Fulfilling an Unreachable Dream

“Sunita, 14, had a hidden desire. She wished her family could own a car, or any vehicle for that matter. But she knew her father, a daily wage earner, could never afford one.”

 IWEN (Inter-cultural Women Educational Network), Canada has been backing ex- bonded girls and their siblings (sisters) from last three years for education and basic health care through Creating Possibilities Nepal. The ex-bonded girls who are from the most underprivileged family go to school with a happy face. There was always question that how we can support these ex-bonded girls for their quality education. To ease their work load so that these girls can go school on time and will have surplus time for study, on Jan 17th, we allocated 28 bicycles to the girls of grade 7 to 10. Due to their extreme poverty for this community buying a bicycle is an unmanageable task, as Sunita’s desire shows above.

What is the problem we are addressing?

The allocation of bicycles is going to ensure quantity and qualitative changes in students’ study and lives. Our student, Nirmala told us, “Without bicycle I would have dropped out of my school and would have become wage laborer in fields or nearby cities because I was always late to school as I had to help in household chores.”

Bicycles have made them independent and have given them self-confidence. Not only is this area, in the Terai region (Flat area) of Nepal bicycles is a most important vehicle for the daily life, so it will be for IWEN girls. Bicycles in this areas deals with many problems. It is like a having car in western society.

• Our students will be on time in school and can return home before dark. Otherwise girls need to be before dark so they have leave school before school ends. With bicycles they will save 2 hour per day.

• Every weekend the girls have to walk more than 2 hours to the forest to collect fire wood and they have to carry a heavy load of wood on their head. With these bicycles now they can go and come faster and the load of fire wood will be carried by bicycles.

• Always the girls have to pay either 90 cents or have to walk more than 4 hours to reach the nearby city. After getting, bicycles it has become easier.

• On the back of their bicycles they take their siblings to school; so the younger ones also reach school very easily and this makes their siblings regular in school.

• The girls have become confident and vivacious. Becoming mobile has made them powerful.

• It has long –term impact to the girls and to the society.

Girls’ Happy Faces

When we handed over the bicycles the girls were very stunned and kept examining their new bikes. It seemed that they could not believe what they got.

After getting the bicycle Sunita, on the left, a student of grade 9 and an active member of local cultural group told us that the bicycle would help her to go to her tuition and to her cultural meeting. Sunita added that now she does not have to wait for anyone and she would be on time to attend these events.

Sunita’s and Nirmala’s sharings capture other students’ feelings and expressions around getting the bicycles. At the event, the girls’ families were glad, grateful and relieved. This gift serves the whole family. What they could not give but wanted was given by IWEN.

Dinesh Raj Sapkota.