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Project Spotlight
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Welcome to Givewell's Project Spotlight. Each month we highlight a project for which a charity is currently seeking funds. We also provide details on how to give directly for this project.
Background Information: Women in rural Nepal live very restricted lives. For many their lives are dominated by a daily round of collecting firewood and water, tending to animals and subsistence crops, preparing food and caring for children and the elderly. Many only have enough nutritional food to last the family for six months. Most have never had the chance to attend school, or if they have they have rarely had more than a few years of primary education. A recent World Bank report on the financial sector in Nepal found that only 26% of Nepalese households have a bank account, and these are mostly urban households. Most rural financial transactions are carried out through expensive informal channels. Helping women to organise into microfinance groups to save and revolve loans has proven a valuable tool in enabling women to find ways to improve their livelihoods. In remote communities and for the poorest and most disadvantaged women and those of the Dalit cast (the untouchables) the potential is there but they need considerable support to form and manage a savings and credit group. A lack of understanding of savings and credit practices and poor literacy and numeracy skills are major obstacles for these women’s groups. Project Description: The ‘Tin Khamba’ (three pillars) project provides poor, low-caste and minority women with an opportunity to develop their literacy and numeracy skills, manage their own savings and credit groups, and improve their livelihoods. The Tin Khamba project will initially focus on four disadvantaged regions of Nepal: Makawanpur District; Khotang / Solukhumbu; Kathmandu District; and the Bardiya District. Women participate in nine months of intensive training activities to build the foundation skills needed to improve their livelihoods. They attend classes for two hours a day, six days a week for six months for basic literacy and then an additional three months for a post literacy course. With a seven month continuing education program, women develop their skills in managing a livelihood activity or micro-enterprise. Once they have mastered the basics of savings and credit groups they are supported to form self-managed cooperatives. These cooperatives receive ongoing management support and access to capital for on-lending, and are used to facilitate bulk purchase, sale and marketing of goods. The project will contribute to lifting families out of poverty by: providing women with an opportunity to become literate and numerate, establishing sustainable savings and credit facilities in remote rural villages, supporting women to earn an income and improve their livelihoods and building the capacity of local NGO’s to provide planning, training and monitoring support to women’s groups. This project is an extension of the successful Resunga Mahila project where the following outcomes were achieved:
Can donors/grant makers give directly for this project? Yes.
Contact details for further information: Previous Project Spotlights
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