Here's what happens when a woman actually gets a fair chance: While being in Nepal there have been so many wonderful stories of as I feel true women empowerment. I got a bit tired of the phrase "female empowerment" popping up kind of everywhere without making huge changes anywhere. But what I witnessed during the last weeks, is truly mind-blowing.
I met a young woman who was raised by her grandmother as both of her parents have died. So she and her little sister grew up in this super tiny village close to the Indian border with their granny, and the whole community constantly suggested putting them into an orphanage instead of having to feed two more humans from kind of nothing.
The grandmother insisted and raised her two grandchildren, living for years and years in precarious circumstances. At some point, the young woman started working in the banana fibre project of NIDISI, the nookees Foundation is collaborating with. And guess what: Since she's making good money, she started being the hero not just of her own little family but also the whole village. She's able to put food on the table, pay for the education of her sister and support her grandmother. Until here this is already a story that is worth telling and worth feeling.
But the part that hit my heart is the fact that now she's even able to build a house for the three of them. And this house will mean for the first time in their life the feeling of being safe. Sadly, being a woman in some parts of Nepal means being the victim of male violence. Not having a proper house means not having a proper protection, not having a proper safe place. Knowing that building their house means building a safe environment to live in, is such a big and important achievement, we might not even understand as most of us have the privilege of going to bed at night and feeling safe.
I know it is always difficult to tell stories like this without having the bitter taste of white saviourism, and I know how tricky it is to balance this. But this story does not need to be a story of the global south, it is a story that can be adapted to kind of every country in this world, as it shows what it means once women get a fair chance. And this is what touched me so deeply. If we stop discriminating and suppressing women in general (and of course also when it comes to menstruation) stories like this can happen. In Nepal but also to the woman next door. And this is the real part of female empowerment. At least for me.
