Frauenalphabetisierung

In the remote areas of Nepal. in the mountains and in the Terai, poverty and illiteracy is widely spread specially amongst women. But it is the women´s duty to care for the children. She sends them to school every day and has large influence on their children attendance in school. Therefore it is important to educate the women, to teach them how to read and write. Together with the Rotary Club of Patan and german Rotaty Clubs a project was launched to tackle the above described problems. The women were tought how to read and write, along with some basic principles of economics. In a first phase, starting in November 2004, 800 women could be integrated in the programme. The women, aged between 18 and 35 years had because of their race, caste or financial constraints so far no opportunity to attend a school. The lessons are hold in groups of twenty women. The organisation laid by our local partners Samjihauta Nepal and Young Star Club Nepal.
	From time to time short tests showed the progress of the participants. The tests are also usefull to adopt the lessons on the wishes of the women. The teachers were supervised once per week. Among the groups of twenty, the women forme a microfinance system, allowing the women to lend money and pay it back only with little interest. The organisation of this system is under full control of the group. They determine the interests and the consequences for delayed payback of money. To run this system the women have meetings additional to the literacy classes.
A first evaluation of the project in August 2005 showed, that the women were highly motivated. Most of them were able to read and write their and their husbands names and some simple sentences. They could perform some simple calculations. These results should not be underestimated as the ability to sign a document with the own name instead of a finger print is an important goal for the women. From high value is also that they feel the importance of education and hand this over to their children. Meanwhile we finished three phases including each 800 women, which all showed very good results. A continuation of this project is planned.