Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Our Impact: Chandra-Kala, Nepal

Chandra-Kala is thirty-one years old and lives with her daughter and two sons. Her husband has been working as a labourer in Malaysia for the past 4 years.
 
Chandra is a former Kamaiya bonded labourer. She was born into bondage and got married at the age of 14. She gave birth to her first child while she was washing dishes as a Kamaiya. She used to work until 10pm every night and woke up to feed the animals at 2am. She was only able to breastfeed her baby twice a day, and says it is a “miracle she survived.”
 
Although Chandra-Kala’s husband sends back some money each year from Malaysia, this is not enough to live on. Chandra-Kala works as an unskilled labourer. The first time she received a loan from our local partner in Nepal (to buy an ox) was the first time she had had money of her own.
 
Chandra-Kala uses the money her husband sends to buy wood to build a better house for her family, but needs to access additional finance through the project to be to complete it. Before building their current house (around 9 years ago), the family lived in a plastic sheeting house for several years after being freed from the Kamaiya system. Now she wants to have a bigger house, with more windows. She doesn’t want the whole family to have to sleep in the same room as they currently do, especially as her children are getting older.

Leave a comment