Adapting to tough times

The women of Samunnat, like people all over the world, are adjusting to life with the ever present threat of COVID-19. Vulnerable women are even more vulnerable in a pandemic. For as long as possible, even while the country is in lockdown, Samunnat Nepal gives women what they need to help them pay rent and buy food. Several homeless women and their children are accommodated and fed in the Samunnat house. Sometimes the house is full beyond capacity but we try to maintain social distancing. If someone shows symptoms they sleep in what was our Kids’ Centre prior to the pandemic.

Many of the women, who were just getting established in small income generating activities, saw all the possibilities slip away with lockdown. Where possible some women return to villages in the hills where they hope extended family might support them. Some of our women lost family members to the virus and many have had sick family members. In Nepal it is hard to accurately comment on numbers as testing is so haphazard. Suffice it to say, the virus runs rampant. We have recently lost Sangita and Ganesh Basnet, two of our supporters, who made buying the land to build our home possible. Two of our polymer group have had COVID and all of the women have been tested.

We open the studio whenever there is no lockdown. The situation changes often. Orders have been understandably reduced but our wonderful buyers in Australia do their absolute best and we are rarely without at least a couple of orders to fill. We are attempting to maintain social distancing and use sanitiser and masks. The women in the photo above are a stoic, courageous, mighty little group. Three of them (Sita, Gita and Pramila) are on the Samunnat Nepal board and one of them (Neha) has been like Kopila’s left hand! (Kopila is left handed!) In future blogs we hope to give you the chance to get to know the people involved in both Australia and Nepal. But for now…stay cool or warm depending on what you need!