The Girls Education Project in Rural Nepal

Despite the increasing number of coronavirus cases in Nepal, the local community schools, as well as the private schools, are now reopening with precautions. Wearing a mask is compulsory in the classroom so we have provided a packet of the mask to all the girls in the scheme. Now, we are also hearing about the third variant of coronavirus so If we are safe from that then life in villages will return to normal slowly. Vaccination against the virus is also becoming available slowly in the villages but many people do not have faith in it.

As mentioned in the last progress report, we are sponsoring seventy-three girls studying in classes five to twelve and, they are from Bhagawatpur, Majhaura, Dhikuli, Mahadewa, Durgapur, Kajoli, Chakala, Ekbarpur and Bathanaha villages of Mahadewa Municipality, Saptari Nepal. Three of them are new girls, nineteen of them completed secondary schooling and three of them abandoned the scheme. So now, we are left with fifty-one girls in the scheme. 

There are ten villages in Mahadewa municipality and currently, we are working with nine. At least eleven qualifying applications have been received from the village where we are currently not working. Hence, from this year we are planning to extend our sponsorship scheme to the remained village called ‘Pakari’. We have the manpower, it is within our reach and the villagers are also being very supportive and helpful to us in the project.  We aim to sponsor at least twenty-one new girls from this year, eleven from Pakari and ten from the other nine villages. Our commitment for the new girls will be from two to four years depending on their age and class.

The process to select the girls is in the progress. The process involves, visiting the girl’s family, taking an entrance exam and briefing them about the conditions of the sponsorship scheme. We are hopeful that the process will be completed within a month or two. Once the process is completed, we will provide a new bicycle, books, stationery and all other necessary stuff so that they have the full potential to do their best in schooling with the new opportunity.

During the lockdown and school closure, we have been providing a private tuition class to all the girls in the scheme. I believed it was a necessary action to take to keep the girls in the scheme. Otherwise, many girls would have abandoned the education or would have made no progress in the line with other pupils in their class. On average, we have paid Rs. 500 per girl per month. No doubt, it has cost lots of money. However, we have managed it by cutting a little bit of the budget from the other project activities.

Finally, Coronavirus have caused significant problems even at the village levels and, many of us have suffered from mild to severe symptoms. However, there isn’t any loss because of the coronavirus in the villages we are working in. We are also safe, so is our girls and their family. Amongst all, coronavirus has taught everyone how to wash hands properly and eat better to boost their immune system. This definitely will also help them to prevent other preventable diseases.

The cost of sponsoring the girls is increasing every year and many more girls need the support. Therefore, please donate whatever you can afford and/or increase your donation amount if you can afford it. Your donation is the only way to keep the girls in education and education is the most basic right of every child in the world.

$10 a month keeps a girl in secondary education for a year

$30 a month keeps a girl in higher secondary education for a year.

$1600 pays the salary of one staff for a year who monitor girls in the scheme.

Girls’ education has been ignored in Nepal, particularly in rural areas. The main reasons are cultural traditions, an unsuitable schooling environment and financial problems. NVF raises awareness about the importance of girls’ education through the project and provides financial support to girls from the poorest of the poor and Dalit families to enable them to receive a formal education. The support includes all the study materials such as books, notebooks, pens, and pencils as well as a bicycle, extra tuition classes and exams fee and the support.

In this year, we have supported seventy-three girls studying in class five to twelve from Bhagawatpur, Majhaura, Dhikuli, Mahadewa, Durgapur, Kajoli, Chakala, Ekbarpur and Bathanaha villages of Mahadeva Municipality, Saptari Nepal. We have extended the support to three new girls this year and nineteen girls have left the scheme. Ten of the nineteen girls didn’t want to study higher education, six of the girls completed their higher education and three of them have left the scheme without completing their study. The three girls were forced by their parents and, now they are married and have a baby. We are grateful to hear that they are safe and their baby

However, most of the girls in the scheme are now teenagers which were very rare at the time when the project was started in 2009. It took twelve years to see that many teenager’s girls in the education from the community. This is a huge achievement and everyone associated with the project should feel proud. Lastly, even in the Coronavirus Pandemic we urge our supporters to keep donating to the project whatever amount is affordable because this is the only way we can continue our support to the need girls in rural Nepal.

Stay safe, keep fighting the Coronavirus and let’s end the pandemic.   

 Stay safe and fight the pandemic 

• Trustees Annual Report in PDF (PDF)