Job creation...another aspect of empowering women

Income generation training is a big industry in Nepal and sometimes the only people who benefit are the trainers. We need to think critically about what is available. Sometimes there are no jobs to be had at the end of training; sometimes there is an oversupply of people trained in one field; sometimes the level of training provided doesn't really equip people to compete in the workforce; sometimes trainers and training providers are exploitative. We have to be vigilant.  This is one reason why we shy away from big programs (even though numbers may look good) and try as much as possible for locally based, tailor made solutions.A direct way of helping is to look at job creation. We are doing this in a few ways:We employ two of the ladies who received Montessori training in our child care centre;We are establishing a small beauty parlour in our middle shop where some of the ladies who have received Beauty Parlour training will work;We have started a Helping Hand Catering Team. This is pretty pioneering in Nepal but people have been very encouraging and they have had their first job. We will report more on this soon (when we have photos!). Basically this is a group of ladies who all had training in cooking, especially in southern Indian cooking which is popular now. These ladies are hired for casual jobs-helping for weddings, funerals etc.And we are in the process of purchasing a grinding machine (Kumari is shopping in the photo above) which will mean two ladies can be employed in a small business where people in the community will bring their grains and seeds to be ground.  Training has been provided and we have decided on the machine. We need to renovate our cow shed which was damaged in the earth quake. It was damage that was not a problem for a cow but is now! We sold our cow. Not all our ideas work and a lonely cow created a lot of work! Cows are great sources of income generation for women in their homes.We hope you have enjoyed this series of posts about some of the ladies who are changing their lives. There is a lot of sad news in the world at the moment and we thought it would be nice for people to hear some positive things too. As we always say though, this is not possible without the support of people who support us. If you have read this far, you are one of the people whose encouragement and love makes a huge difference. Dhanyabad.More soon!