Jan’s visit to Nepal

Recently a practice nurse called Jan got in contact, she wanted to visit our ladies in Nepal.  Read about her experiences here.

Jan with Bina, our Nepali manager, and her family

Help WWR mark International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day

Today, 8th March 2010, marks the centenary year of International Women’s Day and Women Without Roofs – Nepal would like you to invite you to remember all the women in Nepal we help.   Recently we have begun supporting several new women and this is a story about just one of them:

 

Meet Uma

Uma with her family

 She is 31 yrs old and has 3 children. 11 yrs daughter, 7 yrs boy and 6 years boy.  Her husband left her about 5 yrs ago and took her 6 yrs son with him.  Her husband has another wife.   Now she is living with just 2 of her children.  She works at a carpet factory and lives in one room and cooks on a kerosene stove and has no good bedding for sleep.  Her daughter goes to school but she does not have money for her 7 yrs boy to go to school, so he does not go to school.  She needs also support from WWR.

Womenswear for WWR

Renee, one of our trustees, will shortly be leaving for a visit to Kathmandu and it would be fantastic if she could take some gifts to the women who have so little.  Almost all of the women have never owned new clothes and we would love to provide them this basic luxury, that we take for granted.  We would be hugely grateful, if you our supporters, could purchase just one new item of clothing, perhaps a t-shirt, pair of socks or cardigan and send it to Renee (or give to Anna or Marilyn) for her to take to the women.  Perhaps you could select something for them next time you do your supermarket shop, it need not be expensive, for instance M&S sell fairtrade t-shirts for just £5.

Particulars

1. Clothing should be between the UK sizes of 10 to 16 and sizes 12 and 14 would be most useful.

2.  Clothing should be new, we know you probably have lots of 2nd-hand clothing we could pass on, but we would really like to treat the women to something new and Renee only has limited space in her luggage allowance.

3.  The women in general wear Nepali clothes and so it would be most useful for them to have something they could layer such as a t-shirt or cardigan.

4.  The deadline for clothing items to reach Renee is Friday 19th March.  Please e-mail us at renee@wwr-nepal.org for the address to send items to.

5.  Should you wish to hand Marilyn (in Reading) or Anna (in Watchfield, nr Swindon) the items for them to post on with other garments that have been collected, then the deadline is Monday 15th March.  Please e-mail anna@wwr-nepal.org for their addresses also. 

6.  If you sponsor a specific woman and would like the garment to go particularly to her then please write her name and yours on the label.  

Thank you so much for you support.  We really do appreciate it and know that it makes such a huge difference to the lives of the women in Nepal, all of whom burst into tears whenever we give them a gift!  Please do not hesitate to get in contact with us if you have any questions.  

With our heartfelt thanks,

 Anna, Renee and Marilyn

The Trustees of WWR

The Living Dead – Channel 4 highlights the plight of widows in Nepal

If you have a spare 25 minutes please make time to watch the latest edition of Unreported World on Channel 4, it is available to view at the ’4On Demand’ website for the next 27 days (until 13th December 2009).  I warn you though, it will make you cry.

The presenter Yemi Ipaye visits a number of child widows living in the South-West of the country.  Their situations are desperate.  One girl was married at 11 and widowed at 13.  She was married off at a young age because the dowry paid by the parents is less the younger the bride is.  Now she is viewed as a burden by her parents who beat and verbally abuse her; she will not be married again as she is now perceived as being bad luck and is blamed for the death of her husband.  Like many widows she may need to resort to prostitution to provide for herself.

The Hindu belief in reincarnation makes it clear that bad luck in this life is determined by past sins in a previous life.  Therefore young widows are ostracised by society and insulted, they are treated as if they were evil and are isolated and become the ‘living dead’, the title of the program.  In the past in Nepal sati was practiced.  This is the ritual suicide of a wife when her husband dies.  It was carried out by the widow climbing onto the funeral pyre of her husband and burning alive.  The practice was outlawed across Nepal and India a century ago but the prejudice and stigma that enforced it remains today.  It seems that a widow’s life is worth nothing.

A widow in Kathmandu described how she had been asked to leave her home when her landlord discovered she was a widow.  Now she no longer tells anyone, simply lying that her husband is working overseas.  She is impoverished and has had to send her two children to an orphanage because she can not look after them. 

Women Without Roofs supports women that are on their own either because they are widowed or their husband is missing.  Please help us to help more women like these.

Cyrene Course Update

The latest class attending the Cyrene sewing and literacy class has just graduated.  They attended a graduation ceremony and were presented with certificates marking their achievement.

The course was funded by Women Without Roofs and helps the women attending it to establish their own micro-sewing businesses from home.

