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
Sabitra Guragain
An Inspirational Story of Transformation
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Sabitra Guragain comes from Dulari VDC in Morang district, Nepal. She is 41 years old and has learned about life the hard way. Her mother died when she was 11 months old and she was brought up by her father and elder brother. She recalls being laughed at when she innocently called her friends' mothers ‘ama’ (mother). Neighbors and relatives thought she was “bad omen” as her mother died less than a year after she was born. Her role in her strictly patriarchal household was restricted to cooking, cleaning, herding cattle, fetching water and other household chores.
Sabitra's family migrated to Jhapa district when she was 11 years old. Heavily burdened by domestic responsibly from early childhood her desire for education was dismissed. Her father and brother were of the opinion that 'investing on a girl's education is mere waste'. Luckily, a teacher who saw her desire for learning, volunteered to give her informal lessons. She eventually enrolled in school, where, despite her late arrival, she got excellent results. Her progress was so rapid that she got promoted from second to fourth grade. However, her brother no longer willing to support her education, married her off at age of 15 to Ganesh Guragain from Morang district.
Marriage made things worse for Sabitra. She lived in a joint family of fifteen members and had to take on all household responsibilities. Due to poor health, she was often bed-ridden and her in-laws deeply resented her for this. By the age of 21 she bore one daughter and two sons who added to their already challenging responsibility. Moreover, since her husband couldn't make a substantial contribution to family income, all family members treated them as burden. After enduring a lot of humiliation, they finally decided to separate from the joint family. They were now completely on their own and had no one to count on.
After a long struggle, a neighbor agreed to house them and in turn Sabitra had to serve as domestic labor. Her husband worked as a rickshaw puller in the daytime and earned a meager wage. Sabitra recalls how their youngest son came crying for milk one day after he saw the neighbor's son drinking it. Helpless, they gave him rice water mixed with sugar and said it was milk. “That night my husband and I couldn't sleep at all,” she says. “We wished we were dead instead.” However, even in the worst financial condition, Sabitra refused to compromise with her children's education. She made sure they went to school even as they were looking for a roof over their heads.
Hoping to improve their situation, Sabitra's husband asked a relative to lease him his buffalo. They took good care of the buffalo and in a few months it had a calf which they had to return to the owner. They had to give owner half of the milk they got and keep the rest for themselves. But their financial condition was still dire. To make things worse, Sabitra fell seriously ill and was confined to bed for nearly a year. Her husband could no longer pull rickshaw as he had to look after Sabitra, children and the buffalo. Their income decreased whereas expenses rose everyday. No one was willing to lend them cash or kind in such a situation. "I had no option left besides poisoning the whole family to end our suffering once and for all," says Sabitra. Ironically, she was too poor to even buy poison for her family.
Working with Heifer
In the beginning of 1999 Sabitra heard about the ‘buffalo program' of Integrated Agricultural Reform and Environment Preservation Forum (FIAREP), project partner of Heifer Nepal, became interested in it. Her husband initially dismissed the idea because they were too poor to contribute to the group fund. She finally convinced other destitute women like her and formed a group in July 1999 with 15 members which she called Shrijanshil Krishi Mahila Bachat Samuha (Creative Women’s Savings Group). Each member began saving Rs. 11($ 0.16) per month in the group fund. She received trainings on Heifer’s cornerstones, group management, animal management t, seasonal vegetable farming. She also received birth attendance training and HIV training from other organizations.
In August 2000 each of the 15 members of the group received gift of buffalo from Heifer. “The buffalo was a boon that transformed my life,” says Sabitra. She still remembers the day the buffalo came and then milk became a regular part of their meal. The income from the surplus milk made things much easier. The buffalo recipients deposit a small portion of their income in the Passing on the Gifts fund and have a contract to complete the pass on in three years. But Sabitra completed the pass on in eleven months and she adds “I could not see my suffering neighbor whose life I could change through gifts of livestock and knowledge.”
Her income also allowed her to finally buy the buffalo they had been leasing for a long time. Encouraged by the return from the buffaloes, her husband gave up pulling rickshaw and got actively involved in rearing the animals. Her group also increased their monthly saving to Rs 51 ($ 0.73) and then to Rs 100 ($ 1.43). FIRAP awarded Sabitra as the best achiever of the year for 2001. She was chosen among the 200 groups that FIAREP was working with.
Sabitra recalls her first visit to Heifer Nepal in Kathmandu, with her group member Nirmala, to celebrate Heifer Day and how overwhelmed she was to interact with other groups across the country. As the chairperson of the group, Sabitra has led various activities and mobilized the group for dynamic growth. The financial and emotional stability she gained through the gift from Heifer created new hope and opportunities for her entire community.
