Samjhana Chaudhary is an enthusiastic and vibrant 21 years old resident of ward number 1 of Tikapur Municipality, Kailali District. She started working with SEEWAC Nepal, a local NGO, as a Junior Technician Assistant (Agriculture) under the GNI-funded Community Development Program in April 2021. Later in April 2023, she joined the Rajapur, Bardiya office of the same organization. She affirms,” I am very happy as I got employment in this organization. Indeed, I prepared very hard to get selected for this job, and now I feel my hard work has been paid off.” She further adds, “Nothing is more important than being financially independent and being able to help your family. I feel that my life has started to flow in the path of success.”
Though now leading a better life, Samjhana’s past was not as easy as it has become now. Being from Tharu community, a disadvantaged community of western Terai, her parents did not get the opportunity to be literate. They owned a small portion of land which is surrounded by waterways from two sides that flood away crops in the rainy season. The winter yield was not enough to feed their large family. As a child of a poor household with seven children, she has witnessed days of deprivation. She shares, “I have seen extreme levels of poverty. I vividly remember my sisters working hard as laborers to buy stationery and school dresses for them. Had GNI Nepal not sponsored me, I would also either have to involve in child labor like my four elder sisters or would have dropped my studies and got married at an early age like my eldest sister.”
Samjhana got sponsorship support when she was a fourth grader at Shri Saraswati Secondary School, and the support continued till the second year of her intermediate-level study at Tiakpur Polytechnic Institute. Thanking GNI Nepal for its support, she says, “Indeed, GNI Nepal did not only support me with sponsorship services rather it helped my mother to start vegetable farming with the grant and subsidized loan support from Deurali Bhanjyang Cooperative Limited a couple of years back. Recently my elder sister has joined the cooperative as its manager.”
She regards extracurricular activities (ECAs), conducted by her school with the support of GNI Nepal, as being crucial in shaping her personality by instilling a sense of confidence in her. She recalls, “I used to participate in ECAs like debate, and dance competitions. On several occasions, I have secured top positions in such competitions. Sports events and general health checkups, organized in the school, helped me to remain healthy.”
She says that her earning has become helpful to pay the loan that her family borrowed to afford her father’s medical treatment who died due to a liver infection in 2021. She proudly shares, “With my sister’s and my own financial support, our brother has pursued bachelor-level study.”
Samjhana has lately joined an online preparation class to compete for public services as she aspires to be a government employee. She has plans to pursue a bachelor’s level study as well.