GNI Nepal

Supportive Actions For Empowerment of Early Married Young Women in Nepal.

Child marriage affects thousands of children across Nepal and is a major human rights violation. It is one of the prominent causes of school drop-out, child labor, abuse, exploitation, unemployment and neglect. Especially young brides are deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education, safety, recreation and freedom.

GNI Nepal’s project “Supportive Actions For Empowerment (SAFE) of Early Married Young Women”, supported by the New Life Fund, aims to increase the economic opportunities and psycho-emotional well-being of young early married women from disadvantaged families with low household income, Dalit (so-called untouchables) and marginalized communities, women headed households, landless or land-poor families, with disability and/or economically poor families of Darchula district of Sudurpaschim Province in the far-western mountainous region of Nepal, bordering India.

The project aims to empower these early married young women and focuses on building their competencies and capacities through education/awareness-raising, capacity building, and counselling and support services.

The direct beneficiaries of this project are 50 early married young women coming from different parts of Darchula District. Initially, all 50 young women will be oriented on the basics of gender-based violence, family planning, problem solving, and business literacy in order to bolster their self-help and life skills, and eventually their overall well-being.

Depending on the degree of vulnerability, needs, potential, and interests, these young women will be provided vocational training so that they have expanded economic opportunities. They will establish businesses/micro-enterprises in their communities with the assistance of local cooperatives supported by GNI Nepal. Psychosocial counseling and support services will be provided to those who need it.