Her daughter Susma is currently in college doing her Bachelor in Business Studies. She also got scholarship from HPI Nepal under the Girl Child Education Promotion Program. Her life took a new turn after that. She has also formed her own group called “Adarsa Women Agriculture Saving Group” in May 2001 and is the group secretary. With her initiation her group also has formed and mentored 16 youth groups in her community. She aims to pursue higher studies and set an example for other people in her community. Sabitra's eldest son has just completed his intermediate level in humanities and her youngest son is in doing Intermediate level in Engineering. Sabitra's husband, who had nearly given up on life at one point, is now an active social worker in the community. The gender training and cornerstone training he received from Heifer changed his perspective on gender and values of life. He takes immense pride in his wife's achievement and is fully supportive of her endeavors. He is nominated in the executive board of FIAREP and works with the Local Governance Program of District Development Committee.
To demonstrate her contribution to the community, we can share some of her key achievements:
Sabitra as a leader in Community Development
Sabitra has come along a long way – from struggle for subsistence to an honored Social Leader and a role model for the entire community. Some of her key achievements are:
• In her leadership, her group has constructed road of about 1 km to her village. She and her group members donated land to build road up to the school they have established.
• Her group has renovated several parts of the existing roads.
• Her group gifted Rs. 3000 ($ 43) (the income made during the milk holiday) to Heifer Cambodia to support needy women like them. The group treasures the letter of appreciation Heifer Cambodia. The message of empowerment this gift portrayed is beyond description.
• Sabitra taught her group members to build toilet in each household and also built a public pit-toilet for the community.
• She has campaigned against alcohol abuse and gambling in the village.
• Her group provided Rs. 750 ($ 10.71) for a child who had speech disorder to undergo a surgery.
• With Sabitra's initiative, her group has mediated and resolved many conflicts and property dispute in the village. Her group is considered as 'mediator’ in the village.
• She has formed and mentored six more groups. She serves as facilitator for the groups and help with pass on of the gift of animals, training and skills.
• Her group has contributed in the plantation along the road side, barren lands and public lands. The villagers remember her group with honor for the new green look the village has got.
• She has transferred the skill and knowledge of Bio-Gas plant, which she gained from FIAREP, to her group members and also to people who were interested in her village and many new plants have been built.
• She is an active advocate of gender equity. She started with setting her own example of providing equal opportunity for daughter and sons and encourages the villagers too.
• In partnership with the local health post, her group has put up several health camps for prenatal checkups, health checkups for children and also provided de-worming tablets for children, awareness on common diseases and other fatal diseases like HIV/AIDS.
Sabita's affinity for education for the deprived children
Sabitra, a woman who barely has any academic education has extraordinarily inspiring foresight for education, especially for the deprived children. With this strong drive but not much material resource in hand, she had started a praiseworthy endeavor to put up a facility for local Mushar (ethnic tribe in Tarai who are considered untouchable) children. She managed to acquire permission to use the public land, her group toiled hard to clear the deserted piece of land, put up a four roomed thatched facility, a toilet and a tube well. She then started campaigning for the enrollment of the Mushar children. At present 85 children, who never in life would have thought of holding books are getting primary level education. Two teachers have volunteered to support this initiative.
Though very poor in physical facility, the local people say that the quality of education this school is providing is comparatively good and the people from other community have shown interest to enroll their children to this school. The group is now busy gathering resources for sustainability of this school.
Sabitra has lead campaigns against child labor and has run awareness program on nutrition and hygiene for children.
Her group has also created a fund to provide three scholarships every year for needy children in the community.
Sabitra and her group's improved economic status
Sabitra has made significant lucrative transactions in livestock. From her income, she constructed a house in April 2003. She also owns 2 Kattha land (0.068 ha). She has recently started a dry fruit micro-enterprise which has been highly profitable; she brings her products from across the Nepal-India border and sells it in the local market. At present, she owns four goats, one cow two buffaloes and a calf that give her 25 liters of milk per day. She has leased out her goat to needy families in the community. Her house is equipped with most of the modern electronic equipments like Television, Radio etc.
Initially, only two members of her group owned a house and rest of them lived on leased land, for which they had to serve as domestic labor to the landlord. Now all the members own a house with livestock, small kitchen garden and a toilet. They are mostly engaged in livestock rearing, seasonal vegetable production and micro retail business for income generation. The milk production of the group has increased and the group's monthly saving fund has reached Rs. 1,75,000. ($2500), which is mobilized among the group members for income generation activities. The interest rate is as low as 2 percent.
Recognition to Sabitra
• Sabitra has been unanimously selected as the chairperson in her group ever since it was established.
• She is the chairperson of the Group Coordination Committee, Itahari
• She is in the executive board of the school in their village
• She has been selected as the community health volunteer
• She is selected as a general member in the FIAREP executive board.
• Sabitra was selected as the best achiever of the year by FIAREP .
Vision
Sabitra envisions building capacity of the groups to expand and diversify the program. In the future, she wants to make a substantial contribution in the field of education because she recognizes education as the surest way to empowerment. Her personal experience has strengthened her empathy for people from poor, disadvantaged backgrounds. Today Sabitra is a revered figure in her community and she gives all the credit of her success to Heifer. She thinks that she would have given up on life long ago had it not been for Heifer. “Heifer not only gave me a new life but also brought lasting changes in my entire community,” says Sabitra.
Written in June 2006
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