Partner PNL
Project: Empowerment for Transformation of Marginalised Communities – PR4538
Location:Butwal, Nepal (Mayadevi Ward 2, Motipur)
Date:6-7 May, 2019
Report By:Melanie Williams

Previous VisitsPaul Hansen, Feb 2018

Partnership background:

TEAR has been supporting PNL since 2002. Originally the work was solely focused on people with physical disability, but has now expanded to broader community development using a self-help group approach. PNL continue to be involved with leprosy and disability work through two other projects.
The current project was approved for 3 years funding by TEAR in December 2016. During this cycle PNL plan to phase out of the work areasMotipur and Gonaha and commence work in MayadeviGaupalika

Objectives of visit

• TEAR to be updated on progress of project, particularly starting in new areas.
• Encourage & support PNL staff.
• Observe progress in new work areas, ward no. 1,2 and 3 of MayadeviGaupalika (formerly Dhamauli and Kamahariya VDCs).

Evaluation

• The evaluation was discussed with all PNL staff and the board chairman present. PNL agrees to run the evaluation in November 2019. It was discussed that an impact evaluation of the exited groups in Motipur and Gonaha (a mix of SHGs, Networks and Cooperatives) as well as a few of the phased out, but still working DPOs would be the most beneficial and useful for learning.
• PNL appreciated Phil Lindayfacilitating the evaluation in 2016 and would welcome him again if he is available. Especially his Nepali language skills were much appreciated. If Phil is not available it would be beneficial to find an evaluator who is able to speak Nepali or possibly Hindi.
• PNL would appreciate a 6 month extension from January 2020 – June 2020 in order to get on to the Nepali fiscal cycle again (July-June). This would ease the burden of reporting and unlikely interfere with the project as work in new areas has already commenced.

SALT II

• PNL appreciated SALT II as a learning opportunity. They haven’t had the chance yet to discuss with the team what they had learned and how it can be shared in the organisation more widely. Sitadidi and Mana didi are planning to do this soon and concurrently discuss with the team which tools/learnings they would be implementing. Once decided they will share with the board and contact TEAR for further help if necessary.
• KOBO toolbox has been used to conduct the 2018 baseline survey in order to collect data for the new work area. Sangeeta didi felt supported having been trained by Paul through his last visit and didn’t find difficulties collecting the data. She did have challenges including how to analyse data, add Nepali language capability etc. As Paul passed through Butwal on his way to Pokhara he was able to work through these with PNL, as well as connect them with INF staff who can provide ongoing support.
• The sessions on photo voice and indicators have been appreciated by PNL as well.

Mental Health (MH)

• Mana didi and Sitadidi appreciated learning about MH in development at SALT II as well. Similar to the other new learnings (above) they want to discuss with the team and the board if this is an area PNL would like to get more involved in. If it is decided that PNL will get involved, Mana didi will let TEAR know. In this case PNL would appreciate opportunities to learn more about this area and requested training. A connection/opportunity to learn from CMC would be much appreciated.

Exposure visit

• PNL expressed interest in an exposure visit to either Faith in Action in Bangladesh or Saahasee in India. PNL has had conversations with both organisations at SALT II and, as their approach is similar, would appreciate the opportunity to learn from them.

New work area MayadeviGaupalika

• PNL started the formation of new groups at the end of 2018 (about 5-6 months prior to this visit). 25groups (20 SHGs, 2 Kishori Groups, 2 Child Clubs and 1 DPO) have been formed in 3 areas in Mayadevi – in ward no. 1, 2 and 3.
• In conversation with PNL it becomes obvious that the choice of those communities was very informed, consultative and deliberate. Much discussion was held with the local government, theDPAC (District Project Advisory committee) and 20 local communities across the 3 wards. Authorities have requested the work in ward no. 2 in particular as those communities are more remote than the other wards and therefore very disadvantaged and marginalised. 12 groups were formed in ward 2 alone.
• PNL carefully ensured there is no duplication and that no other NGOs/INGOs work with those communities (this is the case as they are hard to access by road). This value is evident as a school children’s club was planned to be formed, but upon learning that such a club exists already, PNL decided to form a community children’s club for children who dropped out school. The aim is to work with children to a point at which they can be re-admitted to school. Also school children are welcome to participate in the club.
• The new work area works predominantly with Madhesi communities. This is particularly challenging as they are more patriarchal than other Nepali casts and women have a lower status than in other casts. PNL is well aware that empowering women in this situation will require harder work and more involvement from their side and have adjusted their strategy accordingly. Next month PNL is planning a meeting with all staff and the community mobilisers to discuss how to approach this. They will also make it a priority to hear from the community mobilisers about what the groups want (PNL in general strikes me as a very consultative and listening organisation with the communities, but also internally).
• Both visited groups were all-female. But a few mixed groups have been formed in this new phase as well.
• PNL has focussed on including the most vulnerable into the new groups formed in Mayadevi. Their approach has been to consult with relevant local stakeholders (local government, leaders, community groups) to identify the poorest. Then they conducted a household survey. Finally, PNL requested the community members to identify themselves in their communities who would be the poorest/most marginalised and benefit most from being part of a SHG (this was done through ranking each other’s status of marginalisation). PNL also prioritised People With Disability (PWD), parents of Children with Disability and people with leprosy. Only after completion of this analysis PNL invited people to be part of the SHGs.
• The community was made aware of considering PWD as particularly marginalised. The community now encouraged PWD to join the DPO established a month ago.

