News

This is the remarkable story of a woman called Punishara, who Bóthar is assisting in Nepal, in conjunction with our project partners Heifer Nepal.
Punisharas story is typical of the plight of women in Nepal who are regarded and treated as second class citizens.
She tells of the everyday struggles that women face and of the extreme poverty that many people in Nepal are forced to live in. Punishara told this story to a Heifer Nepal worker and wanted it to be shared, to show other Nepali women that there is hope and a way to get out of poverty.

I am Punishara and I am 37 years old. My husband, Beg Bahadur, is 42 years old and he is both deaf and mute. I gave birth to six children but I lost two of them as infants and now I have four sons. There are seven members in my family including my mother-in-law, my children and my husband. Apart from our hut we do not own any property.

Originally my family is from mountainous Ruchang VDC of Nawalparasi, however we migrated to Terai in the hope of finding a better future there.

I am completely illiterate. From the moment I was able to perform physical work, I was sent to one of my aunt's houses where I was handed a hoe and spade and the responsibility of taking care of her children and cattle.

Despite severe hardship, my parents managed to send three of my brothers to school where they got the opportunity to study, but it was unimaginable for me to desire to go to school.
When I was 18 years of age, I was married. I had been asked to attend a religious ceremony in another village and instead I was brought to my husband's house. I came to know about my husband being mute and deaf only after three days of being married to him. I felt the ground sinking below my feet and I cried for days on end. There was no one to comfort me and instead my husband's family would take every opportunity to humiliate and hurt me. No matter how hard I worked, I was never appreciated.

As time went by, my first son was born. We never had enough food in our house. In order to sustain our family's livelihood we used to till a small fraction of land on a shared basis.

The combination of hardship, lack of nutritious food and the bearing of children within a short time began to effect my health. The financial condition of the house was such that we had to go to moneylenders every time any member in the family would get sick. Due to our illiteracy, moneylenders cheated us several times and we were never able to pay back the debt on time, even after working hard throughout the year. Instead the interest on debt started to pile up every year sinking us further into poverty.

All of my husband's brothers separated from the family one after another when they got married, putting the extra burden of taking care of my ageing in-laws on our already overloaded shoulders.

Life became more difficult for us. Our severe poverty, my deteriorating health, my mute and deaf husband and seven hungry mouths to feed made it impossible to think that we would ever have a better life. There were times when we did not have a single grain of rice and my children used to cry of hunger.

Nobody would give me work because of my health and the fact that my four children had to accompany me everywhere. I used to borrow rice from my neighbours but when I failed to return the borrowed rice, my neighbours closed their doors to us. Some people in the village used to give us rice out of sympathy on seeing our pathetic condition and my hungry children.

We had been living our life on people's sympathies and borrowing when, 4 years ago, women from my community formed a group which was supported by Heifer Nepal and Bóthar. They kindly included me in their group. I was addressed as the mute's wife at the first meeting I attended.

The group discussed monthly saving and decided to start a savings fund. When I told them about my inability to deposit the saving amount, the other members suggested that I take a loan from the group fund. I deposited the required amount in the saving fund and with the remaining money I bought a hen. The hen allowed me to earn as small income by selling eggs and hatchlings. I used to deposit a small amount of money every month in the group saving fund.

Shortly after joining the group I received training in caring for animals and farming practices. Not only thant, I also learnt about the importance of gender equality. As soon as my training was fully completed, I received 2 goats from Heifer Nepal.

Along with raising the chickens and the goats, I started raising ducks as well. We had about a half khatta of land in which I started growing vegetables on and I started generating income by selling the produce.

As I became more involved with the group I started to realise the importance of children's education and I enrolled my second son in the village school, my eldest son had gone to India to try to find work, he was only 13 when he left. I also became more aware of family health and hygiene. Within a short space of time my family's health started to improve and we didn't suffer ilnesses as much.

Once my family's economic status started to improve it became easier for us to afford daily meals for our family. With the additional money, in time, we were able to clear our debt along with the interest.

With the income that I generated by selling chickens and duck eggs and hatchlings I have been taking care of my household expenses. At present I own 6 goats, which include 2 female goats, 2 males and 2 female kids. I was given the privelige to 'pass-on' 2 goats to another family that had been training to receive them. I was also able to sell 4 goat kids, which provided money for valuable medical treatment for my husband.

Today I am known as Punishara among my friends and community and people no longer address me as the mute's wife.

My mother-in-law has started to show love and affection towards me. Whenever I have to attend group meetings and other activities, my husband and mother-in-law give me their full support. My husband not only supports me but he also attends group meeting with me and contributes to our meeting. I believe that, despite my husband's disability, he must realise that what our family has achieved would have not have been possible without my involvement in the group.

My family and I cannot remain without thanking and showing gratitude from our heart to Heifer Nepal and Bóthar for their constant support and faith in me and women like me and for giving us the life that we are living today.