I have been in the WAWCAS group for 16 months now. Time just flies.

Very surprisingly 16 months have already rushed by, and I cannot believe this. I remember the first time Samjhana came to our village. I did not know anything at that time. Now I am not the same Ram Kumari anymore. I am very different now, because now I can discuss with anyone, and I am not scared to discuss issues with other people. I did not miss one hour of training and meeting, I participated in all the meetings and trainings, and as a result I feel so good and confident about myself.  These last 16 months have been full of joy. I have learned so many behavioral and social things which plays a dynamic role in my life now. All the tools I got in this period are very useful, and I have learned so much.

PCA taught me how to diminish my expenses and how to save my income.
Likewise, SWOT also made me understand that I have so many strengths within myself. I was able to change many of my weaknesses into strengths.
PSRP taught me how to analyze myself and recognize how to look back and compare my life today with the life I had before.
Not only these tools, but also issue based training (IBT), are very impressive and knowledgeable things for me. Every topic of IBT helped me to learn new things, and also brought many social changes into my life. Today, whenever I look back, I feel so happy that my life has changed, and I am so proud. After having completed the 16 months of the WAWCAS program, we decided to run our group as self-help group.

We received the exit training where, again, we learn so many new things. During the training we have developed our “Five Years Vision” and “One Year Detail Plan”, and we also planned and organized Women’s day on March 8, 2020.

I would like to give my special thanks to Samjhana. Without her support this would not have been possible.

Dear Reader,
It is time to say goodbye for now. It has been 16 months of learning so much from the program and from Ram as well. I would like to thank Ram Kumari for sharing her ups and down with me. She is such a brave woman. I have seen her changing during this period. Thank you to all readers who have followed Ram Kumari. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as me.

With regards,
Samjhana Chaudhary

After review of the previous IBT, Samjhana asked us the question us “What comes immediately when you heard about the women or men?”. We did not know what to say, until she gave a few examples, and after that we shared our own examples with the other women and men. Some said that women are shy, some said that women are tolerant, some talked about idealism and cowardness, some said that men are brave, some said “who goes out”, some talked about bread winner, and some talked about courage.

After this, Samjhana asked “Can’t women be courageous or can’t men be tolerant or a coward?”. In this way, women and men are differentiated/ discriminated in terms of food, clothes, jobs, behaviour etc., and all this has been created by our community, which could be changed. It is not done by nature. This situation created by the community/society is called “gender”. Therefore, it is very essential to bring changes in our attitude and behaviour. Until the responsibility of women doing the household is minimized.

While she was talking, I was thinking about myself being a single mother, and how difficult it was. Then again, Samjhana told us that only women and men’s sexual and reproductive organs are different. All other organs are the same. This biological or physical construction is called sex. Because of their physical construction, boys belong to the male sex and girls to the female sex.

These biological or physical differences are created by nature, and these differences are the same in every family, community or country. Biologically, a boy is the same everywhere in the world, and a girl is the same everywhere in the world. The other difference between boys and girls is their clothes, behavior and education. The attitude from the society towards them is all social or cultural differences, and it is not the same in every family and every society.

These social and cultural definitions of men and women are called gender. For example, is it the society that makes rules for a girl to stay in the house, a boy can go out, or a girl should be given less time to play than a boy. Gender is socially constructed. Gender is changeable and varies from one place to another. The responsibilities of men and women are not based or decided by sex but are imposed by the society.  Therefore, as a mother/woman, you have to change your attitude and habits to bring change in society. If you discriminate your children, it will never change. You must treat your son and daughter equally. Ask both your boy and your daughter to help with household, not only your daughter. Raise your voice so that everyone hears this and think about it. Commit yourself to change your behaviors towards your daughter. While Samjhana was talking about this, I was committing myself that I will raise my voice, if something goes wrong in the society.