Kalika SHG

• Founded 5 months ago, meets monthly
• 24 members, only one was missing during our visit
• Female group with a few teenage girls who dropped out of school
• All members are Madhesi
• Most SHG members lost their own land due to river erosion (the community lives close to the river) and live now on land which is not theirs. There are 25-30 houses in this village. 3-4 houses have their own hand pump for water access. There is 1 public water pump. There are no toilets in this village.
• All women introduced themselves confidently, which is something they didn’t do prior to joining the group.Additionally every woman can now write her name due to literacy classes run by PNL.
• The group met outside under a tree, in front of a temple as there is no community hall in this village.
• No savings and loan scheme has been started yet.
• 9 drop out students are eager to attend an IGA training (preferably tailoring training – PNL is planning to run such a training). It’s good for girls to get a qualification like this as this will help them to get married more easily as well as help them being more independent once they get married. The girls report having dropped out of school due to far distance (they need to go to the neighbouring municipality for schooling), economic status of their family and therefore the need to work at home. The teenage girls have completed year 3, 5 and 6.
• Madhesi communities are very male dominated. All women in the group reported their husbands not allowing them to go outside previously, but now allow them to attend the SHG. The husbands who previously even didn’t want to “hear them speak” (a phrase often mentioned during my visit), are now interested to hear of the importance of the SHG.
• Most community members earn income through day-labour and agricultural work.
• The local government funded a bridge that connects the village to near-by facilities. The contractor employs local villagers and volunteers. The men were seen building the components for the bridge during our visit.
• The women like coming to the SHG because they feel happier now, they enjoy talking to each other and laugh more now. They are aware of the challenges they face in their communities, but appreciate the opportunity to address them together. They also share what they learn in the SHG outside of the group.
• A few members in the group mentioned how they desire to be competent to earn income and address their issues self-sufficiently after 6 years. This indicates them knowing about PNL’s exit strategy and facing it with confidence.
• The group said they are proud of their cultural dance and songs and that this is something they are really good at. I probably didn’t realise that I opened a barrel when I requested them to present a song and dance. The singing, dancing and giggling nearly didn’t stop anymore (video available).

Whilst most houses are small mud huts, a couple commenced brick constructions were present. Better housing is slowly being built and was not yet present at the surveying period for this project.

Parbati SHG

• 30 members, 1 member missing today – meet monthly, formed 6 months ago.
• All female group with quite a few teenage girls who dropped out of school.
• All members are Madhesi
• Most women introduce confidently, but a few feel shy still.
• PNL staff were involved in initial group formation, but now the community mobiliser (a local woman with education up to +2) is running the trainings as a paid volunteer (snacks and other expenses covered). The community mobiliser is trained by PNL staff so she can run trainings herself at a later stage.
• Roles of regular members, treasurer, secretary and chairman are already defined.Savings and credit scheme will be started later on. At present discussions are being held if the monthly contribution should be NPR 50 or NPR 100 for each member.
• A positive surprise is that 3-4 men were around supporting the group by serving them drinks and snacks. This is very unexpected considering the otherwise male-dominated Madhesi culture.
• The women mentioned they would like to add a few (educated) male members to their SHG who can support them and help them advocate more successfully. PNL is currently discussing how they can empower the women more without reiterating present cultural preferences.
• Since not many of the women have gone to school or only a few years, most hardly understand Nepali and speak mainly Madhesi.
• Challenges in the community are no drainage, no accounts, poor housing, no toilets (only 2-3 houses have a private toilet – the community is aware of sanitation, but has no finances to build toilets), no/very bad road access in rainy season, no access to drinking water (a few hand pumps available for community, but depth is not sufficient for drinking water quality. A deeper pump was given by red cross but is now not functioning anymore).
• Area is flooded frequently. Many member’s land has been lost due to erosion near the river bank. The community has applied to the local government to protect the river bank from further erosion to avoid further land loss. Now 50% live on land which is not theirs.
• There is no school in this village. A secondary school is 4 kilometres away. A few ladies mentioned they studied until year 5 (incl. the treasurer) and year 6 (incl. the secretary).
• Most community members earn their income through cash crop agriculture, day-labour work, selling of vegetables and keeping of domestic animals to sell their milk or meat.
• The group commented that: “we’re uneducated women and the political and social leaders discriminate against us, but through the group we gain knowledge and awareness.”
• Relationships in the community have significantly improved through the group. Prior to joining the group, the women didn’t speak to each other. Now they not only speak to each other but care about each other’s wellbeing and discuss their shared problems in regular meetings.
• The group is very interested in tailoring training as well.

