Dusky and tall, usually in T-shirt & Trousers, cropped short hair, and a bag common among young men dangling from her hand - - this is the picture one can have of Syani at a glance. So different is the dress-up, general physique and demeanor of Syani from other women in her community that her presence becomes quite conspicuous for the villagers, and even for the girls of her own age in the same community. When she passes by, people simply keep on watching her, as if she was a new face. It so happened one day in Syangja, a district some 450 km from her home village, that people started talking to her in English. "I also responded in English giving them the impression that I was what they were thinking of me, "says Syani with a giggle." They were thinking that she was an African woman.

Syani Chaudhary is the Coordinator of Women Development Programme run by Backward Society Education (BASE), a partner of MS Nepal in Tulsipur, Dang. As part of her job she spends most of her time with villagers, especially women. In July, this year flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy downpour rendered hundreds of people homeless in different parts of the country. Syani was so sad that she could not go on field visits. She loves to be with the rural women, discuss their problems and help them find solutions out in the field. One fine morning during the last week of the month the rain suddenly stopped. Syani abruptly decided to go to a village called Ambapur, one of the programme areas, some 17 kilometers from Tulsipur.

She folded her trousers up and walked more than two hours without giving much care to her sleepers, which got stuck time again along the muddy slippery trails. No sooner had she reached the village she started talking to Tharu women in their own language. There was no time for exchange of pleasantries and formalities. By the news of Syani's arrival, women had already started gathering at a house. Syani examined the account keeping system of the saving groups and said "everything looks all right. Anyway, do as we said and agreed in the previous meeting." The Tharu women also replied," It is you who has taught us all this. Please continue to support us like this."

Picking up a little child from the lap of a woman of about 40, who was among the women gathered there, Syani asked "Did you do family planning?" The woman feels really awkward to answer the question before this scribe, a new face for her. She just nodded her head in affirmative. She was blushing. The affirmative answer came as a big relief to Syani. The reason of her satisfaction -- Tharu women have now started realizing the importance of family planning. The woman, who just answered Syani's question had undergone family planning only after having her seventh child. With Syani further telling them about the importance of family planning, the women became a little bit open and started asking her various questions ranging from the ones related to menstruation problems to contraceptives. Syani satisfied all with appropriate answers.

The topic of discussion then shifted to children's education. Syani asked the village women, who are mostly illiterate, whether they have sent their daughters to school. An old women, who sounded a little more radical, replied," It is time to send daughters to schools by asking the sons to stay at home."

All of them burst into laughter. "No-no, said Syani, trying to correct the old woman, both sons and daughters should be sent to school and treated equally." All agreed to her. Syani has already built a very good image among these women. They listen to her, trust her and expect a lot from her.

Syani talked to the women about saving/credit schemes, its advantages, women health, family planning, scientific farming and various other issues that are important for them. She visited every household and inspected several enterprises run by the women with the loan taken from the women groups' saving/ credit fund. The sun was about to touch the horizon. Syani took leave from all the women to go back home.

Seeing her daughter returning the same day from the field visit (which is not usual), Syani's mother became very happy and soon prepared something for her to eat. Syani then started washing clothes of her mother and her cousins. “No matter how much educated she is my daughter does every kind of work; she washes my clothes," says her mother with a pride. Quite fatigued, Syani took the meal prepared by her sister-in-law (elder brother's wife) and went to bed.

At the crack of dawn, she left her home to meet the women in her neighborhood, discussed their problems and shared some ideas on how to resolve the problems. At about 2:00 in the afternoon she went to her office (BASE). After some paper work she decided to go on a field visit to Nepalgunj the next day. "I have very little time to spend at office. I remain most of the time out in the field, She said.

Her family has 20 members including herself. Festivals like Dashain and Maghi (special festival of Tharus) and the farming and harvesting seasons bring all of them together. If her tight schedules permitted, Syani visits her family at Tuikhola, Tulsipur some 17 km from her office twice a month. Quite unusual a job for women, Syani had her old family house dismantled and constructed a new three-storey house out of her own earning. She also bought some new land. She saved the money from the allowance she got while she was in Japan to take part in a nine-month training organized by the Asian Rural Institute. The job with BASE is her regular source of income.

Twenty-seven years old Syani is a final year of B.A. student of Rapti Babai Campus in Tulsipur. She is the only woman in the backward Tharu community to attain this level of education and she is making every effort to translate what she has learnt from her education and training into action. All her family members except her mother are educated.

Thanks to her training in Japan, She now has brought a series of reforms in her village. People in her village did not plant paddy earlier and always went short of grains. Syani encouraged all villagers to plant paddy. Now there is no problem of foodgrains. "I feel rewarded when I share my knowledge with the fellow villagers to uplift their living standard, "says she. "Even if I quit BASE, I will continue to work in the villages for the good of my fellow women."

It was at the initiative of Syani that BASE launched the "women's development programme" some five years ago. Such activities as forming women's group, running saving and credit programme, encouraging women to join adult literacy classes and organizing training in women health, family planning and leadership quality development are carried out under the programme. The programme covers more than 600 women in Salyan, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur.

Syani together with seven other women like her is, currently, in Denmark to participate in a five-week "Democracy by Women" programme. Let's see what she learns from this programme and how she will utilize the knowledge she gains when she is back home.