To build a house is not very easy, but I do not give up. I am so happy that I have started to build my own house. I am working even harder now to complete my house. It is very tough to run a business AND build a house alone. I have never tried it before, so I actually don’t know how much wood and how many bricks I need. Building my own house is a dream come through. During the seven days of training, I learned about time management and prioritization of the work. Building the house is my top priority. To succeed with this, I made a construction plan and a business plan. Preparing to sell my next goat is a part of my plan and likewise when to buy CGI sheets and when to buy cement. I discussed a lot with the carpenter and the construction workers. Based on their suggestions, I have preparing it all, but sometimes I am confused, and sometimes I am too tired, but I have not given up. After the earthquake, I want to make my house, but no one is ready to support me. I have asked for a loan from the bank, but it was not possible. After becoming a member of the WAWCAS group, I have started my business which is growing very well, and now I carry through my dream project.

My dream project will be completed soon. WOW!!! I am so happy about that. Before becoming a member of the WAWCAS group, I spent many days starving and struggling. Now I want to live an easy and happy life. Every day I promise myself to be happier than yesterday.

I am so happy. When I started my goat farming business, I had never dreamt that one day I would be a successful businesswoman. I was very scared, because I had no idea how it would go. I learned a lot during the WAWCAS group training. This year, I have sold goats for an amount of 55,000.00 rupees. My vision is to build a small house. My house was totally ruined due to the earthquake four years ago, and since that day I have lived in a small rented room. Now I think I can build my own house. I have also got the first installment of 50,000 rupees from the government. The government will provide altogether 300,000 rupees, and I will have to raise another 200,000 rupees to complete my house. I will start building my house this month, and I hope I will complete the construction after four months from now. No doubt there is insufficient funds for constructing a house, but I am sure that I will manage. I will sell some more goats in order to finish my house.

It is always difficult to manage everything being a single mother. My son promised to help med to raise funds for the house, but I am not sure how much he is able to support financially, since his salary is low. During the training I have learned, that if you have the commitment from your heart, you can achieve your dream, so I am hoping and looking forward to that.

When I look back, I have learned many things through IBT (Issue Based Training) and business. My life has changed drastically, and it has not been easy for me. I have improved myself, but still there are areas to change and improve. At every IBT–meeting, Samjhana has taught us about different topics. Every topic has been important and knowledgeable. But the thing I realized the most is only that learning is not enough, it is also important to implement whatever we learned. I like so very much doing PSRP. In the beginning, I felt uneasy to respond, and sometimes I felt so bad that I was not implementing it. Now I like it, and I enjoy doing the PSRP. 

It really inspires me to improve. After the self-review, Samjhana and I came up with the following list of all my improvements to this day: I keep records of income, expenses and savings, and I am making decisions about work myself.  We also added the ability to balance diet, keeping the shed clean and good customer treatment to the list of my improvements. In fact, I have been following every rule of the WAWCAS program. I have improved in many ways, and this is only possible by learning and doing it step by step. 

I have been very busy preparing the Dashain. Every home is cleansed and beautifully decorated and painted like an invitation to the mother goddess.  

I was in a festive mood and enjoying every moment. This year, Dashain was so much more joyful than any other Dashain, I have celebrated. This year I was blessed with a good fortune. My goats have been sold out. After 22 years of marriage, this year we have celebrated the Dashain in a memorable and happy way.  

For the first time in my life I have bought clothes and gifts for my children and grandchildren. While shopping gifts for my family, I felt so good and proud of myself. 

Being a single mother of three children was quite tough, and I have spent many years without celebrating any festivals, but this year I wanted to celebrate the Dashain in the best way, and therefore I bought gifts to all the members of my family.  

My children were also very happy to see me happy. We have prepared varieties of food, and we ate a lot and enjoyed ourselves and each other. 

On the 10th day of Dashain, my daughter, grandchild and son-in-law came to visit me in my house to have Tika (a mixture of yogurt, rice and vermilion) and Jamara (planted on the first day of Dashain), and they were surprised to receive Tika and gifts. 