Women from the Parbait SHG

My impression is that the level of poverty is very high – this is based on the answers of the women, conversations with PNL staff and own observations. It will be a challenge to empower those women as their mindset is very much a poverty mindset with a dependency on men paired with a lack of self-esteem.* PNL is well aware and prepared for this challenge and I am confident the team will see success if they continue to be committed to those people as they were to the previous groups. I have no doubt this is the case.
* It has to be taken into consideration that the groups are still very young and have only had input for about half a year.

Motipur and Gonaha hand over

• The handover of the Motipur and Gonaha groups in Dec 2018/January 2019 was PNL’s first hand over. They celebrated the hand over in January with a big event at which representatives from the local government publicly appreciated PNL’s hard work over the years.
• PNL is confident the Motipur groups will be sustainable and strong. More concerns are with the groups in Mayadevi rural municipality (former GonahaVDC). The Gonaha network and cooperative are registered but the participants are less educated than those in Motipur. PNL will discuss internally how they can support Gonaha groups at this stage to ensure their sustainability. It might be a possibility to follow up with the network and cooperative monthly for the next 1-2 years and provide support in accounting. The Motipur network and cooperative receives monthly supervision from PNL’s Assistant Admin and Finance Officer, Jyoti.
• Motipur women are more empowered due to the mix of Madhesi and Pahadi (hill) communities present in the groups. Hill tribes are more empowered to begin with, which explains the increased self-sufficiency of those groups. Gonaha, much like the communities in Mayadevi, are all Madhesi and face above mentioned challenges concerning gender marginalisation.

Cooperative and Network Motipur visit (phased out)

• Established 3.5 years ago, registered 5-6 months ago – this was about 1.5 year delayed due to the changes in the local government structure.
• The network has grown the number of shareholders from 320 (6 months ago) to 382. And the interest to join continues to grow.
• Members save 300-3000 NPR (AUD 3.80 – 38) each month and have increased their savings from NPR 38 lakh (AUD 49,000) to NPR 55 lakh (AUD 71,000) within a year since the last TEAR visit. 14% interest is collected on loans and 9% interest is paid on savings.
• They are now known to the community and if political leaders want to introduce new activities or policies, the cooperative gets invited for their input.
• The cooperative organised a free eye camp in cooperation with the Butwal sub-metropolitan municipality. Furthermore, a uterine prolapse screening as well as a malnutrition program/camp was run.
• Saswati(see case story below) organised sanitary pad and reusable nappy making training
• The women present report how being part of the cooperative/network has changed their life as they are now much more empowered, confident to speak and able to advocate with political leaders and the local government.
• Due to the extra responsibilities of running a household, the women often used to have to do the accounts until 12 am or 1 am at night (after having completed their chores at home). The women report having felt overwhelmed and used to cry often at those occasions. Thank PNL’s support they are now able to do the accounting monthly and if they face problems they can call PNL who will help them. Once a month Jyoti from PNL visits the cooperative to check the accounts and support the group.
• Motipur cooperative is renting an office space at the moment. PNL recommend the cooperative to request land from the local government to build their own building which could be used by the network and the cooperative both. PNL also recommends to increase the number of shareholders to create more revenue.
• The cooperative is currently listed in 1 ward, but plan to list in more wards so that they can receive budgets from those wards too.
• The communities are surprised on how empowered the involved women are today. The groups report that 5-6 years ago when the local government used to organise a meeting and invite the community all attendants would be males. But these days the women attendance rate is over 50%. The local government released a policy that all committees must have min. 33% female participation. But the participation in reality is much higher already and continues to increase.

Cooperative and Network Motipur

DPO Sainamaina (phased out)

