Author Archives: WWS Nepal

Women Welfare Service (WWS), Humla is non-governmental organization registered in District Administration Office in 1993 according to Institution Registration Act 1977. It is affiliated to Social Welfare Council, Nepal in 1994 as perquisite for receiving grants from international donors in line with Social Welfare Act 1993. It is also affiliated to NGO Federations (including Democratic NGO Federation), Humla. The institution is founded with the aim addressing extreme poverty and deprivation of women of Humla to social, economic and political rights, poor access to justice and lack of awareness on women’s right. Two women well versed with development issues and specific situation of women in Karnali region in general and Humla in particular led to establish this organization by incorporating other 23 local women from different walks of life. WWS has been working in various fields related to community development focusing on women population. The organization concluded that education is the first step towards development and change keeping in mind the absolute illiteracy among women in most of the remote communities of Humla. Hence, the organization started to work in informal education to girls and women between 14 and 45 years of age who were deprived of formal education system. During literacy class conduction, most of the women expressed willingness to engage in some income generation activities to strengthen their self confidence to participate in other social activities. WWS also supported communities in constructing and renovating infrastructures such as water mills, micro hydro, water, sanitation and hygiene which are crucial in reducing the workload of women promoting participation in other social and personal activities. In two decades, WWS identified many interesting facts and figures useful for women empowerment. There are many meaningful networks at community level providing space to share women's vision, experience and know the potential of each other. To some extent, these networks can be further developed and mobilized in promoting access of women to their rights. In addition, it was realized that the need, barrier and capacity to access of women in the communities are not uniform. This indicates specialized approach in bringing the most marginalized and deprived target groups to the proportional access to rights including services. However, in mountainous region like Humla, development of marginalized groups is difficult because of extreme illiteracy, absence of networks, poor communication, extreme low awareness on rights and poor governance at various strata. In this situation, civil society organization like WWS has huge role in improving the gaps provided enhanced technical and operational capacity. WWS has been partnering with many national and international development agencies. The international development agencies with which WWS worked consists of The Netherlands Development Agencies (SNV) Nepal, World Education, United National Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), USC Canada and recently with Mission East (www.miseast.org). Likewise, WWS also worked with national non-governmental organizations such as Nepal Trust, Nepal Development Study and Research Center and different networks at local, regional and national levels related to rights of women.