Update from Women’s Safe House in Nepal

Across the world, women are vic­tims of domes­tic abuse, traf­fick­ing, rape, and oth­er forms of vio­lence. It’s sad­ly still true in the US and still true in Nepal. Iso­la­tion and lack of sup­port per­pet­u­ate gen­der-based vio­lence, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rur­al areas. A lack of safe shel­ter has his­tor­i­cal­ly been a seri­ous bar­ri­er to women report­ing crimes and receiv­ing care. This is why Moun­tain Mad­ness, All the Sky Foun­da­tion, and Chang­ing Lives Nepal teamed up over the last year to suc­cess­ful­ly launch a Women’s Safe House in the remote, moun­tain­ous region of East­ern Nepal, near the 8,000-meter peak Makalu.

Sam­rid­hi Ghar (House of Pros­per­i­ty) opened its doors in May. Its mis­sion is to pro­vide a safe space and coun­sel­ing for vic­tims of domes­tic vio­lence, rape, traf­fick­ing, and women suf­fer­ing from men­tal ill­ness. This inno­v­a­tive pro­gram is the first of its kind. Women in remote areas are often unaware of the ser­vices and legal pro­tec­tion avail­able to them. The Safe House has been con­duct­ing com­mu­ni­ty edu­ca­tion and out­reach through var­i­ous chan­nels, and they are now con­tact­ed almost dai­ly.

Below are a few sto­ries of women the safe house has served since open­ing. The real­i­ties they face under­score the need to con­tin­ue to reach beyond Kath­man­du with sup­port and ser­vices. As the suc­cess of the safe house con­tin­ues so will the need to con­tin­ue fundrais­ing until the financ­ing can come from with­in Nepal. Please look below for link to make a dona­tion and more about our fundrais­ing efforts.

The Safe House is pro­vid­ing crit­i­cal care, sup­port, and space for women in these rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. They are plan­ning for long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty by part­ner­ing with local and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments, hos­pi­tals, police, as well as inter­na­tion­al sup­port. Thanks to All the Sky, indi­vid­ual dona­tions up to $15,000 made between now and Decem­ber 31^st will be matched. Dou­ble your impact HERE.

***Please be aware that the content below is sensitive and may be upsetting or triggering. Please read with care. All women’s names have been changed for privacy and protection.***

Syabun is just 19 years old and already the moth­er of a 2‑year-old girl, Sibu. Mar­ried young, her hus­band aban­doned her after she had their baby, and she was left alone with his fam­i­ly. (In Nepal, mar­ried women tra­di­tion­al­ly move into the home of their hus­band and his fam­i­ly). Syabun’s in-laws abused her phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly. She has been stay­ing at the safe house for one month and has suf­fered from men­tal and emo­tion­al dis­tress. Syabun’s case was more than the onsite coun­selor felt she could address alone, and the dis­trict hos­pi­tal does not have a psy­chi­atric doc­tor, so they con­nect­ed her with a doc­tor in Kath­man­du to sup­port her through video coun­sel­ing calls.

Local police pre­vi­ous­ly had nowhere to shel­ter women, even for a sin­gle night, mak­ing report­ing abuse par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult. With the open­ing of the Safe House and their suc­cess­ful com­mu­ni­ty out­reach, women are now more able and empow­ered to report abuse. This is an essen­tial deter­rent to help reduce vio­lence against women and to pro­vide much-need­ed sup­port at crit­i­cal times.

Tari was raped and report­ed it to the police. She stayed at the Safe House for five days while the police processed her case and found the per­pe­tra­tor to arrest him. Sam­rid­hi Ghar was able to offer her coun­sel­ing, sup­port her with med­ical care at the local hos­pi­tal, and pro­vide safe shel­ter and meals while she was away from home. Tari is now back home with her par­ents, and the per­pe­tra­tor is in prison.

Thanks again to All the Sky for match­ing; all indi­vid­ual dona­tions up to $15,000 made between now and Decem­ber 31^st will be matched. Dou­ble your impact HERE.