5.6 Aruna became a role modelAruna belongs to the still backward Tharu community. Her life took a new turn after she took the Rural Women Leadership Training at Navajyoti 10 years ago. The shy Aruna who sat alone in a corner and hesitated speaking to others has since started conducting seminars and is capable of working in coordination with governmental and non-governmental as well as other organizations of her district.
Aruna came to Kathmandu from Jhapa district in 1996 to participate in the leadership training. All the women were there because of a reference from an organization in their district. Aruna also had the support of Catherine White Bernard, a Canadian. All the other trainees would return to their organizations after the training, but Aruna had nowhere to go. The fact that she would have to find a job in the market encouraged her to be more competitive than the others.
She completed the training on 30 August 1997 and fondly recalls her experiences, “For the first time in my life I got an opportunity to act, sing, and dance in a street drama. Many viewers congratulated me later for my good performance. That made me very happy. I gained the confidence to move forward in life.”
Aruna returned to her village with that deeply rooted self-belief and two dozen notebooks and pencils gifted by Japanese friends and Rs 500 from Mahila ko Haat. Using those resources she began conducting informal classes in her own house. The increasing number of students caused lot of noise and late night classes consumed a lot of electricity. Her father did not like these developments and scolded her. But that did not deter her. She says, “I did not listen to my father. After a month-long class I taught them about the benefits of saving. To learn more about saving myself, I went to the community development center in Namsaling, Ilam district, delegating the responsibility of conducting literacy classes to my younger brother.”
Aruna’s working sphere changed completely in November 1997, when she got an opportunity to work as an Outreach Health Worker for the B.P. Memorial Health Institute in Dharan. Her job was to educate the workers in the Bauddha[i] area’s carpet factories about reproductive health, and to distribute contraceptives. She felt awkward in the beginning, distributing contraceptives and talking about reproductive health when she was not married. The program dealt with sexual diseases, including HIV/AIDS, so her responsibility included taking workers to the hospital if she deemed it necessary. In no time, Aruna was comfortable with her work. Due to her determination and dedication, she was promoted to motivator, supervisor and training coordinator.
On 22 February 2003, she got an opportunity to work as a motivator for the local office of the Rural Self-Help Development Center (RSDC) in Valbari VDC, Kapilbastu district. Once again, her working sphere changed completely. She says, “The multi-disciplinary training in Navajyoti has prepared me for every kind of job.” Aruna set up seven groups in that VDC in one year. Those groups formed under her leadership volunteered to help during road construction, school maintenance and other social works. For a year she also managed a training course on inspection and management of early child education.
Impressed by her dedication, RSDC promoted Aruna to Women’s Coordinator for Sarlahi district. After moving to another district, her responsibilities were increased. She was nervous in the beginning but soon she got an opportunity to participate in a coordination meeting with governmental and non-governmental organizations from all over the district. She recalls, “I gave lucid information about the condition of women in Sarlahi. That helped me to realize that I was capable of conducting the duties of a women’s coordinator.” Aruna spent four years in Sarlahi. Though she could not get high remuneration, she has received blessings and love from 2,900 families. Her work in different places gave her the opportunity to learn the local languages, and she is now fluent in Avadi, Maithali, Rajbanshi and Bhojpuri.
However, some bitter experiences gathered during the course of her work are still fresh in her mind. In Kapilbastu she was forced to give money to the Maoists every month in the name of donation. Sometimes while going for field work, they would stop her and search her bicycle. There were rumors that they would take action against her, which tortured her mentally. She recalls, “I would get very scared in the evenings. The villagers hid me and helped me in those days. The one year stay in Kapilbastu was very difficult; every night felt like the last one of my life.”
Sarlahi was also dangerous because it was infamous for robbers. An incident involving clashes between them her friends caused mental damage to two of her friends, who are receiving treatment in hospital. Aruna herself fell sick for two months because of her friend’s illness.
When donors withdrew their funding because of the insurgency, Aruna lost her job. Now she has become jobless. But she has fully utilized her free time for her studies. At the moment, she is a private student at the Tribhuvan University, from where she passed her first year of MA, and she is now preparing for the second year. After years of hard work, Aruna has established herself as an example for women in rural areas to work hard and lead a better life.
[i] This is an area around the Bauddha Nath stupa (Buddhist temple) in Kathmandu