In conjunction with the Organisation for Community, Child and the Environment (OCCED) the Trust is funding a very exciting programme to empower rural women near the town of Pokhara.

Located in the small town of Puranchaur a group of 24 women are participating in this, many of whom have no source of income at all or undertake manual labour on roads and construction sites.

The programme, which has been successfully implemented by OCCED in other parts of Nepal, includes training in literacy, skills development, micro-enterprise and marketing over a 12 month period.

The literacy classes are proving very successful and all the participants are now able to read and write basic Nepali which they couldn’t do before. The sense of achievement has really encouraged and motivated the women who now firmly believe their enterprise will succeed.

After discussions with the group it was agreed that the skills training should focus on vegetable farming and candle making, the latter being in extremely high demand due to the energy crisis in Nepal.

The group has been formally established as a co-operative and will receive ongoing mentoring support and guidance from OCCED.