The Women's Foundation of Nepal

Letters from Renu and the WFN staff . . .

A diary of social work in Nepal . . . . Since August, 2006

The Women's Foundation of Nepal (WFN) does not stand aside when something is wrong. WFN moves to set things right, getting help for the injured, no matter whether the injury is physical, psychological, cultural, legal or political. The primary objective - move a person being abused into a safe environment and get medical attention right away if needed. Longer term solutions follow even if it means a struggle to change laws which allow abuse!

The Letters from Renu detail an ongoing saga of abuse. WARNING:some letters have graphic descriptions and images which may be disturbing.These are stories of real people in terrible trouble.

Event/Date	Lead in from letter . . . [+] click for full story (see below)
Imagine a father gambling away his daughter!!! 04/28/2008	There are four new girls who have come to WFN shelter within the last two weeks. One of the girls is named Nauri. She is ten years old. Nauri was gambled away by her own father! He then arranged her marriage to a 30 year old man. In Nepal, women and girls are still considered the property of the male members of the family. [+]
Travelling to find supply of pashmina wool 03/23/2008	Now I am seeing the different parts of China, Sanghai and Mongolia. They look quite developed where I am. The people look healthy and active. The living standard of the people is good. I can not communicate much with them - but I have a friend who is explaining a lot to me. I am trying to learn more about kashmir ( pashmina and silk). It is a competitive field and . . . [+]
International Women's Day Rally 03/08/2008	I would like to share our festival day with you. The Women's Foundation, Sevelarate 8 (March 8th), participated in International Women's Day 2008 in two ways: 1. We were at the rally. There were more than 10,000 women taking part. 2. Then there were . . . [+]
Women gather to share abuse stories with WFN 03/02/2008	Last week, WF received information from Kavre district about a women who was badly beaten by her husband and his family . She was nearly killed. When we received that information, two of WF people and I went to the district. Sita Kharel and Durga Upreti were with me. We helped bring the women to the hospital and also we reported the case to the police office in Kavre. I would like to explain little about Kavre . . . [+]
Poverty mixed with transport strike leads to starvation 02/29/2008	On 24 and 25 of Feb., fourteen members of WF went to different parts of Katmandu city to ascertain the situation of poor people. They made a survey and the report is as follows: We visit 425 families who are eating dry food like bitten rice, baskets, etc., for the past two weeks. Among them 25% of the poor people are eating once a day. Radha a women who is living under the stair of one house is cooking rice after five days without food. Before she has anything to eat, she takes the rice and gives some to her child. The child is enjoying with his rice you can see in the picture . . . [+]
Gathering women and children to tell stories 02/28/2008	How important it is for the Women's Foundation to gather groups of women and children, listening to their stories, eating with them, building friendships. In this village there were many people who were very hungry. The women and children in this village were very happy to have a visit from WFN so that . . . [+]
WFN intervenes to change life for poor family 02/27/2008	This family is very poor family. They have three children but they could not send any of the children to school. They were living near the river side in Jhapa and working in other people's fields as farm labour. When WF Jhapa learned about them, the members of WF came and . . . [+]
Five year old cares for family children while Dad works 02/25/2008	First picture is of three children. Their Mother died when the little one was burned. The Father is very poor. This picture is from the Jhapa district. The Father always goes to work and earns Rs 70 per day with which he can buy . . . The second picture is of a women who has 8 children. Her husband is very drunk most of the time and assumes no responsible for taking care of the children . . . [+]
Thank you letter to all supporters of WFN lists accomplishments 02/24/2008	On behalf of the Women’s Foundation we would like to thank you very much for your support in the past year in various ways. Your support made our year. I am writing here only about the production section. More then 200 women are directly involved in production section producing various silk, pasmina and cotton items. All of the producers were survivors of violence. Your support to buy our product was not only finical support for women. It is very important moral support for the producers, strong solidarity supporting the work of Women’s Foundation, and reorganization of the women in the society and the family. When you bought the women’s product in 2007 WF able to provide work for 192 women and 11 men. [+]
