Empowering young girls with life skills

Maya, 18, a student of the 11th grade from a remote village in a far western district of Nepal has been trained on life skills and often reaches out to her peers to talk about child rights, health and hygiene, early marriage and its consequences.

She shares, “Child marriage and chhaupadi (isolation of girls/women during menstruation) are major concerns for children especially girls in my community. Lack of knowledge about the negative consequences is one of the root causes of child marriage. Subjects are taught in school but hardly anything about child marriage and chhaupadi. I faced many challenges during my menstruation period and sometimes I did not attend the school due to the practice of chhaupadi but not now. A year ago my parents tried to get me married but I resisted. Now I teach my friends to do the same. I was able to do this with all hat I had learnt in the life skills training and I am really thankful to the organisers."

590 children from disadvantaged communities of Doti district in Nepal have benefited from life skills training being carried out with the support of World Vision’s Child Protection Project.

Child protection activities focus on increasing community capacity to respond to child protection issues and strengthening children’s resilience to abuse, neglect, exploitation and all forms of violence with life skills training.

By Keshab Raj Bhatta, Child Protection Coordinator, Doti - WVI Nepal