A ROLE MODEL WOMAN
65 years old, Geeta Devi Kafle of "Janaklyan Women's Group", Mahottari district gave up the long held caste discrimination practice.
She has been a role model of the Khayarmara VDC of Mahottari district. Now she eats what so-called Dalit (Untouchable) people give her. She allows Dalits in her home. The women's group participated in the Cornerstones training and changed their philosophy toward the age-old caste discrimination practice.
In Nepali phenomenon the society is divided into caste groups with hierarchy. Those of the so-called higher caste (Brahmin, Chhetrri) discriminate against the lower caste (Dalits). The level of discrimination is inhumane to the effect that Dalits are considered untouchable and ostracized from the society.
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Success Stories
Kanchhi Gurung
Leading by Example
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Courageous, diligent and enthusiastic are the traits that define Kanchhi Gurung, a leader in her community. Her journey towards this success is full of struggle. She was the youngest child among one brother and four sisters. Her family had to work very hard to feed themselves and to meet their ends.
At a tender age of 14, she was married to a man nine years elder to her. When she moved to Kathmandu with her husband, she had hoped for a good life. Life, however, had something else in store for her. Her husband was into gambling, alcoholism and philandering. She now had to battle for survival, both physically and emotionally. Four years after the marriage, she gave birth to a son and then a daughter after two years.
Her husband forced her out of the house when her daughter was only 14 days old. She then moved back to her parent’s home. Her fate only worsened in her maternal home. Her daughter died of pneumonia resulting from improper care and medication a. Shortly afterwards, her father too passed away. The responsibility of taking care of her son, an aged mother and herself now rested on her shoulder.
Her maternal home was very poor. They only had a goat and 11,000 sq. ft. of terraced land for farming. They had also leased a buffalo and had to share half of its production with the owner.
In 1993, women of Gurung Gaon grouped together to request assistance from Heifer Nepal which then visited the village of Gurung Gaon. Kanchhi took an active lead to form a group and encouraged the women of her village to break the shackles of oppression and domination of their male counterparts and come forward to form a group. With her devotion and hard work, the women formed two groups, each with 20 members.
In 1995, Heifer Nepal provided them with 39 buffaloes and 40 breeding bulls which they distributed among the group members. The buffalo that Kanchi received was her hope for a brighter future. Heifer also provided her group seedlings of fodder plants and training on buffalo husbandry training. With the skills learnt from these trainings, she tended the buffalo with great care. With the income from buffalo, she has been able to send her son to school and provide nutrition to her family. Meanwhile, she has also established a small grocery shop in her village and started to raise goats.
Kanchi and her group also received trainings on group management, savings and credit, bee keeping, improved stoves making and adult literacy. After receiving a training to become Women’s Health Volunteer, Kanchi has been serving her village as a volunteer in women health check-ups, vaccinations for children, family planning campaigns and other activities.
Similarly, she along with her group has also been a part of Gender Justice training, Cornerstones training and Participatory Self Evaluation. She did not keep the things learnt in the trainings to herself but she has been practicing it in her daily life and also encourages others to do so.
Moving back to past, when the group was newly formed, it was challenging for Kanchhi to keep the group united and to ensure the presence of all the members in monthly group meetings. Initiating group savings was another challenge as the women themselves were not sure how they could benefit with the savings. Another problem the group faced was to maintain the accounts of the group as none of the members were literate. Kanchhi, then, requested a husband of one of the group members to update their account books once a month and she never forgot to thank the person for his contribution.
Kanchi is now the president of the Women’s Committee. She has played an important role in forming a new group which has recently received the passed-on buffalo as a gift from the original group. Her active participation and dedication towards the community has inspired her mother to donate 1368 sq. ft. of land for constructing a meeting hall of the women’s group. Kanchhi’s mother hopes that the women will be able to achieve more with a place to meet, make plans and work.
Kanchi has devoted her time and energy for the development of her community. Through her outstanding example and participation, she has been successful to be a role model for other women and girls in her community.
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