Lessons from my Mommy

Over the last few days I have learned about a few social problems facing Nepal, particularly women’s rights.  We visited a group called Women for Human Rights.  They work with women that have been widowed.  They help these women to get all of the inheritance they are legally entitled to, they provide micro-loans to help women start their own businesses, and give vocational training, just to name a few of the services they offer.  It was incredible to see all of the complicated parts of this NGO working together to really make a difference in the lives of women.  The group was instrumental in changing a law that a woman needed the permission of a man in their lives in order to get a passport.  It was exciting to see the progress that they had made.  This was especially interesting to me because I would one day like to start my own non-profit that helps women with these same problems, especially the micro-finance portion.  Giving women a sustainable income where they are their own bosses, and not in a huge amount of debt to a corrupt money loaner is something that I think could solve a lot of problems in the world.  It is when people get desperate that they are willing to go to extreme, sometimes dangerous and illegal, lengths to provide for themselves an their families.  And women are at even more risk.  They may have children they need to feed, or they may not be able to get as high paying of a job as a man could.  The issue of women’s work equality is one that strikes very close to home for me.  My mother raised my two siblings and I alone, and I watched first hand the struggles she faced in competing for jobs.  I also watched her resilience as she rose to the occasion.  She worked full time while being promoted, and raised three children by her self.  My mom is truly an inspiration to me.