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Confidence went up along with income level

“Some women outside our group talked badly about me and the chair person. They did not like that we often went outside the village. They said that we were taking the money from the women’s group to ourselves. But we did not listen to them. Today they themselves are members of this group and benefit from the trainings we get and the saving we share.”

Pabita Kamchha, 44, is the vice chair person of Bhairab Gramin Mahila Kalyan Samuha – a group situated in Bhairabistan VDC in Palpa district, supported by the MS partner organization Women Welfare Association.

As Pabita Kamchha tells us her story, she is sitting in her traditional two storey house where she lives together with 16 family members. Pabita’s husband has three wives. After having given birth to six daughters the first wife was no longer able to give him more children and the much wanted son. Although Pabita Kamchha succeeded in giving birth to a girl and a boy, her husband decided to marry one more woman.

She does not feel bad about being the second of three wives. Thanks to her participation in the women’s group she feels confident and believes her life has became better.

“Before I did not speak up and we had many problems in the household. We lived in a thatched mud house and our livelihood depended on the income from a little shop. As my husband used to drink a lot the money was scarce.”

To Pabita Kamchha, the positive changes in her life started with the training and the awareness she has been given through WWA.

“There may be a light bulb in the ceiling but still the people below the bulb is not enlightened,” she says poetically, indicating that material development is not enough. The development of people’s awareness is just as important.

As for the material development the production of various vegetables has brought along a positive economic change for Pabita Kamchaa and her family. A study tour and trainings in kitchen gardening have taught her and her fellow group members how to grow vegetables and sell them, and how to start a ginger production. They used to be dependent on crops as millet and maize only. Today, they all deliver vegetables to the market in Butwal. Raising chicken and goats have also become a new possible source of income since taking a loan from the group has made is easier to purchase more livestock.

On top of that, Pabita Kamchha has experienced a practical boost in skills used in her own daily life. Instead of only giving her thumb print as identification, she can now give her signature. She can read signs when she goes to town and she is not cheated when buying goods anymore. At home her self -confidence has meant that she upholds a stronger position in the big family. For many years it was she who had to ask her husband for money. Now it is directly opposite as her husband is unemployed and earns no money. Pabita often finds herself as mediator when a fighting occurs between her husband and one of the other wives: “He drinks alcohol regularly but the fighting in our home has definitely been less.”

Pabita Kamchhas growing self- confidence has encouraged one of the other two wives to be member of the group as well. And she is proud to say that one daughter in the big family has also decided to participate in another newly formed women’s group under WWA.