I have not seen them for a long time, and therefore I was so happy to see them. 

Four days of livestock and agriculture training has been a very fruitful experience to me. I understood how to improve my business, and that it is very important to use good food for the goats.

I learned:

Many things about goat farming that I did not know before.

About the benefits of goat farming. We can take various profits from goat farming.

About different types of goats, and which types are beneficial for us.

the way of choosing a good “Mother goat” and a good “Male goat”, so that they can produce a good quality of kids.

The local way of measuring the weight of goats before selling them. Before the training I did not know which types of goats are good in our area, and why goats get diseases. I used to treat them by guessing which was totally wrong. Nowadays, whenever a goat gets sick, I always inform Sudesh (Our technical Assistant), and he always comes to treat the goats in time which is very appreciated. Now I know the symptoms of the diseases of poultry and goats and how to treat them by using domestic treatment.

The most interesting part of the training was making mineral blocks which was amazing. Based on the training I always repair my goat shed. Likewise, now I understand the perfect time to feed the goats. I am very grateful to Slisha’s WAWCAS team who helped me to increase the enthusiasm and excitement of my business.

Being as a single mother is a tough job in order to take responsibility for the children – and others as well. After having been married, I have spent 22 years of my life being a single mother. It has been tough, and it has been very hard to survive. I have never kept any record of my expenses and income, and sometimes did not know what I used my money for. My income and expenses were never counted.

During the PCA-training I realized that my income is less than my expenses. Through these exercises, I have managed to minimize unnecessary expenses. Before, whenever a guest came to visit me, I used to serve a variety of food to the guests which was very expensive, and I used to get credit in the shop where I buy groceries. BUT we learned that it is not necessary to serve a variety of food for the guests, if we cannot afford it, but just provide the food respectfully. We also learned to have savings before spending money, and therefore I have started to save money and only buy things when I have money. Nowadays, when I have guests, I am not worried to serve simple food, because I do it with a warm smile.

Last month my son got a job in the nepalese army. I cannot express how happy I am for him, and this month he sent me 12,000 rupees, but I will not use his money – I have deposited his salary in the bank, so that he can use it whenever needed. I have minimized my telephone expenses with 1,450 rupees per month. Before I used to talk about unnecessary things with my relatives and friends over the phone and spent almost 2,000 rupees per month to talk. Nowadays, I have minimized not only my telephone expenses, but also my time. This is possible just because of the PCA-training.

I have a dream of expanding my business and have a happy and healthy life.

After seven days of training in our WAWCAS-group, we got so many opportunities to learn practical skills. I have never got a chance to learn important things before. My thoughts and my behavior have been changed through the SWOT-analysis.

Before conducting the SWOT-analysis, Samjhana told us a story about an eagle. A farmer, who always went to the forest to collect woods, one day found an egg. The farmer was very curious about the egg. He wondered what type of egg it was. He was sure that it was not an egg from a chicken, and therefore he put the egg together with other chicken eggs to inseminate the egg into the chicken.

After a few days, all eggs turned into chickens except one which was an eagle. Then the farmer thought that since all the chickens were growing together, he would see how this eagle would grow.

They went together to seek the food. The eagle was behaving exactly like the other chickens, but whenever he saw the eagle flying high in the sky, he was dreaming that if he was an eagle, he would also fly high like the other eagles.

One day he went to the pond to drink water. While he was drinking water, he saw his shadow in the water which 100% looked like the eagles he was dreaming about flying high in the sky. When he saw himself, he looked like an eagle, and he immediately tried to fly, but he did not succeed, because he had not been flying at all from the day he was born.

While Samnjhana was telling the story, I was comparing myself to the same eagle. The lesson learned from the story was, that we have to know ourselves. If we do not know our strengths and do not practice it, then we cannot grow ourselves.

