“I used to be afraid to talk to people, but now I go to women’s groups to share experiences”

Meena, aged 49, is from a remote village in the western district of Nepal. Our partner, Women for Human Rights (WHR) has supported Meena since her husband went missing so she can support herself and her two children.

“I have two children, a son aged 16 and a daughter aged 13. I was married at 16 but five years ago my husband went missing on his way home from work in the city.  I still don’t know what happened to him.

For the first three months, I hoped that he would return, but when I realised that this was unlikely my heart gave up  – I was estranged from my community and my whole support system came crashing down.  As some of our family’s enemies appeared happy, I suspect that he was killed and is no longer in this world.

I had heard of WHR before I was widowed but, after my husband went missing, another widow from my village came to talk to me and to show me some of their books, so I learned that WHR could support me. I went to Kathmandu for a month-long course  on skills training in catering at the WHR chhahari (shelter).

WHR has increased my self confidence a lot. I used to be afraid to go out and talk to people, but now I go to women’s groups to share experiences and we comfort each other.  I have seen people from all over Nepal in the same situation as me and now I believe that widows can achieve just as much as married women.  Now I am also not so estranged from my village.

I used to have a convenience store in my district, but I couldn’t run it after I was widowed.  Now I have a small cafe and my skills training will enable me to offer a wider range of dishes for my customers, grow my business and improve my family’s living standards.”

Find out more about our work in Nepal.