challenging for her and her family to raise seven children with a limited source of income. As their families’ source of income was reliant on daily wage labor, it was a daily struggle for them to even bring adequate food to the table.

“Regardless of your Age, Embrace the Challenge of Skill to achieve Perfection at Work”

Name: Sagar BK
DOB: 10 Jul 1995
Gender: Male
Address: Pokhara VDC-2, Rukum
Education: Intermediate in Education
Marital Status: Married
Hill Dalits are one of the poorest and deprived community of Nepal who have to deal with social stigma and thus suffer from extreme poverty and lack of social and economic opportunities.
Sagar BK (Bishwakarma) is a resident of rural village of Pokhara VDC, Rukum District located in Mid-Western Development region of Nepal. He belongs to craftsman community engaged with making of wooden product as the part of daily livelihood. Due to his limitation within his village to enhance his skill in carpentry occupation, he was confined to unskilled and low valued jobs.