“Unity of Women for Justice, Equality, and Rights!”

Rural Women’s Network Nepal (RUWON) began in 2007, is an autonomous non-governmental social organization actively initiated by well-known personalities for decades in the fields of women’s, youth's and children's rights and social justice in Nepal.

We work mainly in Kathmandu Valley and in Sindhuli district, in the eastern part of Nepal.

RUWON supports women from excluded and marginalized communities and also disadvantaged regions, so as to achieve sustainable and equitable development through social inclusion, advocacy, and empowerment mechanisms.

In Sindhuli district where people faced the ten years conflict (1996-2006), we have thirty five women's micro-saving groups. We have launched women's literacy programmes in different communities in Sindhuli district.

We work in an environmentally sensitive manner through a demand-driven, and participatory approach to local resource usage.

RUWON also works for the rights of children and youth.

Through awareness and capacity-building, and by creating forums for discussion, it encourages youth to actively be a part of the development of the country.

Sustainable peace and democracy are central parts in RUWON's programs.
Vision

A developed society based on peace, justice, and equality.
Mission

Through education and information – empowering women, youths, and children to be a part of the development on local, national, and international level

Creating a society based on gender equality, peace, awareness and respect for human rights.

Improving the present status of women and the socio-economic situation of marginalized communities by providing tools such as education, knowledge and skills.

Empowering women, youth, and children so that they actively can participate in all sectors of society and help developing the nation.
Objectives
To provide opportunities to education for women, youth, and children who are deprived of the light of education.
To make women economically self-reliant by providing skills, and through income- generating programs.
To coordinate CBO's, NGO's and INGO's working in the fields of sustainable development, human rights, women empowerment, education, peace and democracy through local, national and international networks.
To encourage women's leadership and participation in political decisions by leadership trainings, capacity building and awareness rising.
To share experiences, knowledge and information with organizations and people with different cultural backgrounds.
To protect the environment from exploitation and use natural resources in a sustainable way.
To build sustainable peace and create a democratic culture.
Enabling Rural Women to Fight for their Rights

Gender disparity is prevalent among women in Nepal.

Women’s deprivation is partly associated with social-cultural factors under our male-dominant patriarchal system, which has further generated gender inequality.

This results in low-rate opportunities in poverty, education, health care facilities, job procurement, property rights and gender dissemination disparity. Due to these prevalent adverse situations, women are socially and economically deprived from receiving the same opportunities as men.

For Nepalese women, these harsh conditions not only violate their human rights, but also thrust new challenges against the overall development process of the country.

When half of the population of the country – women - are marginalized, our society is unable to smoothly propel forward.

Because of this, RUWON identifies its aims towards enabling a generation of creative awareness among rural women to fight for their rights through various programs.

Education and awareness and exchange of information on women’s daily issues are important tools in our work.

Not only this, we have set specific objectives of running various programs involving the necessary skills as required at the local level, targeted for unemployed women who wish to make themselves economically independent.

Special efforts have been made to bring forth uneducated, poor, downtrodden women from marginalized communities of backward classes and indigenous women into the national mainstream.

For this purpose, an efficient, gender-related network system has been created in order to channel forth the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the conscious and empowered woman to those living in socio-economic deprivation.
Our Women's Literacy School

In February 2010. a school for illiterate women was started by RUWON in Saraswatinagar and Kapan, Kathmandu.

The school offers courses in Nepali, math, and English for illiterate women of all ages. Currently the students are between 20 and 79 years old.

Classes are free and held for two hours, six days a week. Around 200 women are participating in the project.

The women are divided into five classes and taught by teachers who provide their services voluntarily.

Our Women's Literacy School project is supported by The Ministry of Education, Nepal, with books and stationeries for some students. A new potential partner in the project is The Raymond Williams Foundation, UK.
The Future of Nepal

In Nepal, the consequences of ten years of domestic conflict (1996 - 2006) are still seen in our society, and it has deeply affected the people within it.

The youths who grew up with the war always present, look upon conflicts as an accepted part of life.

In a society that has been ruled by autocratic leaders for more than 240 years, democracy is something new and not yet rooted.

Focusing on the next generation to develop society in a sustainable way – with human rights and democracy as sacred values, is therefore essential in the work of RUWON.

Creating awareness among youth for women's, youth and children's rights, gender equality, and democracy is the first step to make that reality.

Educating our youth in leadership skills, showing them opportunities to influence and change society encourages them to actively participate in the development of the country, and giving our youth good values and capacities is of the highest priority in RUWON's work, since they are the future of Nepal.

Children from marginalized communities – especially girls, are often deprived of their natural child rights of having the light of education.

Lack of education reduces the chances of children to improve their standard of living. By keeping girls from going to school in the traditional pattern, gender disparity is maintained.

The conflict between 1996 and 2006 caused a large number of families to move to the urban areas of the country, and to Kathmandu in particular.

In addition, the war caused a lot of damage around the country. Not only were roads and buildings affected, but also schools and hospitals.

This, together with very limited economic resources, makes the quality of the education poor, in government schools. Big classes (on average around 100 students per class), bad facilities, and minimal resources make the education far from satisfying.

We have one student project, funded by DKA Austria, which is running in ten different government schools and five different colleges. In this project, we formed child clubs in schools, and youth clubs in colleges, and train them about micro-saving, leadership, child rights/youth rights, gender equality, personality development, peace and democracy.

RUWON works to provide all children the education they have right to, to give them the chance to a bright future.

If you would like to help RUWON in their efforts, see below.

http://www.asafeworldforwomen.org/field-partners/fp-nepal/fp-ruwon.html