The Girls Education Project in Rural Nepal

We are tearful by the death of Nitu, one of our ex-pupils from Bhagawatpur panchayat. Exactly a year ago, Nitu was forced to leave school for marriage by her parents. We did everything we could to stop the marriage, but they didn’t listen to us. Even Nitu didn’t want to get married, but sadly she didn’t have a choice. Nitu was only fifteen, and she had only a year left in finishing school.

After three months of her marriage, she became pregnant and, a week ago she died in hospital during the delivery. We all are shocked by her death. Despite the laws, the tradition of teenage marriage is still common in the community. Nitu is no longer with us, but the message that teenage marriage is a death trap has to be spread widely. The mistake has been made. Now, we take it as a learning and will try to persuade parents in the community even harder to stop the teenage marriage.

Currently, its summer school holiday in Nepal for one and half months. Sunita and Shankar, the project assistants, are organising quiz contest with the girls in various groups. Through the contest, they educate the girls about our work, the rules and regulations, their parent's role in it and theirs own. They also make sure that the girls study in the home regularly to avoid losing interest in schooling. The girls do get treated with chocolate in the quiz contest.

The financial year of our partner organisation ends in July and, it is also the month to bring new girls in the scheme. There are eleven girls who are in most need of our support in the panchayats. Without our support, the girls cannot continue their schooling and if they don’t then it means they will end up marrying someone soon. The cost to keep a girl in secondary schooling for a year is £60 or $85 or 7,800 rupees and in primary schooling £50 or $70.

If you can afford then, please sponsor a girl today. It doesn’t just enable them to retrieve a formal education; it also changes their life to good forever. Once Nelson Mandela said ‘’an education is the most powerful weapon to fight poverty and inequalities.’’ On addition to that, we strongly believe ‘’educate a girl today, and we never have to educate their children again.’’

• May_Nitu_soual_rest_in_peace.docx (DOCX)

School attendance of the girls in the scheme has gradually improved in the last two months. In fact, it was the best since 2009. All the girls except five attended school eighty percent of the school days and above. The five girls have some complicated family issues, and we are working on it. People in the community do not give priority to education for girls, especially in rural villages of Nepal.

Once girls are fourteen, their parents start searching a suitable groom because the parents believe that they have to do so. If the parents failed to find a groom for their daughter, then it affects their social status in the community. More importantly, if the parents died before it, then it’s a sin. Girls and boys, more particularly girls in the community are not allowed to choose their own partner. It is a responsibility of parents and, the parents negotiate for a large sum of wealth from marriage. It is known as dowry and Bride side pays to Groom side.

Girls in the community have to pass through a very critical stage when they are aged between 14 and 16 years. It is a decision-making stage for life. One of the five girls in our education scheme is at that stage, and her name is Nilam. If Nilam goes with her parent’s decision, then it is an end to her education career. If she doesn’t then she is a bad girl and, it is seen as a bad parenting in the community.

If Nilam parents do permit her to continue her education, then her school is too far to walk. At age fourteen pupils in Nepal start their secondary schooling, and secondary schools are few and far. It is certain that if she doesn’t go to school regularly, then she will lose an interest and end up working in the home which ultimately leads to marring someone as soon as.

Very few lucky girls get an opportunity to continue their education after marriage because their new role demands more than she can manage. So, she won’t have time to study. After marriage, Nilam more probably will work non-stop from early morning till late night in her new home. Cooking, washing, working in the field, looking after cattle, taking care of her husband and his parents, it’s all her job.

By now we understand the issue clearly and concisely, therefore, NVF has set up a priority frame-work, where to put more focus, how and when. There are eleven girls in a very similar situation to Nilam. If we want them to continue attending school regularly, then a bicycle is an immediate need. This will enable them to attend school regularly and minimise the risk to getting married soon. Schooling for the year has already begun from 12^th of April, and we are still unable to provide a bicycle for the girls. A bicycle costs only £60/$90 in Nepal. Please buy a bicycle today. Link to the bicycle project on GlobalGiving is- https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/give-a-bicycle-to-girls-in-nepal-to-attend-school/

If you can please also sponsor a girl, it costs only £50/$75 a year, providing uniform, study materials, fees and all the support.  

Links:

• The Bicycle Project in Nepal

• PDF copy of the Report (PDF)