This project is based on the idea that, in the rural areas of Nepal where be artsy operates, for each additional year young girls remain at school, we can delay their marrying age by two years. This project runs in parallel to the Rato Baltin Project.
In the areas where the Rato Baltin project is active, we find that many girls between the ages of 13-17 are already married and have children. Most girls are expected to marry before finishing primary school (grade 10), and if they are not married by this time, they are usually forced to marry immediately afterwards. Some girls are able to take their grade 10 exams before having to get married, however, many others don’t take the exam because of the knowledge that their future is to marry and work to their in-law’s house. Some girls need to repeat grades multiple times due to the fact that they are required to work on their parents’ land, and therefore aren’t able to regularly attend school.
For the last two years, be artsy has decided to give a number of girls an opportunity to improve their lives and their education. To the girls that appear smart and willing to learn, we give them a job working for the Rato Baltin project for two or three months per year. The project begins as soon as the girls have finished taking their exams so that, in this way, they can have a job and gain some work experience while they are waiting for their exam results.
Sunita, Manisha Nath and Tejana.
Amongst the girls who have started working for the Rato Baltin project, there have been a number of them who have touched our hearts for different reasons. In 2018, during a pilot of the sponsorship project, Clara, founder and CEO of be artsy, personally took it upon herself to sponsor two of the girls in the capital of the Accham district, Mangalsen. It was an incredibly positive and heart-warming experience. The sponsored girls, whose parents struggle with alcoholism, mental illnesses and extreme poverty; girls who had never had any hopes of being able to study, have now become empowered women with plenty of energy and a desire to achieve a lot of things. They continue to gain more and more self-assurance and have ambitions to change the world – specifically to make it a fairer place for girls.
The impact that the project had on these two girls inspired us to think about how we can continue the project to benefit more girls.
In addition to the first two girls, who are now in Grade 12 and are the coordinators of the Rato Baltin Project in Accham, in 2019 we sponsored four more girls who have been working with us to execute the Rato Baltin project. The girls are young teenagers rather than children, and must learn about the responsibilities that come with being sponsored.
While their English is very basic, we try to encourage them to write to the sponsors so that they feel involved, however, at the moment, it is very difficult to find an English teacher in the local area who can help them to improve their language skills. For the 2019 sponsorship project, we found two sponsors that paid the full annual expense, but for the other four, we are paying the costs as and when we can, and we need help. In addition to this, the number of girls sponsored will increase in 2020, and we require a lot of collaboration and fundraising.
Below is a breakdown of the annual cost of school, board and some food for one girl in Mangalsen. The total cost is just over €650.
| Funds required for each teenage girl to stay in Grade 11 or 12 in Mangalsen | |||||
| Item | Quantity | Price per unit | Total annual cost per girl in Rupees | Total annual cost per girl in euro | |
| Public school fees | Payment | 1 | 8,000 | 8,000.00 NPR | 66.67 € |
| School materials | In total | 1 | 2,000 | 2,000.00 NPR | 16.67 € |
| Room Shared with another girl in Mangalsen | Monthly | 12 | 1,000 | 12,000.00 NPR | 100.00 € |
| School uniform | One | 1 | 2,000 | 2,000.00 NPR | 16.67 € |
| Lentils | By kg | 6 | 150 | 900.00 NPR | 7.50 € |
| Rice | Bag of 25 kg | 2 | 1,650 | 3,300.00 NPR | 27.50 € |
| Oil | 5 Litres | 2 | 500 | 1,000.00 NPR | 8.33 € |
| Electricity | Montly | 12 | 250 | 3,000.00 NPR | 25.00 € |
| Eggs | Yearly | 288 | 20 | 5760.00 NPR | 50.00 € |
| Gas | Per gas bottle | 1 | 1,600 | 1,600.00 NPR | 13.33 € |
| Monthly allowance for telephone, personal care and cleaning products | Monthly | 12 | 3,000 | 36,000.00 NPR | 300.00 € |
| English classes | Quarterly | 2 | 5000 | 10,000.00 NPR | 83.33 € |
| 85,560.00 NPR | 715.00 € | ||||
| Nepalese Rupee | Euro | ||||
For just €2 a day you can change the future of a girl and prevent her from being forced to marry at 14 years old!
There are several ways in which you can get involved and sponsor a girl in Achham:
Teaming Group: 1 euro a month – become part of the team and get your friends to help you sponsor her!
Regular donation: to https://donorbox.org/edufem
Become a member: https://beartsy.org/associate/
🙂 Thanks!
Be part of the change:
LITTLE ACTIONS CAN MAKE GREAT CHANGES