Name: Rebati Tiwari
Location: Jitpurphedi-3 Jitpur
Date: 2019.Apr.23
Rebati, a 59-year-old single woman who has been living alone for almost 20 years is in dire need of help for the construction of her new house. She has 3 children, all of whom are married. Her children live near her, and provide some support, as Rebati has no income source. Sometimes, she works in the farm in exchange for some food.
For the past few years, she has been living in a fragile shelter as her house was destroyed by the 2015 earthquake. The shelter, made of tinplates is now corroded. The roof leaks during rain, and snakes enter her shelter. She was in need of a better shelter, so she started building a new house by herself.
The new house is located not far from the shelter; and she herself has worked at the construction site. However, she ran out of money before its completion. Rebati got 15,000 Rupees earthquake subsidy from government, and took some loan from friends and her children to build the house. She has no job, and worse still she has high blood pressure, which requires medication.
The house is almost done, but for the past two months no work is being done at the site due to her limited finance.
– Deepak Raj Ghimire (Camp Leader, Volunteers Initiative Nepal)
I spent 8 weeks in volunteering with VIN. I did a project on research on women empowerment in Kavresthalli. I can say it was totally new and exciting experience for me. Having to get involved with international and local volunteers, and getting to know more about Kavresthalli`s women was the best part of volunteering in the organization. VIN is doing excellent job in supporting women of Kavresthalli. Few women in Kavresthalli who have not known about VIN properly are hoping to get support from VIN. I believe that VIN will contribute more. I made few special friends. We were four of them in this project. We had two international volunteers and two local volunteers including me. We made a lot of memories together. It was so nice to know about them personally. All of them were very cooperative and helpful. We were divided into two groups, one international volunteer with local volunteer each.
We wanted to know the real needs and interests of women so, we made a questionnaires based on the needs of women in Kavresthalli. I interviewed 30 women together with Isaline Mallet, an international Volunteer from France and getting to interact with every women was a wonderful feeling. Some of the women were very honest and open to our research questionnaires. Few of the women were very shy and uncomfortable. We got to find out that VIN has made a lot of impacts in different places and in lives of many women. I learned a lot of things which will help in my future. I gained some knowledge in research making process which is going to be useful for me. I am also thankful that I got to improve my English accent being associated with international volunteers. I am glad that I chose to volunteer in VIN. I would recommend any other person to work in VIN.
– Rangeeta Khatri, Local Volunteer, Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN)
