A safe, bright and happy place for thousands of young women from all over Nepal to take refuge, seek counselling and access medical care. A centre that teaches female rights, self defence, menstrual education and sanitation, family planning, career advice and much, much, more.

Over the last 6 years the Girls’ Empowerment programme has been running in rural Nepal.

It has been a great success, 6 years ago these deeply suppressed and often abused young women would barely speak to a man and certainly not in public.

Many of the girls were forced to spend their monthly period in a shed with animals and no human contact, a terrifying experience especially when partnered with zero menstrual health information or education.

Fast forward to today and the girls are now speaking on national TV and Radio about girls rights, taking on politicians, winning international awards and are true pillars of their communities.

We have countless wonderful stories of the difference this programme has made to so many girls lives and the communities in which they live.

The attitude of the men in the region has completely changed, with fathers now fully behind the education of the girls and their career choices.

Without this programme it’s highly likely that many of these girls would be married at the age of 12 against their will.

The programme began with only 24 girls, facing numerous challenges and initial resistance from male-dominated communities. Now, after six years, it has empowered over 23,000 girls and operates in every district of Nepal.

We receive weekly requests from girls in Nepal who want to join the programme and schools eager for our teams to go and speak to their students.

The programme has received a great deal of media attention and our work and progress is discussed on a weekly national TV show.

The Girls’ Empowerment Programme has transformed the process for young women to access police support and has guaranteed secure pathways for girls to seek help if they encounter threats or coercion into marriage.

It is a very far reaching programme and we couldn’t be happier with the results or more proud of the girls.

All this has culminated in the need for a Girls’ Empowerment Centre and Safe House.

Currently we run sessions and programs in rented rooms and outside spaces. In order to offer this program to a much wider audience, we need a building that will act as a beacon of hope and safety for these young women.

With visiting speakers, and educators, and resource libraries for the girls along with outside space for martial arts and other exercise and meditation, this centre will provide space for the girls to recover, learn and play.

Despite encountering challenges like COVID-related issues and a fuel crisis, we're steadily advancing towards project completion. However, escalated costs have elevated our total budget to 420k GBP.

To officially open the centre and welcome the girls into their new home and safe haven by mid-summer 2024, we now aim to raise the final 115k GBP to complete the project on time and budget and inline with the next 3 year cycle of this vital programme.

LOCATION

The location is in Devchuli, very close to Kawasoti, both areas in which we run our empowerment programs. It is easily accessible for school buses and visiting professionals with lots of outside space for parking and for the girls to play.