School Fees or Electricity this Month?

Single mothers in the Kathmandu Valley can feel like the odds are stacked against them. A living wage for full-time work is about 20,000 npr (or $150 USD) per month. However, single moms with limited availability, less education, poor local language skills, disability, or health challenges often are unable to compete for jobs at that salary.

 

They often end up working multiple jobs and making less, trying to live off of $100/month or even less. Especially for single income households, this just isn’t possible.

 

Living on less than a living wage means making trade-offs that no one, especially a mother, should have to make. 

 

Imagine choosing between living somewhere with running water or in a flat with enough space for only 2 kids to a mattress on the floor. Pick one, not both. 

 

Eat meat a few times this month or get a couple slices of cake for a 6th birthday. 

 

Pay $5 of school fees for the month or get an extra blanket to keep warm in the winter. 

 

Pay 15 cents for the bus twice a day to work or have the kids at home unsupervised for an extra hour. 

 

Delay a doctor’s visit or skip milk and sugar in morning tea this winter.

 

Without a cushion of savings, minor health needs as little as a few dollars, like a childhood infection, can turn into a financial crisis. Credit is offered only on terrible terms to the poor, trapping people in growing payments that they can’t afford.

 

There is little in this world as powerful as a mother’s love. In hard times, many Nepali women step up and make sacrifices, work extra hard, and get incredibly creative to keep kids fed, warm, and healthy. 

 

Our mission is to offer women decent work at a living wage, and hours that work for moms, so they don’t have to make such tough choices. They can buy vegetables and milk. They can support a neighbour in crisis and still pay school fees. Their kids can be bundled up in cozy clothes that fit for winter and they can pay for a bus ticket to the village to visit their aging parents. They can take paid sick days without stressing about turning in rent. They can take their kids to the dentist and get seeds for a little garden. 

 

Everyone deserve the opportunity to safe work at a living wage.