I used to be told that, I will fail; this is not unusual in Nepal where visually impaired women are discriminated.
I am a blind woman by birth and hail from a remote village in Nepal where people are socially and economically backward. As they lack education and awareness they believe that disability is a curse from the past life. Although my parents are extremely supportive of me, the society, unfortunately, isn’t.
At the age of 6, I got an opportunity to enroll an inclusive school which took me 10 hours of walk from the village. So, I decided to stay back at the hostel and as I was the youngest, the teachers there were not very concerned with my education.
Therefore, I used to learn Braille from my father when I visited home. I remember a conversation between my grandmother and a relative, a parent of a blind boy when I was about 12 years of age. “I am lucky that I have a boy, he can do whatever he wants. But your son has a blind daughter and she can never go out.” When I moved to Kathmandu for higher studies, I lived in a hostel where I met other blind women and knew about many other troubles they were facing. From then on I became interested in supporting youth and started working with different organizations as a volunteer always focusing on the support of youth.
Kanthari is an international institute in South India. This institute provides 7 months leadership training for social change makers. When I was selected in Kanthari leadership training, I also got a government job offer. But I refused my government job and I attended 7 months Kanthari leadership training. Now I graduated from Kanthari (www.kanthari.org).
At this crucial time, I have realized that the youth need motivation, confidence, and training to survive in a male-dominated society along with skills that make us employable. Nepal is still a conservative society which is inefficient to empower us; we have to empower our self. Therefore I have joined AYON.
