{"id":14936,"date":"2016-03-21T09:20:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures?p=14936&preview_id=14936"},"modified":"2021-10-14T00:42:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T13:42:39","slug":"meet-kathmandus-hidden-artisans-the-extraordinary-seven-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/meet-kathmandus-hidden-artisans-the-extraordinary-seven-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Kathmandu’s hidden artisans, the extraordinary Seven Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our taxi pulls up outside some rusty wrought iron gates. Inside is one of Nepal\u2019s philanthropic success stories: a tiny business that\u2019s slowly changing the lives of local women.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called Seven Women<\/a>, and it began in 2006 as a grassroots project to help (literally) seven women who were suffering discrimination as a result of their disabilities. Nine years later, the project has expanded big time, with two centres in Kathmandu and four\u00a0more in outlying villages. This is the largest, a three-story building lost in the warren of Kathmandu\u2019s slightly crumbling backstreets. In the 80s and 90s this was all green fields. Now it\u2019s a maze of houses and apartments \u2013 tall, whitewashed structures, their paint peeling around the edges.<\/p>\n

\"seven-women-5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The gate opens up and our group wanders inside. The courtyard is boiling in the late October sun, but inside it\u2019s quiet and cool. About fifteen women in sarees<\/em> sit behind black Singer machines, feeding fabric through flashing needles with their fingers. The sewing machines are all old, classic models, powered by a foot peddle, and they fill the room with a soft mechanical jingling, like the noise a slot machine makes when it pays out. One of the project managers, Padam, bounds over and shakes our hand.<\/p>\n

Seven Women<\/a> a small operation by international NGO standards, but its achievements are substantial. Since its inception it\u2019s employed and trained over 900 local women, many of them disabled, and their handicrafts are sold online and overseas.\u00a0There is also a volunteer-run Seven Women Australia office which focuses on fundraising and creating sales channels for the products the women make.They run literacy and numeracy classes, a small cooking school, and promote fair trade goods that help everyone along the supply chain. Many of the school kids running through Thamel owe their uniforms to the\u00a0trained tailors\u00a0at Seven Women.<\/p>\n

\"seven-women-7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The women that work here are usually single and over 45, members of poor rural communities in the lowlands around Kathmandu. They might be divorced, or suffer from some disability like glaucoma, blindness or polio \u2013 the ones that fall through the cracks, the ones that may have lost their husbands, whose families won\u2019t support them, who have no experience of the workforce. Here they can work, earn a wage and learn transferable skills. Padam\u00a0says that most go back to their villages and start their own small businesses. It\u2019s charity in its most sustainable form: an initial investment that repays itself a hundred fold.<\/p>\n

Seven Women is part of a broader movement in Nepal, one in which women\u2019s rights (and working conditions) are gradually improving. Traditionally women haven\u2019t had many opportunities here. The society is pretty linear and entrenched: girls receive basic schooling and are then forced into arranged marriages within a particular caste or family group.<\/p>\n

\"seven-women-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or at least that used to be the norm. Today\u2019s younger generation are starting to mix things up. There are now more women in industry and government than ever before. In fact Padam\u00a0says girls are leading the way in medicine, engineering and law, with more women than men now going on to secondary education. It\u2019s not a perfect system yet by any means, but the signs are good. Nepal is changing for the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to grow maize and corn here in the 70s and 80s,\u201d he says. \u201cNow we grow houses. Now we grow people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"seven-women---padam\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"seven-women-4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We spend a bit of time wandering through the house. There\u2019s a little library on the second floor where the women can learn literacy and borrow a few old paperbacks to take home. Learning how to read and write at the Seven Women Centre has enabled them to help their children with their homework. There’s an upstairs kitchen for cooking classes. A roof garden with some big black water tanks and a few veggies. I can see some white rabbits hopping between the planters. Padam\u00a0leads us back outside and around to the little shop attached to the house. There are cashmere pashminas, tiny felt finger puppets, silk scarves and shaggy woolen beanies. The quality is high, and you can feel the pride woven into the fabric. Any retailer back home would stock this stuff in a heartbeat. We all buy a few souvenirs and head back out into the sunshine. The women have gathered to see us off.<\/p>\n

This is why I travel, to see stuff like this. A small project, doing some good, for no reward other than the satisfaction of making the world a slightly better place. We wave goodbye to the women and hop back into the taxi. I watch them as the car pulls away. The last thing I can see is their smiles, then they turn around, walk into the nondescript house and go back to work.<\/p>\n

Want to help Seven Women? Check out their online store<\/a> to buy some handicrafts, donate through the Intrepid Foundation<\/a>, or visit the project yourself on an Urban Adventure.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"blog-800x150-generic2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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