Dear John,

Today I would like to share an update on the incredible activism our partners in Nepal have been doing in response to the COVID-19 crisis. 

While the caste system in Nepal has been outlawed and caste discrimination made illegal, many lower caste groups continue to be excluded from COVID-19 relief efforts. The Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO) have been campaigning the government to ensure public awareness campaigns cover local languages, making vital health information inclusive to Nepal’s many indigenous and marginalised groups.

They also highlight the particular urgent need for hygiene kits (incl. hand sanitiser, soaps and masks) for Dalit women who often do not have access to clean water or sanitation facilities in their homes.

Women for Human Rights, an organisation that supports the rights of single women in Nepal, have donated their shelter facilities in 10 districts, totaling 365 beds, to the Government of Nepal for spaces to be used for isolation and quarantine in suspected cases of COVID-19. 

Both organisations report that lock down measures are having disastrous consequences for women’s ability to earn through informal trading, an economy many women in Nepal are reliant on. Partners are alerting us to the sudden lack of income for women street and market vendors, newspaper sellers, waste pickers and domestic workers. Their economic and working conditions were already precarious before the crisis but they are now completely unable to earn a living.

Women Human Rights (pictured above) have been working tirelessly to provide 500-800 daily meals to elderly, single mothers, and informal workers since day one of lock down. They are also delivering emergency food packages to those in high risk categories.