Financial woes require creative thinnking to overcome 02/22/2008	It is so very good to received your email. We would like to thank you very much for thinking of us so deeply, giving good advice with new ideas. Your advice is are very important for us to continue our work. Please do not feel pressure to provide us support. We are working since 19 years. It is difficult but we can handle the situation. Maybe we have to closed some project. To continue the shelter is very urgent and important, as well as legal support, so we will work hard to keep the project going. Your ideas are very good, practical . . . [+]
Child care home nearly finished; mushroom farm starts up 01/20/2008	While this is a very challenging time for us there ae good parts . . . We made very nice child care home. The place is finished. We will start using it in May. [+]
Large order of weaving brings in much needed financial help 01/19/2008	Two representative from a coop came to Nepal to place an order for our weaving. They explained how huge they are. They select the silk and Pasmina yarn themselves. They chose the most expensive yarns for their weavings. They talked with producer and every cost was fixed. After that they also set the selling price at Euro 16 per scarf. If we sold the weavings for Eeuro 16, we would have 0% profit . . . [+]
A trip to the mental hospital 01/18/2008	At the shelter, Chameli, a shelter women, became again very badly sick. She lost her mind. We brought her to a mental hospital in Asadeep . . . [+]
Transport strike means no gas and no kerosene - how can the food be cooked? 01/17/2008	There has been no petrol for busses, taxis or other public vehicles. We walk to the office. Today we needed to come office urgently because I need to take the plain ticket for Bharat’s mother to go to Jhapa so I paid 800 to come to the office from home. Every day is a strike day because of cartage of gas or petrol in Katmandu and the Tarai area is closed because of Madesi. There is no gas or kerosene for cooking . . . [+]
Boy beaten by abusive mother taken to hospital by WFN 12/28/2006	Kamala held him in her lap and telephoned the office. I ran to her house. He was in shock, trembling, in and out of consciousness. The boy was saying that his mother tried to kill him. Today, his mother hit him with a big iron stick several times and she threw him on the ground. Yesterday she grabbed his neck. The boy said, "I was nearly dead." He was bleeding so one volunteer from WFN, Vogendra, and I brought him to Bir Hospital. . . . [+]
Uniforms for girls at school and a trip to the hospital 11/21/2006	We gave uniforms to 60 children who could not go to school because they did not have uniforms. . . . . we visited a girl who has big health problems. She could hardly breathe. We called an ambulance and sent her to Dharan, the BP Korila hospital. They checked her and . . . her heart valve was damaged. They immediately admitted her to the ICU and . . . [+]
These poor people do not feel human . . . 10/28/2006	In our visit the hardest part to experience was the poverty found in the village. The people are very poor. They do not feel that they are human . . . [+]
Woman accused of being a witch is beaten, WFN intervenes 09/23/2006	Dhukur and another women named Pan Davi were victims of witch abuse. Their neighbors and relatives used very abusive words to them several times and tortured them mentally several times. On seventeen June they were beaten very badly, They were beaten in different places in the village - but on the same days. When they were injured, our district office in Jhapa informed the WF ( Tulsa Kharel and her group member) supported them and took them to hospital. [+]
Foraging for food and fuel more important to poor family than school 08/15/2006	Many children would like to attend school, however, they come from families so poor that children must forage for food and fuel from an early age or face hunger and cold. This child said, "I want to go to school. It will not happen in my life." [+]
Children gather food or starve 06/28/2006	In that area all her people are very poor. They are landless, They always work in other people's homes. Several of them are still bonded. All their children go to collect wild food. That girl is trying to find something like wild potatoes. [+]
A hearing for the murdered men of the Forest People 06/04/2006	While they were working, a large contingent of the Nepali Army went to that place. The Army made all the workers line up. The Army killed the workers, one by one, then they accused all the workers of being Maoist. Actually the workers were very poor innocent labors. People tried to bring their case to court but the court failed tot register the case because of the Army's power. [+]