The Happy Women Project is a social enterprise business model to employ girls and women living in remote West Nepal, providing them an opportunity to earn an income for their family and to fight period poverty.
They will be taught on sewing skills to upcycle fabrics into sanitary pads, blankets, and face masks, and make products of soaps and candles from natural raw materials in Nepal. This will build their self-esteem and allow them to live a dignity and healthy life. Through ways of reducing wastage and protect our living environment, we hope to impact more people to follow our actions in changing lives of others.
The produces will be used by the women, and to sell locally and internationally for income generation. The revenue is then channelled back to the school and community education on safe menstrual hygiene management and gradual elimination of menstrual taboo Chhaupadi practice (menstrual exile): a tradition that considers girls and women are impure during menstruating, exposing them to deadly environment in the outdoor and animal shed.
be artsy has been working in West Nepal on public health and safety of women and girls since February 2017. Through the Rato Baltin (Red Bucket) project dealing with unsafe Chhaupadi practice, be artsy has successfully provided menstrual hygiene management education, proper reproductive and sexual education, and benefited over 13,888 direct beneficiaries. More than 2,263 female volunteers were provided with menstrual cups for training and outreach programme. These volunteers are the beneficiaries from our project itself and actively contributed back to their communities. be artsy also sponsored 8 teenage girls with scholarships to complete their higher education through the EDUFEM project. The graduated girls contributed back to the community through working for be artsy as trainers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, women approached be artsy for work, but they never ask for food or charity help. 800 widows with children received emergency food relief, and 10,140 people received face masks fabricated by local women with funding supported from the project. These women want to be employed to have a dignify life. Thus, be artsy decided to set up a small and growing business in the form of social enterprise business model, to teach these women a skill set, i.e., to teach them to fish.
Through hard work and commitment, be artsy has steadily established recognition in the region, is well known by community leaders and respected in the communities. A total of 27,099 direct beneficiaries, plus their families achieved since 2017! More groundwork needs to be done to promote safety and hygiene through education for the girls and women especially living in the remote villages in the region. Your donation will provide us the seed fund to start up the social enterprise to help more women to help themselves.
be artsy strongly believes that “Change can only come true when women themselves become the main facilitators of change and act on it!”
Please support our Happy Women Project!
