Nokhi Budathoki’s life drastically changed
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Dang Ghorahi, June 17, 2021: Nokhi Budathoki, a resident of Triveni Rural Municipality ward no 6, Sallekhola in Salyan district had to spend her early married life in utter difficulty. She had to go to jungle to fetch woods and fodder for domestic animals tamed at home.
Besides her difficult days she had to suffer from domestic violence inflicted upon her by her own husband. She had to stay in a joint family comprising of 14 family members including her own two sons and two daughters.
However, it so happened that her husband Bhola Prasad Budathoki who was the main perpetrator of violence on her in the past was very instrumental in transforming Nokhi’s life later on after he went to Chitwan to study agriculture.
There was sudden change in the attitude of her husband who started encouraging her to come out of the house and do some creative social activities by engaging herself in women groups, seminars and trainings etc.
Nokhi had established a women’s group in the village which she had to leave after protest from her husband. But the same women group had turned into a women cooperative by now when her husband asked her to rejoin it.
Nokhi now has a regular saving of Rs 1000 in this cooperative. The same cooperative is being promoted financially by Rural Women Development Center and Heifer International Nepal. The working area of the cooperative increased and there was a need for Veterinary Technician to look after the animals reared by the share holders of the cooperative. Nokhi was lucky to be selected to go to Pokhara to undergo the Veterinary technician training for 35 days.
During her training days at Pokhara also her husband inspired and encouraged her to complete her training. She stood third among the 19 participants in the training though at the beginning she found it very difficult to complete.
After this training Nokhi returned to the village and started serving the villagers with her skill and knowledge of Veterinary in taking care of the village livestock. The villagers started calling her “doctor”.
She not only bore the burden of her family household, but also took the burden of the Veterinary assistant. She started earning a monthly salary of from Rs 20,000 to 25000.
Her husband being a graduate of agriculture started doing vegetable farming. She took a loan of Rs 5,00000 from Machhapuchare bank in coordination of Rural Women Development Center and Heifer International Nepal and started vegetable farming in large scale.
Last year only she earned Rs 10,0000 from the sale of vegetable. She also has 30 goats from which she earned Rs 150000 last year. With this, she has been inspiring many other villagers to rear goats and profess vegetable farming as a profession. She has established her separate social identity in the society and village these days.
“I will make more efforts to empower our sisters and help them to become financially more empowered,” says Nokhi.
