• DATE

    17 May, 2017

  • ADDRESS

    Chit wan

YOUR LIFE -YOUR WAY

Sarala Majhi -(Name Changed) a very determinant woman, who has many plans to do something good in life,lives in Nakhu, Lalitpur with her husband and a daughter. Originally, she is from Chitwan where many people are engaged in hotel business. Now, she runs a restaurant at Nakhu, in partnership with her sister. In the startup phase of Business, she ran a small canteen. Now she has extended it. Her husband, who is regular consumer of alcohol, helps her sometime while most of time, she manages to do household chores and restaurant related activities on her own.

From the early childhood, she was average student. After 10th grade, Sarala started to help her parents in their hotel which catered the food, mainly for the long-route Drivers and Passengers. There, she met a Driver who liked her very much and followed her often. Initially, she ignored him but later they started talking and she fell in love with him. Then, their affair converted into marriage. With the passage of time, she discovered that her husband has already been married and he had two children. This fact brought turmoil in their relationship. They somehow managed to maintain their relationship and they decided to come to Kathmandu with the hope that the changed environment will bring a new ray of hope in their shattered life. When they entered the valley, poverty became another problem in their life. To overcome the situation, her husband started driving a tempo as he had the experience of driving before and she assisted her husband in it. Since their income was limited and her husband consumed almost all money in alcohol, she decided to send her husband to foreign country for earning. Meanwhile, during the medical check-up he was diagnosed with HIV, which consequently failed their plan. She transmitted HIV from her husband and was found HIV positive too. 

After the couple realized that they have been infected by HIV, they were in dilemma. They did not have idea about what to do and what not to. Later they came into contact of an Organization working for the HIV infected women. Also, she got a job at Female Federation Association where she worked for 5 years as project associate. Later, after the phase out of the project, she lost her job. Then, financial crisis began in her life and she started working in a Hotel. In this way she has gone through many ups and downs in her life. 

After that, she became the member of Shakti Milan Samaj, from where her visions towards her life become clearer. She continued her studies and passed high school level which helped her to become more forward looking in her life. Shakti Milan Samaj’s project Empowering women and children against HIV and AIDS (EWCAH) focuses on the economic empowerment of women. Until and unless, women become economically independent, their development becomes a day dream issue. Keeping this fact in mind, SMS provides business entrepreneurship skills and disburses Seed money to the HIV infected women who are in utmost need of financial support. Since Sarala was one of those women who was waiting for a helping hand, the seed money became boon to her. She started to run a canteen and through the profit earned, now she has expanded her Business and started restaurant in partnership with her sister. Shakti Milan Samaj has showered light of hope in her life and she feels that it has played vital role in changing her life. She is indebted to Shakti Milan Samaj for shaping her distorted life.

Personally, she feels that the ray of hope has dawned in her life and she has become more determined in her work. She is very keen and enthusiastic about further expansion of Business. She has given birth to a daughter through PMTCT method, which has added more positivity in her life. Similarly, she has become economically sound now and she is saving more amount of money these days. In her initial days she was dependent on her husband but now her life has changed. She is the main decision maker in the family. Also, she has become socially active and when she finds any women being downtrodden, she helps to heal the wound through personal counseling support. She has learnt so many things from SMS which has helped her to change her life.