Women’s Education, Rights & Life Skills Volunteering

Women’s education, rights & life skills are very important for women’s empowerment. This section will rationalize why we need support and volunteers on Women’s education, rights & life skills. The status of Nepalese women is extremely poor in terms of their health, education, community participation, income generation, self-confidence, leadership, decision-making and access to policy making and human rights. For example, the enrollment of women in higher education is only 24.95%, whilst the number of women enrolled in technical and vocational training is substantially lower than men. Traditionally women in Nepal have not been seen to be major earners economically, with only 45.2% of women categorized as economically active, in contrast to 68.2% of men, which VIN is seeking to address through this program. Poverty is widespread in Nepal’s rural communities and girls are needed to help with household chores, rather than go to school. Girls are perceived to be a burden, with a Nepali proverb stating “Raising a girl is like watering another man’s garden”, being off early and then becoming the cleaner and cook in their mother-in-law’s home. Because women from impoverished, rural communities gain a level of education that is too low to enable them to continue to further education or enter skilled jobs, they never reach their social and economic potential and their capabilities are wasted.

The goal of the Women’s Education, Rights and Life Skills project is to educate underprivileged women on their rights and life skills. We provide basic education, life skills training, knowledge on health and domestic issues and inform women of their rights. We have set up hundreds of women’s groups and delivered literacy classes and life skills training to over 3,000 women in the community. The groups are designed to ensure that the women have a support network that is sustainable and can operate independently of VIN. The women are eager to learn to enable them to establish independence for themselves and for their children.