We still need collaboration to continue ahead with the EDUFEM 2021 project. Below the detail of what has happened during 2019 and 2020

According to UNICEF, Nepal has got the third-highest ratio of child marriage in Asia

Although child marriage is illegal in this country since 1963, this practice is very common in remote villages. The minimum legal age to be married is 20, but in these remote areas there is still a majority of teenagers getting married at between 15 and 19 years. The reasons for child marriages in Nepal are complex. Poverty, the low value granted to female offspring and the lack of access to education are factors that contribute, when at the same time the caste system and the patriarchal culture also play an important role. It seems that with each passing day more teenagers are able to choose their partners and can even run away. In some cases, fathers and mothers encourage their sons or daughters to initiate their own marriage in order to avoid the high costs related to the dowry or the wedding. They can also choose to run away, as the sexual expression outside wedlock is not acceptable, to avoid a forced or arranged marriage, or just to flee from the difficulties at home.

This is the report of the years 2019 and 2020 of a project that still needs a last effort to keep on going

Our objective is to find more sponsors that are ready to participate in the program, in order for us to offer more opportunities to girls and young women to continue with their studies. The more donors we have, the more opportunities we can give our students. University can be very expensive and even unaffordable, and the girls who are ready to keep on with their studies will need to cope with those expenses. The challenges we are facing in the implementation of the project 2020 were due to the Covid-19 pandemics. The girls took their school exams late, because in April, which is when in principle should have taken place, there was a strict confinement. Even in this exceptional situation and having confronted them later, the girls passed all their exams. However, some of them decided not to pursue B. A. degrees.

Can we succeed in them deciding by themselves, without feeling coerced by external factors?