WOMEN’S TREK FOR PEACE & DEVELOPMENT IN NEPAL

This photo essay was submitted by photographerKiran Ambwani





Last year, 20 Canadian and 12 Nepalese women embarked on a powerful and meaningful journey: a trek for peace and development in Nepal. The project, organized by the Center for International Studies and Cooperation and Uniterra, was an initiative to communicate the reality, the dreams and the hopes of the Nepalese women. These mountain women face poverty, disease, and lack of access to basic resources, along with gender and caste discrimination. Their voices are often unheard and they are excluded from decision-making processes. For 20 years in Nepal, the Center for International Studies along with its local partner organizations has encouraged women's participation in community development.







In the midst of western Nepal's stark beauty, cultural heritage and diversity, I witnessed a grinding, hopeless poverty and dependence. However, I was pleased to discover that women teachers, health care workers, healers, human rights activists, community leaders, reporters, and managers of women’s cooperatives, are conduits of social change. These inspirational women are the future of Nepal as it emerges from 11 years of conflict and decades of monarchy, offering hope of dignity, equality, wealth distribution, and access to basic resources. Achieving gender equality and empowering women is of utmost necessity for building healthier, better educated, more peaceful and prosperous societies.

Made Without Child Labor

Though its mission remains the same, RugMark, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting ethical carpet production by eliminating the use of child labor in India and Nepal, is slated to launch a new brand, GoodWeave, this fall. RugMark will remain the organization’s name while the brand name will be replaced by GoodWeave.

April Thompson, director of marketing and communications for RugMark’s US office, made it clear that RugMark will remain focused on eliminating child labor, but the organization is expanding its reach to improve adult worker conditions and to institute progressive standards for water and air pollution. “There were multiple reasons to make the switch [to GoodWeave]. We’re strengthening the work around child labor as many of these issues are interconnected,” says Thompson. “We can only make progress on these issues in collaboration with our industry members, and they are very supportive of these changes, and excited to see the program expand.”

Providing workers and children with adequate childcare and schooling effectively prevents children under age 14 from entering the handmade rug industry. A percentage of each certified rug purchase supports RugMark's programs in weaving communities, including educational programs for former child laborers. If inspectors find child laborers working on the looms, they rescue the children, attempt to reunite them with their families, and offer the children the opportunity to attend school, while the manufacturers forfeit the right to use the RugMark label.

Aside from the expanded scope of improving conditions for workers in Nepal and India, the new GoodWeave label is more aesthetically pleasing. Thompson says that the new label has a “more contemporary look and name to complement the beautiful rugs. All members are embracing the new look and the other changes the brand is undergoing.” The brand name “GoodWeave” does not include a specific product in the name because RugMark is interested in potentially expanding its branding to other woven products such as shawls made in Nepal.

Importers of all products certified by RugMark must register all of their looms and are subject to random inspections by Rugmark inspectors. According to RugMark’s website, its inspectors visit an average of 64 looms per day, resulting in a total of 16,000 looms inspected per year. Both exporters and importers must be sign agreements with the organization, and pay a small fee that offsets the costs of both inspections and community programs.

One of the main goals of GoodWeave is to make the process of becoming a member more rigorous and transparent, relying on a multi-stakeholder committee for critical input. In order to achieve this goal, GoodWeave has become an associate member of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance (ISEAL), an organization that focuses efforts on international standard-setting for organizations focused on social and environmental issues. Thompson notes that becoming a member of ISEAL was a rigorous, three-year process to become a member of ISEAL.

“We're the first ISEAL member to tackle some of these issues, namely working with child slavery in an informal sector where workers are very vulnerable to abuse. We look forward to strengthening our operations with ISEAL's guidance,” says Thompson.

GoodWeave
RugMark
ISEAL

Women Weave a Brighter Living

Posted by Kyra Gibson in Organizations Edit


Photo | Kyra Gibson

As any hardworking Nepali knows, if you want something you have to fight for it. With over 80% of the population living a less than $2 a day in Nepal, nothing is easy. Women in the picturesque city of Pokhara, Nepal are taking matters into their own hands. They work 12 hours a day creating beautiful handbags to sell in the market.

Women Overcome Discrimination in Nepal

Posted by Rachel Roesler on May 28th 2009 in Organizations, Volunteers Edit



In the village of Patiswara, in the shadows of the Himalayan mountains, over 60 women representing 11 community groups from the Gorkha District of Nepal gathered to attend a series of human rights workshops. A few years ago, such an event would have been unheard of, but today these workshops are common throughout the region thanks to the efforts of an unlikely pair.

Even before Bishnu Maya Pariyar met Eva Kasell, an American women traveling in Bishnu's home country of Nepal, she had accomplished much more than was expected of her. As a member of the Dalit caste, one of the lowest in Nepal's complex class system, Bishnu and her family were considered "untouchables." Forced to work in indentured servitude to as many as 100 families as tailors, Dalits such as Bishnu's father sew for 10 to 12 hours a day, earning only five pounds of rice or grain from each family per year. Because they live in extreme poverty and are treated as outcasts, Dalit children do not attend school. Bishnu was the exception.


As a child Bishnu went to the harvested fields surrounding her village to collect grains of rice and millet left behind on the ground. Grain by grain she worked until she had enough to sell for a few rupees, enough to buy her school uniform and supplies. At school Bishnu was forbidden from drinking out of a cup or eating with her classmates. If she accidently touched a classmate they would immediately purify themselves with sacred water. She was made to sit on the floor while her classmates sat at desks. Despite daily hardships and discrimination, Bishnu became the only girl from her village, from any caste, to graduate from secondary school. She continued her education by enrolling in college in Kathmandu with the help of an American Peace Corp volunteer and a grant from The Himalayan Foundation. She also started a nonprofit organization, ADWAN (The Association of Dalit Women's Advancement of Nepal), to promote the education of Dalit women and girls and to eradicate the injustice of being labeled an untouchable.