Ushering Nepalese Women toward Livelihoods

Ushering Nepalese Women toward Livelihoods

(ANS – Kathmandu, Nepal – June 21, 2022) – The empowerment of local women has always been an important concern for Don Bosco Institute in the Thecho district of Kathmandu. The institute reached a milestone of training its 22nd batch of tailoring and 18th batch of beautician courses by June 2022. The students of these batches graduated on June 16.

The graduation day of these batches was marked by the visit of the newly elected mayor of Mahalaxmi Municipality, Hari Gobinda Shrestha, a friend since the founding of the institution. Mr. Shrestha addressed the students to use fully their training and skill. He also expressed his happiness at the institute’s imparting this training at an affordable cost to the women, who are mostly local. The women received their certificates on this day.

The graduation program consisted of a few cultural songs and dances and the outpouring of thanks and gratitude to the trainers and the institute by the students. On this occasion, Fr. Binu Jacob, rector and principal of the neighboring Don Bosco Lubhu house, was welcomed and felicitated by Thecho’s rector, Fr. Augusty Pulickal, while Bro. Philip Xavier, director of the institute, had organized the program very efficiently.

The tailoring students are offered a sewing machine at a very concessional rate, so that they can begin an enterprise on their own.

Don Bosco Institute has trained about 600 students in tailoring and 310 students in beautician courses.

The Salesian presence in Nepal, entrusted to the care of the Calcutta Province of India, promotes the education of poor young people through 4 canonically erected works and a combined total of 9 different centers, scattered in the central-eastern and far western regions of the country. The Salesians arrived in Nepal in the 1890s and as a first step started a secondary school in Siddhipur, a village in Lalitpur district. Today there are about 20 SDBs coming from different provinces in India, and in addition to their commitment to education and social development and their bearing witness to Christian life, they have made themselves well-liked by the population and local authorities for their valuable services in reconstruction after the terrible earthquakes in the spring of 2015, which caused thousands of casualties and huge damage, and for their support to Covid-19 patients during the hardest phase of the pandemic.