Place:Sishwanijahada-1, Ramchowk, Morang

Date:2015/09/13

Total No. of Participants:52 (45 staffs of Jeevan Bikas Samaj and 7 members)

Rina was born as the daughter of father Awadhesh and mother Gita Devi in Hattisar-1, Morang in 2032 B.S. Her mother died when she was very young. Rina was brought up at her maternal home. In 2049 B.S. she was married to Pawan Giri at Sishwanijahada-1, Morang. Pawan had one roomed hut in Government land in the name of property. The source of income of the family was alms brought by his father by begging. Due to the family burden, Pawan couldn’t continue his studies after class six.

Through JBS Rina took a loan of Rs. 7,000 and opened a cycle repair and maintenance shop for Pawan in rent at Ramchowk. She gave birth to eight daughters and two twin sons. Pawan alone had to look after the family of 10 children wife, mother and carryout the household expenses.

Within 1 year of birth of the sons Pawan died because of diabetes. The whole family dependent on Pawan became helpless at once. The house broke down to very worst condition. Rina’s mother-in-law also left the house. Due to poverty, Rina could not send her daughters to school and arrange food for them in proper time. She could hardly run the 10 members’ family by the help of income from her teashop and Chadani’s (the eldest daughter of Rina who was left by her husband) alcohol shop.

Since their house wasn’t suitable for living, they spend their night in a ghumti, the shop which Pawan had bought for operating his cycle repair and maintenance shop. It was insufficient for all of them to sleep at once. Only half of them could sleep till midnight and half of them had to sit awake and after midnight they changed their position.The liability of looking after the two toddler sons, inability to send the daughters to school because of sickness by not getting food in time and spending night in the ghumti were among some of the major problems that Rina had been facing.

Realizing the miserable condition of this single woman and her struggle for fulfilling the basic needs of the family, JBS made an effort to build a complete house for the family using the locally available raw means and resources. The staffs of JBS supported this programme. By the help of 45 staffs and 7 members of JBS, a three-roomed residential house along with sanitation was built. Similarly, to solve the problem of cooking and light an improved cook stove and solar light was also set up. Seeing the pitiful condition of the children sleeping in the wet floor, a sleeping bed for the children has been handed over by the staffs engaged in building the house. All these activities was carried out with an objective to encourage them to lead a healthy life and also create environment for sending the children to school whose education was stopped after their father’s demise.

The result of this effort was that now nor Rina has to sleep below the sky nor there is condition of half of them sleeping and half awaking due to insufficient place. Rina’s mother-in-law who had once left the house returned back home hearing the news of the house. She looks after the house and takes care of the children in her absence. Likewise,  Chadani’s husband also came to Rina and apologized for his misbehavior and took his wife and daughter home. The children are rejoiced about the dramatic change they have realized within these few days. They have started going school again. They are also free from the burden of sleeping in the wet floor in a narrow place. Now they enjoy sleeping in their own bed in their own room at night. They also get food to eat at right time. Rina also sighs a relief and feels that the days of trouble have gone now. She has expanded her tea shop and added various snacks in the menu item. Now days, Rina’s story has become the talk of the village. The dramatic transformation from a broken hut and a miserable life to a well built comfortable house and progressive life is very admirable. The community people and neighborhood are excited about this praiseworthy task of JBS. The people feel that if people like Rina can lead a prosperous life then why can’t we? They are motivated for doing something for themselves. This has brought a wave of feeling of doing something to uplift the living standard among the people in the community.