• This is a very progressive DPO which came out of a parent’s group of Children with Disabilities (CWD) and other people with disabilities (PWD) initiated by PNL 12 years ago. The group which started meeting under a tree, registered after 2 years. PNL phased out 5-6 years after the DPO’s initiation. Whilst the group was marginalised in the community initially due to the disabilities in the group, they gained later support from a local Maoist leader who also helped them to access large grants from the local government. After many applications the DPO received land from a local government school and was able to build the building they are in now. The support from the local government increased from NPR 30,000 (AUD 380) annually to 25 lakh (AUD 32,000) as a once off due to the assistance of this Maoist leader. Since, this man died. But the DPO continues to submit proposals and advocates for support from the local government to continue their activities.
• The DPO still receives NPR 1-2 lakh (AUD 1,300 –2,600) annually from the local government, which is additional income to the funds generated through computer training offered in their facilities.
• Since 2 years the DPO runs basic computer trainings and has currently 36 students enrolled. Students with disabilities benefit from a 50% discount. Some of the trainers are people with disabilities.
• The DPO is currently thinking how they can expand their services in order to ensure the financial sustainability of the organisation. They are considering advanced computer trainings.
• The DPO seems well accepted in the community with their voice being heard through much advocacy. As they faced challenges with load shedding (electricity cuts), they raised the concern with the local government and the impact it has on their computer training business. They were promised to be provided with a generator in the near future.
• The DPO members feel happy that they are able to provide valuable training to the community members (incl. PWD/CWD).

Success story

Sanjib Thapa Magar is an active member of the DPO. He shares: “We all have a disability. But if we are united we can do things and we can educate each other – peer to peer. Able bodied people used to discriminate against us and said that disability is a result of sin. They used to think we cannot do anything. But I thought we can do something and as we do so, the community will stop discriminating against us. I used to be part of the original group that started meeting 12 years ago. One day PNL organised para games – and I won. I received presents and the local newspaper raised the collective voice of us who live with disabilities.” After this experience, Sanjib joined the DPO more actively and started visiting families with family members with disabilities on home visits. He participated in many trainings that PNL offered through the DPO and feels confident to speak in front of people today. Sanjib has a bachelor’s degree in Nepali language and teaches this subject at a local government school. “I will always be thankful to PNL for the impact they had on my life.”

The members of the DPO in Sainamainain their building which has 3 class rooms.

Success story – Income generating activities (IGA) Motipur

Soraswothi Pun tailoring shop

• A training by sundar dhoka sathi sewa taught Soraswothi how to sow reusable sanitary pads and diapers. The sanitary pads are a success and many women from marginalised back grounds purchase them as they are more affordable than the disposable ones. Women with moreincome still prefer the disposable options available. It seems the main motivation to buy reusable products is price rather than environmental sustainability at this point.

SoraswothiPun is a member of the Motipurnetwork and today owns two tailoring shops. One in Butwal and one in her home village, managed by her sister. Her bright smile conceals her past which hasn’t been easy at all. Soraswothiwas left by her husband after the birth of her second child. This threw her in a phase of depression and withdrawal. When PNL met Soraswothishe didn’t want to talk to them. Soraswothi’s mother was concerned about her daughter and when she heard about a SHG PNL started in her area, she talked to the chairman about Soraswothi challenges. The SHG invited Soraswothi to join. After she joined the group she benefited from many trainings including a tailoring training. At the time Soraswothi didn’t want to work at all and only had strength left to cry. But the group continued to encourage her. She says: “Now I am strong and feel supported. I used to feel afraid to talk to people I don’t know. Now I love it – look I am sharing my story with you. I am confident to go anywhere now.” PNL and the community watched with hesitation Soraswothi boarding onto the long-distance bus to participate in a 10-day training for advanced tailoring in Kathmandu. But she radiated confidence and says with a smile: “Now I can go anywhere. I feel confident to go to Kathmandu for this training.” Through the training Soraswothi was able to broaden her skills and can now offer reusable sanitary pads and diapers as well as traditional tailoring services. Today she is happy and proud of her achievements. She would like to join English classes in the future to improve her language skills. Soraswothi likes to reflect on how much change occurred in her life over the 6-7 years since she got involved in the SHG. She desires to see even more change in her life. Soraswothi wants to continue her two shops which she is running since two years, she enjoys providing opportunities for other women who go through similar challenges as she has and she is eager to continue to support her son and daughter who are in class 4 and 5.

Standard Issues for visits

Recommendations / Post visit Action Items

1. PNL to discuss with board about further action regarding Mental Health. Depending on the outcome of those discussions TEAR to assist in further learning and possible connection with CMC.
2. Paul will follow up support on analysing data collected from Kobo Toolbox, including sending some excel files.
3. Follow up after team and board discussions if further learning’s would be implemented from SALT II and how TEAR can support PNL
4. TEAR and PNL to discuss which evaluator would be most suitable for the evaluation in November 2019.
5. Following discussions with PNL on a range of other possible capacity support (financial training, visiting other partners, TEAR will consider if its organisational support program has space for PNL in the near future and then discuss doing this to help PNL develop a strategic approach to its capacity building)
6. TEAR to inform PNL best way to get their project cycle changed to July – June so it fits the Nepali fiscal year.

Glossary

CWD – Children with Disabilities

DPO – Disabled People’s Organisation

IGA – Income Generating Activities

PWD – People with Disabilities

SHG – Self-Help Group