Bina has collected her Scooter

Bina, our Nepali assistant, is now the proud owner of a new Scooter paid for in part by Women Without Roofs – Nepal.  It will enable her to visit the women we support in Kathmandu more easily and frequently, enabling us to provide them with greater support when they need it.

Doesn’t she look smart?!

Bina on her new Scooter

Sad news from Nepal

Sadly Hari, one of the people we support in Nepal, has died today after a short stay in hospital.  Our prayers are for his wife Gyanu whom he leaves behind.

Hari and Gyanu were the only ‘old couple’ we supported – they had no children of their own and their nephew had cheated them of their life savings.

They are pictured together here.

Gyanu and Hari selling on the streets of Kathmandu

Women Without Roofs will of course continue to provide support to his wife.

Renee Writes

Renée, one of our trustees, and her husband Terry recently returned from a trip to Nepal.  Renée writes:-

It was good to be back in Nepal again, this time based mainly in Kathmandu.  At the best of times, general day to day living is not easy for the Nepali people and currently there is electric for only eight hours out of a twenty four hour period (2x4hr stretches) This is due to a lack of rain to feed the hydro electric plants.  The electric frequently comes on at midnight or four in the morning!  As it it dark around 6.30pm, people have to cook the main meal of the day (rice & lentils) by candlelight and spend the rest of the evening in the dark.  There is no-one who is not affected.  Shops (open till late) can hardly see what they are selling.  Tailors (of which there are many) cannot see to sew at night and cannot use their sewing machines by day.  Offices cannot function and so it goes on …..

We spent a good deal of time visiting the ladies supported by Women Without Roofs (WWR).  All are so very grateful for the help given to them by WWR, which has of course, come from you, our supporters.  The ladies have tragic stories to tell.  One lady had fallen into a fire as a child and never received treatment.  Eventually she was given away in an arranged marriage, her husband then left her because of her deformed body.  A second lady cares for her disabled husband, who cannot move, due to a fall from a high scaffolding.  He lies in bed almost all of the time.  Everything is done for him.  They live in a small sparse room which works as a kitchen, bedroom and place to sit.

The rooms WWR provide are basic with limited facilities.  I have to be honest about that.  We ensure the women have the essential items i.e. a bed, blankets, gas stove, a bag of rice, saucepans and other essential items.  By standards here in the Western world, it is poor.  In reality, it is the level of how most Nepalis live.  I have to remind myself of this over and over again.  I would love to be able to pick all the ladies up and transform their lives completely, but I know, as you do, that is not possible.

Laxmi - preparing food in her room

How then, can I continue to help these women?  I will continue working hard on their behalf, throw myself into fundraising, keep in touch via our assistant, Bina, in Kathmandu, try to inspire people in our country.  An article in a womens magazine is soon to be published.  Many of us still have so much in spite of our “credit crunch”; that’s not wrong, its how it is here in the UK.  I feel sure if you were able to experience life in a third world country you also would be stirred.

So finally, may I express my heartfelt thanks to all our supporters.  Without you there would be no WWR and many people would be living on the streets or under plastic sheeting.  God Bless you all for your love and care.  Please get back to me if you would like more first hand information.

Renee can be contacted via renee@wwr-nepal.org

WWR now on Ebay

Sellers on Ebay can now choose to support Women Without Roofs through their sales.  Ebay gives the option for 10 to 100% of an item’s final sale price to be donated to charity and now WWR is among those charities that can benefit.

This is great news as all money raised by WWR goes to Nepal where even the smallest amounts go a long way; for instance just £10 can pay a woman’s rent for a month giving her a home.

To find out more, or to see the items that are currently on sale to benefit us please go to:  http://donations.ebay.co.uk/charity/charity.jsp?NP_ID=31320

As they say on ebay “Thanks for looking”!

Renee goes to Nepal

Renee

Tomorrow Renee, one of our trustees, flies to Kathmandu, Nepal and will be there for just over a month seeing people and managing the work of Women Without Roofs on the ground. 

Circumstances permitting, she hopes to visit each of the ladies we support and check that they own each of the key items that they need to achieve a basic but satisfactory standard of living – see the previous article on this home page for the list.  She will be helping them choose and buy the items that they are missing.

Renee also plans to spend time at the Cyrene project finding out how the women that have completed the sewing course are getting on with using their newly learnt skills.  We also have some ideas of items they could make for us to sell here in the UK that she will share with them.

We wish her a safe and rewarding trip, both for her and the ladies she sees.  We will, when possible, post updates on this website about what she gets up to!

Trustees Meeting

The trustees of WWR are meeting this week in Devon, England to discuss tons of issues related to the running of the charity and how to take it forward.  If there is anything you would like them to discuss or if you have any comment about WWR, please let us know either by leaving a comment here or e-mailing anna@wwr-nepal.org.