By Theresa McDonald Lee, PWS&D committee co-convener
In February 2023, Theresa travelled with PWS&D staff members Maria Carmona and Guy Smagghe to visit the work the church is supporting in Nepal.
In late February, I was in the rural district of Kalikot, on the northwestern side of Nepal. Reaching this community took nearly 14 bumpy hours in a Mahindra Scorpio. This is a remote and poor area of Nepal, where farming is precarious and many must migrate seasonally to India for work. I was as far away from home as I had ever been, but as I was sitting on the other side of the world, I was reminded of my grandmother and her friends from Glencoe Presbyterian Church.
For I was sitting in a circle of mostly women, who were part of a new self-help group that was determined to improve the lives of everyone in their community. Community mobilizers from International Fellowship Nepal, a partner of PWS&D, had brought the group together. This is one part of a larger project addressing climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. With support and encouragement from INF staff, this self-help group was beginning to consider how to make change.
The women proudly showed us their meeting minutes and their financial record books. They shared their concerns for the community which included drought, landslides, climate change, and lack of income sources. They spoke of collecting wastewater for their kitchen gardens, about soil testing to determine the best crops for their region and learning to use their new disaster assistance kits. The women, in the face of great challenge, are acting together to encourage education, plant trees, grow food, improve their income through small loans, prepare for disaster and create a healthy community.
One woman said, “One person cannot make a plan, but together we can do it.”
This is why I was reminded of my grandmother and the women in my home congregation. Much like the women in Kalikot, they were rural women who found voice and action in meeting together as the WMS, the Women’s Institute and the Willing Workers. They shared their concerns and acted together, improving the lives of the people in their community and around the world. They worked to look after the children in the community, improve food safety and security, and raised and shared thousands of dollars over the decades.
I felt tremendous hope sitting with the women of Kalikot, as I know that committed women can create change that lasts. PWS&D, working with INF-Nepal, is helping to provide the funding for the project in Kalikot. We visited just one self-help group, but throughout this vast region, there are 45 groups, with over 1,100 members. Each of those groups are being energized and supported by donations from Canada, that will help them to respond to disaster and climate change while helping their families and community thrive. It will not be easy, but together, they can do it.