After that Samjhana asked us to do our SWOT-analysis. While doing my SWOT, I asked myself what my strengths are. I came to the fact that I understand the training contents and the process, I am very helpful, a hard worker. Actually, I never think about my weaknesses, but I think my voice is very rude, I have difficulties accepting other people’s decisions, I am financially weak, I am not healthy, I have a bad temper, I am rigid. I also thought about my opportunities – training is my big opportunity. To be a WAWCAS member is also my opportunity. Natural calamities are my threat which hampers my business expansion.

After this exercise, I recalled my previous years. I went back 10 years from now and recalled and shared that if I realized and identified my weaknesses 10 years back, I would be staying with my husband now, but due to my rigidness and proudness my husband left me. To be very honest, I was always blaming my husband, but today I strongly feel that due to my behavior he left me. From this exercise, even though it is late, I realized my weaknesses. I commit myself to decrease my weaknesses, and I want other persons to like me.

As usual there was a lot of discussions during training today. We learned a lot about the ways to grow our business and to make it more sustainable in order to ultimately improve our living standard. Samjhana explained to us that if our one business is doing good and generating income, we should think about expanding with another business. In this way we have various sources of income and do not have to depend on only one business. When we add new businesses and grow, we do not get in financial trouble – if one business is not generating profit, we can rely on the income of the other business, and our profit can be more stable. Based on the training, I have made a vison of what I want to do for the coming three-year period. I have also prepared my three-year plan based on my vision. 

My business of goat farming is successful, and it is a stable source of income for me. My son is living outside the village and does not live with me. Having a business fulfilling my basic requirements like food, clothing and shelter was enough for me. I did not have big visions and dreams, and my business of goat farming was fulfilling the basic needs of my life. I was satisfied with whatever I earned. However, after this training I feel that I have to expand my business. I have an idea. I have a small piece of land which I can use to grow vegetables by using goat manure. In this way one business of mine can support the other. The vegetables that I will grow will be organic, and advertising this, I can easily sell it in the market, as there is a great demand for organic vegetables in the market these days. I think that I have the time for both the goat farming business and vegetable farming. In the daytime, I will take the goats to graze in the forest. During the morning and in the evening, I will have time to the vegetable farming. In this way, I will have various sources of income which is stabilizing my economy.

Samjhana also emphasized the importance of the fact that while doing any kind of business, the profit cannot be spent on buying personal things. Only from the profit we can buy personal things, but not from the money that is raised after sales. If we spend the money from sales for our personal needs, then it will not be good for our business. In order to have a good living standard and quality of life, we need to generate good profits by working hard. Samjhana also mentioned that this concept is called the Business Entity principle. I will be very focused on this in the coming period and implement it into my business. I was not aware of this, so it was a new and very useful knowledge for me.

I have become more confident with today’s knowledge that I will be a good and successful business women by making good profits. Now, I also have the courage to start one more business, and I believe that I will set a good example to other women in my society.

After the business visitthis was ourfirst IBT training, and I was very excited to learn new things, as I had learned so many new things during the training. Therefore, with a lot of curiosity and excitement I went to the training10 minutes before it started. Samjhana started the training asking about the status of our business. Everyone responded that up till now all businesses are going well. Then Samjhana asked us what we know about nutrition. Actually, I do not know anything about it at all. Some of my friends said that nutrition is to have meat, fish, egg, milk and curd, and then Samjhan told us that the meaning of nutrition can be divided into three categories of food; energy giving foods, body building foods and protective foods, and eaten in the right amount it is considered healthy nutritious or good food. Below is the meaning of the three categories:

Energy giving foods:Carbohydrates such as rice, wheat, maize, barley, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, sugar, ghee (clarified butter), oil etc. provide energy to us. These kinds of food are fuel for our body and provide us with energy so that we can do our work.

Body building foods: Pulse, peas, beans, nuts, milk, curd, fish, meat, eggs etc. help in the process of building up our body. It is responsible for the fast recovery from tissue damage and the normal growth of the body.

