Females in Nepal face many disadvantages beginning from birth!
Society has a strong preference for boys and prefers to educate boys over girls. Female family members receive inferior and less food than male members. Females have fewer legal rights than men.
Maternal mortality is one of the highest in the world and among the current AIDS cases in Nepal and female cases outnumber male cases by 3 to 1.
Nepal is one of three countries in the world where life expectancy for women is lower than for men.
The highest risk groups for poor health are children under five (particularly girls) and females of reproductive age.
In Nepal a woman’s health is defined by her duties at home as a mother and the work they have to do to sustain the family.
The poor among them are especially susceptible to dangers and health-hazards related to their daily activities like collecting firewood and cutting fodder for the live-stock. Their daily cores are fraught with risks like rape and snake bites. Carrying heavy loads and heavy duty near cliffs and river banks pose a constant danger for accidents and a threat to their health.
From this background we are providing basic-healthcare-access to our beneficiaries and we are conducting awareness programs in schools and communities advocating women’s health. Moreover we are organizing and facilitating various health-camps for our target-groups!
Eco-friendly-cooking stoves:
These women and their children are also acutely exposed to the toxic smoke from burning wood in the wood-stoves inside their habitats. Each year this indoor air-pollution contributes to thousands of premature deaths, burning and debilitating diseases, the majority being women and children under the age of five.
In providing our “Educare-Families” with fuel-efficient, eco-friendly cook stoves we help to reduce smoke and harmful gases by 90% and reduce cooking time by up to 50%!
SANITARY-PADS:
Most women and girls living in rural areas are limited to using basic homemade pads made from cloths.
In Nepal culture and tradition make girls and women believe that having their period is a sinful time. Women are considered untouchable and are restricted from carrying out various activities. They are not supposed to enter the kitchen and do cooking, sleeping in their beds or visiting temples. In rural parts of Nepal the practice of “CHHAUPADI-PRATHA”, where girls and women are banished and kept in small, dirty huts for the duration of their period is still widespread. They believe that during their period girls and women are impure and cannot be touched or otherwise they could bring misfortune to the whole family.
There are reports of numerous cases of girls and women who died in these huts due to snake-bites, smoke- intoxication, cold and even rape and violence during such isolations.
Moreover many girls are foregoing school during their menstruation which constitutes a big disadvantage in their education.
It is for these reasons that we are providing sanitary-pads to our beneficiaries and we are conducting awareness-programs in schools and communities to eradicate these old believe-systems!