Laxmi B.K., age 35, lives in the rural village of Sindhupalchok in Nepal. She is a member of the Dalit community of Chautara Sangachokgadi Municipality, ward number 4. Dalit persons were once called \u201cuntouchables,\u201d a very offensive and now unacceptable term in Nepal. But while the term is gone, many of the attitudes and barriers remain.<\/p>\n
Laxmi was married at the age of 13. By 18, she was the mother of three children. Her household chores, including walking 3-4 hours a day to collect water and venturing into a jungle to collect fodder, left Laxmi virtually no time to care for her children.<\/p>\n
Laxmi\u2019s was an arduous life of unending work.<\/p>\n
Staff from World Neighbors, a small NGO<\/strong> that has worked in Nepal for decades, visited her village. Laxmi joined a savings and credit group formed by World Neighbors and its local partner. These groups pool small investments from participants and offer loans at meager rates.<\/p>\n Funds used to invest in farm implements, water-holding ponds, greenhouses and other simple innovations raise productivity, output and profit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Savings and credit groups also provide training, including on sustainable agricultural production. Laxmi took every class on offer\u2014water management, worm composting, basic bookkeeping, and more.<\/p>\n After the training sessions, she constructed a small plastic pond from resources available at her home. This pond holds wastewater from a kitchen sink and rainwater. Laxmi then planted a kitchen garden–vegetables such as chilis, tomatoes, cowpeas, beans, onions and broadleaf.<\/p>\n The garden is entirely organic and irrigated with the nutrient-rich wastewater from the plastic pond. Water is available nearly year-round, which lengthens the growing season.<\/p>\n This sounds very basic. It is. But the knowledge was previously unavailable to Laxmi and others in her village.<\/p>\n Before training and modest investments, Dalit and others in Laxmi\u2019s village did not grow or buy vegetables. Most families lived on rice with chili and salt. Vegetables were occasional treats.<\/p>\n She and her family now have abundant and nutritious vegetables to eat. Even more, she sells surplus production in the local market. Laxmi earns hundreds of dollars a month from her vegetable sales. This is a substantial sum in her village. She no longer asks her husband for money. Nor does the family need to turn to moneylenders and their exorbitant interest demands.<\/p>\n