Protective foods: Different types of vitamins and minerals are placed in this category. Some of the examples are spinach, carrot, radish, pumpkin, gourd, tomatoes, papaya, orange, guava, lime, lemon, cauliflower, cabbage, mustard, mango etc. This type of foods strengthens our immunity and protects us from diseases.

After the discussion she divided the participants into three groups and asked us to prepare a menu containing food from all the three categories. This was quite interesting, as it was important that our menu contained one category of food. Many food products and vegetables are available in our area, but we think that they are not worth eating.

Samjhana asked us to make a circle and divide the participants into three groups. The three groups were named energy giving food, body building food and protective foods. When Samjhana said energy giving food and body building food, two groups had to change seats, and when she said balanced diet, all three groups had to change seats. It was very funny and made it easier for us to remember the name of the food.

During the seven days of training our trainer, Samjhana, informed us that she would make a home visit to make sure that we have started our business. After having finalized my business plan I could not sleep, because I had so many thoughts in my head. I was dreaming about my goat farming business. 

During our training programme Samjhana introduced us to a technical assistant. He inspected my goats and informed me that I had to give the goats medicine every three months to prevent worms and that during the monsoon, I had to provide them with medicine every month. He also informed me that green grass needs to be available 24 hours a day, and that the shelter must be cleaned twice a week. He also informed me that next week, in the livestock training, he will discuss this in detail, so that I can grow my business properly and effectively. I am so happy that I have started my goat farming business. I want to be a role model to inspire all my friends to start their own business, just like I did.

After Social Situation Analysis I was excited about the seven days of training. On the first day of the training, I woke up early in the morning. After having finished all the work in my household, I went to the training. 

We had two trainers from Slisha. I greeted them, and slowly the members started to come to training room. Trainers were holding some materials, and I was even more excited about the training. Before starting the training, Samjhana welcomed all of us and started with the introduction of the members in a different way. We should not introduce ourselves, but we should introduce the other members. I was surprised, and so were the other members as well. Samjhana explained about the introduction process. She told us that there would be two similar pictures. In this way we would find our partner, and then we should introduce the partner. It was a very different way, and the introduction process was very funny. We learned about good habits and bad habits about our partner. Everyone liked the good habits and everyone disliked the bad habits. During the seven days of training I learned a lot of new things. 

We also played a lot of games. My favorite game was big fish and small fish. When they said small fish, we should show the big symbol, and when they said big fish, we should show the small symbol. In the beginning of the game it was very confusing, but in the end of the game we had a winner. The winner got a prize. After having ended the game, Samjhana asked us how it felt to play the game, and what we had learned about moral from this game. I told them what I had learned, and that we had played a lot of other meaningful games as well.Then she explained us what the moral of the game was, she told us that when we usually say small, we show the symbol of small, and when we usually say big, we show the symbol of big, but in this game we did the opposite – and she told us that if we try to change things, we can change them. Even the habits from our childhood can be changed. It is difficult but not impossible. There are lots of things which should not be have been done, but if we want to, then we can change it. It will take time, but it is not impossible. During the training I played a lot of games and learned new things which was very good. 

On the last day we should separate which made me feel very worried, but I was happy, because I got the loan, and now I can start my own business. On the last day of the training, other trainers from Slisha’s WAWCAS program, ward chairperson and ward member were invited.  We discussed in the group for some time how we would start our businesses, and Samjhana reminded us again, that this is a small amount of money which is like a seed – if you grow it properly, you will get more. In the end of the training program we received the money from the ward chairperson. After that we all had a snack and had fun for some time, and then everyone went home to their families.

After socio economic ranking I am so happy, because I am now formally a member of the WAWCAS program. Samjhana informed us that we are having the next meeting. 

I was very curious about the meeting. Before starting the meeting, she asked us how we were doing. She told us that before implementing any programs, it is important that we know about the real situation within the group members in terms of the children’s situation, the women’s situation, the health’s situation, local resources and mobilization. Doing the analysis of the situation, it should be based on four areas, i.e. preventive health and sanitation, child development and children’s rights, women empowerment and group/resource mobilization. It is also very important that all the group members know why we are doing analyses of the situation, and that they need to be informed that everything has to be recorded, and they are asked permission for recording.

