Hi everybody,

Jan (the photographer traveling with me on this trip) and I spent the first day of the year on a FANTASTIC site visit with ASHA Nepal (one of the organizations we fund) in Okarpauwa municipality, a hilly area about 45 minutes NW of Kathmandu. Most people here, like the majority of Nepalis, are subsistence farmers. The cab made a slow climb on a winding road to a small settlement, where we met in a centralized area with members of three women's groups from two villages. Some had walked for two hours to meet with us.

Boy, these are some empowered women, and so affectionate. By the end of our visit they were hugging me, stroking my hair and competing with each other to invite me to their homes ("I will feed you goat's milk," said one. "But I have buffalo milk, come with me!" said another.) One of them hoisted me into the air, told me that I look like her daughter, and said she would like to adopt me. She and I decided by the end that we are relatives and walked with our arms around each other.

These women are clear about what they want for themselves and their community, and how the savings and credit groups are a means to get there. They exuded total ownership over the process, even though they were not organized before the professionals from ASHA Nepal showed up here just three years ago. I have no doubt in my mind that they will continue long after the community development professionals are gone. In fact, the field worker comes less than monthly now, and still they meet without fail on the 29th of every month with their logbooks to turn in their savings quota (a sort of membership fee) of 50 Rupees (75 cents).

They greeted us sitting in a circle on mats in the mud-baked patio of a woman's home. Sitting cross-legged, we bowed in the traditional greeting and introduced ourselves, requesting their permission to take photographs to show back in the United States. The women reservedly waggled their heads in agreement. Little did I know that there were some major camera hams amongst the group. One woman kept interrupting to come up with creative ways to pose photos. She brought out her logbook and savings quota and asked the treasurer to pretend they were having their monthly savings meeting just for the camera. She later posed with her seeds and then hugging her goats. Later as we walked down the road, the women brainstormed excitedly about other shots we might want. They took us to the stream to pose washing their vegetables for market, and then showed us their best crops.

The women went on at length about the improvements to their crop yields they have achieved with sustainable agriculture training provided by ASHA, and the links to the market they have made as a group. They can sell collectively in bulk more effectively than trying to sell the 5 or 10 pounds each one produces separately. And now, for the first time, a vendor comes up the road every week to collect the crops, where before they would have to trek to the city to sell at the market.

They bubbled with enthusiasm about their yearly vegetable exhibition, in which a jury of 5 peers decides which woman grows the best crops. In addition to the admiration of her neighbors, the winner gets a watering can and a weeding trowel. The women call upon her for advice on how to improve their yields. They said that this competition has motivated them to work hard and implement everything they have learned, and that the results have been very marked from one year to the next. Some of them also went on an 'exposure visit' to another municipality where women have implemented a more intensive permaculture program, and they have adopted what they learned there. For example, they plant marigolds near their vegetables, as these flowers protect the crops from pests.

Some of the women brought out their seeds and showed me how they have learned to protect them from moths in jars lined with local herbs and ash, whereas before they hung them in handkerchiefs which would get eaten through. Through more effective seed saving, they keep funds previously used to travel to the city and buy seeds at market. Similarly, they told me how they used to buy insecticides, even though they couldn't read the directions on the bottles. Now they know how to use herbal preparations to fight common pests, and they are happy that their children eat pesticide-free.

One teenage girl read us a poem she composed in honor of our visit, chanting it with another woman. The poem was an elegy to the nutritious vegetables they now can grow that help them stay strong and work together. It seems we aren't the only ones who value organic food.

So what about that savings quota? They told me with great pride that their current loan funds had reached $500 - $1000 per group. This is entirely from their own earnings, so they owe no institution or moneylender. They use the fund to take out three-month loans to buy a goat, or pay school fees, or lease land. They charge 18 - 24% APR (they set the rate themselves, which they say is far below the moneylender rate but enough to grow their fund) and repay their loan as a lump sum in three months with their earnings. When I asked they said it hasn't been hard for them to both collect their savings quota and pay back their loans. They have learned to plan ahead, but if they fall short one month they might go work for a few hours as a wage laborer, or borrow the amount from a friend or two.

The women see the group fund not only as a means to improve their family income and standard of living, but also as a means to contribute to their community. One group (they call themselves the Jalukini group after a local variety of yams) dances together in peoples' homes during the festivals and asks for a small donation towards their group. With the funds collected and a portion of their savings, they have donated money this year towards building a secondary school and founding a temple to the Hindu god Shiva. Now that's grassroots fundraising!

Another group (the "Kurilo" or Asparagus group) has set aside a fund for emergencies that might arise amongst themselves or the neighbors. This same group has spent the interest the fund has grown to begin construction on a vegetable collection stall near the road for all the women in the community to be able to store their harvest at nightfall. Currently they descend the steep hillsides starting at 1am to meet the purchaser who comes in his pickup truck at 2 or 3 in the morning.

With support from ASHA professionals, the women went to the municipal office for the first time to present a proposal handwritten on their official Kurilo letterhead requesting support for the construction of the stall, which will double as their group meeting space and area to receive visitors. The municipality has pledged 10,000 Rupees (about US$150) towards the construction. Next week the group leader will go to the municipal office by herself to ensure that they carry through on their pledge.

Similarly, the group presented me and the ASHA board chair with an official proposal carefully written on letterhead, requesting support not only for construction of the market stall but also for literacy and math classes, and ongoing agriculture training. They made it clear that they do not expect us outsiders to provide major charity, but instead appreciate anything we can provide in addition to what they will already do for themselves.

With the leadership skills they have learned, some of the women have joined the community water committee, previously only open to men. The committee raises funds to bring potable water tanks to the area, and advocates with the municipality about their water needs.

They then showed us the 'tin trunk library' provided by ASHA Nepal, which is literally an aluminum suitcase full of training manuals on health, gender issues, agriculture and other relevant issues and the lending logbook showing which woman borrowed which booklet (1/3 to 1/2 of the women in each group have been to primary school).

I encouraged the women to ask me any question, even things that are personal, as I know it isn't every day that a foreigner shows up in their community. They asked me what I do. As I was about to explain my role at IDEX, one of the ASHA members gently suggested that instead I tell them what my daily routine is like as a woman, and they could share the same with me. Boy, it was humbling! 4am rise, go to fetch water from 2 hours up the hill (in dry season), clean, wash clothes, prepare breakfast, feed animals and then the workday in the field starts (when I say field, you should picture a slope on a mountain at about a 45 degree angle. These women must have serious thigh muscles, not to mention deltoids from the enormous loads of firewood they carry on their backs). In the evening they collect firewood and fodder for their animals before preparing dinner.

Incidentally, here as in most of Nepal the forests are collectively managed, a model of sustainable resource management that has reduced deforestation and is seen as a model in other parts of the world. Oy, I wish I had asked them about that! But I was already overwhelmed with just making sure I got the full story about their work in the group.

When they learned I have a young son, the women asked me if I nurse him, and looked happy to hear that I do. When I told them I had weaned him just weeks ago in anticipation of this trip, they looked at me sympathetically and said it must have been hard for me. They could clearly sense that I miss my little guy. Until now they had maintained a polite distance, but as we got up to take a group photo they surrounded me with hugs and warm strokes on my belly, asking me to stay the night. I wish I could have!

Tomorrow we get picked up at 7am to visit two women's cooperatives in the hills of Kavre district with Women's Awareness Center Nepal. So it's off to bed for me...

Wishing everyone a great start to the year!

Yael

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