Chhori: Renewing hope

In our society, a woman is often stereotyped to fit into certain roles all her life but even then she is considered the weaker sex because of the essentially patriarchal setup of our culture. This scenario often puts young girls at a disadvantage, depriving them of education, and making them victims of abuse too. It was to tackle these social issues that the organization Chhori was established. 

“We want to create a society where a woman’s voice is not only heard but respected as well,” says Hira Dahal, executive director of the organization, adding that Chhori wants to make sure underprivileged girls are given enough opportunities to build good lives for themselves.

Dahal mentions that the idea for Chhori came at an art therapy workshop when she was discussing about violence and discrimination women face in the society with other women present at the workshop. “We came to the conclusion that almost all of us had faced discrimination at least once in our lifetimes. And we wanted to be able to change this scenario,” she says. 

Chhori, a completely women-run organization, aims to reduce violence, trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of girls and women. “We have many successfully completed and ongoing projects at different communities,” says Dahal adding that entertainment, advocacy and trafficking sectors are their major focus areas.

Chhori, jointly with a monitoring and action committee prepared by Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, visits night clubs, bars and restaurants where girls are mostly likely to be brought in by traffickers. If they find someone who has been forced to work at these places, Chhori rescues them and brings them to their shelter, following which counseling and legal sessions are carried out to reintegrate the girls back in the society.

“We also provide skill-based trainings to women who want to earn their own keep and make them qualified enough to apply for certain jobs,” says Dahal explaining that they are trying to tackle the problem at the grassroots level and are organizing various prevention programs in Nuwakot. “While talking to the victims, we found out that many of them were supplied from Nuwakot.

We started our research and found out that many young girls were into money making rather than studying there. Due to this, they are easily manipulated by traffickers and end up being trafficked,” she says. Understanding the importance of awareness, Chhori is providing residential trainings where girls are taught different skills with which they can earn in their own districts. This has contributed in the reduction of internal trafficking.

Another major project of Chhori is to eliminate menstrual discrimination. “Many girls still miss their schools during their menstrual periods. This hampers their education,” states Dahal. To put an end to this practice, Chhori organizes programs that include menstrual health awareness and self care. 

Though Chhori has been working tirelessly to uplift the standard of women in our society, they face many hurdles on a daily basis. “We also have to deal with threats from club owners from where we have rescued some girls,” says Dahal adding that it’s also a challenge to get the girls to open up and share their stories. But, according to Dahal, these are minor setbacks and nothing is going to deter them from seeing to it that women get a chance to live a decent and dignified life.