Samjhana posted the newsprint on the wall where all our names were written, and we were divided into four groups. We were asked an open question such as how often we are having conflicts within our family, how many of us have a marriage certificate, how many of us have children’s birth certificate, how many members are suffering from domestic violence etc. During the group discussion, we were not comfortable enough to discuss domestic violence. If our husbands and in-laws know that we share this kind of information at the meetings, it will be difficult to face them afterwards. Samjhana informed us that these things will be kept very secret, and we need to work on more subjects. If we do not mention the real problems, the problems will remain the same, and after Samjhana had told us this, I decided to mention my problems without fear. 

I am so happy to participate in the various meetings – everything is new for me. I am dreaming about my business. I was encouraged to participate in another meeting. We gathered on the planned date. After reviewing the last meeting, the trainer started to ask questions about the indicators of ultra-poor, poor and medium poor. No one said anything, we were looking at each other. After a few minutes Samjhana asked us again how we define that someone is very poor, poor and medium poor, and still no one said anything. I was also confused about what to say. Samjhana gave the example that what if I got sick, but I didn’t have money to go to the hospital, and after that she asked which category I belong to? That question opened our eyes, and we started to discuss this in small groups and prepared a list of indicators for the ultra-poor, poor and medium poor.

After having finalized the indicators, Samjhana gave us a small paper with our names on. She asked us to think about which category we belong to and to write our name in the category we belong in. I could not decide which category I belong to, and therefore I asked my friends to help me. Some of them said that I belong to the ultra-poor, because I don’t have enough land, and some said that I belong to the poor, because my son has a job, and others again said that even if my son has job, I still belong to the ultra-poor, because I don’t have land, and I decided to write my name in the ultra-poor category, because for now, my son cannot support our family financially. Samjhana asked us many times whether the category we had selected was the right one, or whether we wanted to change category. After a long discussion we finalized our thoughts about where we belong. Samjhana thanked us and informed me that now I was a member of WAWCAS. Oh, I am so glad that I am finally IN.

I am Ram Kumari Ghimire. I live in the Shreemanjyang Dordi village. I live with my son. My husband left me 20 years ago. My husband had an affair with another woman and left me alone with our child. I don’t want to think about how I have spent my life nurturing my child. Due to my very poor financial situation, I am not able to educate my son after 12th grade. Now, my son has a job in the Nepali army. 

Last month a few women came to my house while I was working. They gave me a brief introduction to the WAWCAS program implemented by Slisha. Normally, I don’t trust people who tell that they will do good things, because I have never seen it come through, and therefore I was a little reluctant to participate in the meeting.I had a lot of thoughts about it, and I had been convinced about the program named “Women At Work Children At School”, and I decided to join the next information sharing meeting.

The next day, I was prepared to participate in the meeting, and in the meantime Samjhana, our trainer, came to my place and personally invited me to participate in the meeting. My curiosity regarding the WAWCAS program had increased from the day before.  

When I arrived at the meeting, I saw a lot of women talking. After a few minutes, our trainer Samjhana started the meeting with a warm welcome. She explained about the meaning of WAWCAS, and it touched me very much. It is true that women work a lot, but our work is not recognized or valued, and our voices are not heard. While she was introducing us to the program, she gave an example of many women from Lamjung, Tanhun and Kathmandu. I have a dream that one day I will also be mentioned by our trainers.

Hello everyone,

I am Samjhana Kumari Chaudhary from the Saptari District (the Southern part of Nepal). I have been working with Slisha and the WAWCAS program since December 2017. I have learned a lot during my training in Kathmandu, and I am learning every day from the women and from my seniors. I will be writing Ram Kumari’s experiences in the period to come. I am enjoying my work so much.