Except, for Chaméli, there is more than that.[break]
She is a survivor and a reformer. She has changed her life and her village. She has given hope to her villagers. And there aren’t many who would not know her in the surrounding. Even those in the Tistung valley, three-hour walk away, know how she changed her village.
“Chaméli Waiba is a rare talent. She never gives up; neither does she ever lose. She is a true inspiration of continuous hard work for the betterment of society,” Buddha Ratna Manandhar, a government education official in Tistung told Republica.
But like most success stories, her beginning was full of sorrow and hardship.
THY NAME IS STRUGGLE
Chaméli was married young, very very young, at the age of 13. Before she was married, she used to look after the household chores at her parent’s house and grew up taking care of her younger siblings. After marriage, she started doing the same at her husband’s house.
As far as she can remember, she never thought, for once, the possible need or wish to attend a school. She thinks it was not just because she was a girl; even her brothers did not get to go to school. She grew up illiterate and unsure, in her own words.
After a year of marriage, Chaméli’s husband brought home a second wife and started abusing her. Still, she stayed with her in-laws for eight years and treated the home and family, as her own.
Then she left one day.
THE CLASS OF POWER
In 1996, she joined the three-month long adult literacy class that was held for the first time in her village. And those letters and characters changed her life.
“It was an amazing experience to see how these weirdly rounded patterns form such special meanings,” Chaméli smiles. “I knew these words had power to change me and my life.”
For the first time, she knew the meaning of her name and how it’s written. She also found out that her name is not Cha~mili as everybody called her, but Chaméli. “And I did not stop writing my name because I was afraid I would forget how to write those alphabets,” she says. “I continued to write.”
Her teacher held her hand and taught her to draw the characters and she would practice them day and night, new alphabets everyday. Whenever she would meet people in the village who knew how to read, she would stop them and ask them how to write words.
In a very short period, the adult literacy program became her life, her priority and everything. She carried Naya Goreto, the adult literacy book, everywhere with her, even when she went to collect firewood and grass for cattle.
She says she was never satisfied with her newfound abilities. She kept learning to read and write. Then she learnt knitting and tailoring on her own and earned some money. Other opportunities knocked her doors. Few offered her jobs, including some in cities, where she could start a new life. But she chose to stay back, in the village, to work and to prove a point.
She remembered when she had a fight with her in-laws before leaving their house. “They had asked me, timile ke bikas garera khanchha?” She had replied, “May you live two hundred years to see what I will do.”
FIRST STINT AT SOCIAL WORK
In 2000, an organization came to her village with a program for drinking water. She thought at the time, since she had water to drink, there was no need for the program. Yet, after persistent requests from her elder brother, she went for the meeting.
The meeting was looking to form an official committee to look after the management of the project, for which, they wanted a female treasurer. The villagers, unanimously, agreed on her name because a) she knew how to read and write, and b) she did not drink alcohol or spend money on cards, as suggested by her village leader Bir Bahadur Bloan.
It was a Rs 1.5 million project and she got to handle the money. “But it was not an easy experience,” Chaméli reminisces. “I could not even give my own introduction during meetings. I trembled like a bamboo tree each time. Due to nervousness, I even gave my introduction wrong, at times.”
But there were only so many times you would be scared, she says. In a few months, she was able to put her ideas up for discussion and would argue why the village needs certain things. And in less than a year, all the 101 houses got drinking water.
During this time, she also realized the need for toilets. She built one in her compound, for the first time in the village. Those officials who were there for the water project would come, crossing the river in monsoon, to use the toilet in her house. Slowly, the villagers started to understand the use and importance of toilets. In the next three years, every house got a toilet.
THE BRIDGE THAT JOINED THE VILLAGE
After the water project, she felt a dire need of a bridge over Tasar River. The Tasar village is spread on both sides of the river. During monsoon, when the river swells, it becomes impossible for even the adults to cross it.
The school did not run throughout the monsoon for almost three months. The only school in the village is on this side of the river. At least, 76 houses were on the other side. During monsoon, the children would come to the bank and stare at it. Then they would return, helplessly. So, she wanted a bridge.
During her stint at the water project, she had understood how to make things work. She got an organization to make her idea bear fruit. The villagers did not understand though. Many a times, she was mocked for “Chaméli Bridge”. It was personal for her, she even convinced her family to give her parental house for the field office of the bridge project. In 18 months, with a lot of volunteering and personal support, the villagers of Tasar built a suspension bridge over the river, which has become an example of an initiative.
“Even those who mocked the idea and did not help in the construction now cross the bridge and use it. It gives me immense satisfaction,” Chaméli says.
OTHER AVATARS
The reading and writing also opened ways for her to contribute back to the society, not always in her will, mostly forcibly and sometimes even without her knowledge. “Many times, villagers would keep me in some group, without telling me. Many times I did not understand why I was doing this. But I kept performing my duties,” she says.
And in such way, there is probably nothing she has not done or worked for. She is a teacher at the Adult Literacy Class. She taught 31 women to read and write. She led the way and now girls who have passed the tenth grade take the classes.
When she went to her first literacy classes, there were only two women in the village who knew how to write their names. Now, every woman in the village knows at least how to sign their name. “There isn’t a single woman who has to thumb-sign now,” she says.
She also heads five micro saving groups in the village. She just took the training for Female Community Health Volunteer (FCHV) and now works for the better health of her villagers. There is only one sub-health post and so, in villages like hers, the villagers completely depend on FCHV for health related issues. All the government related health actions and initiatives are run at the local level by these FCHVs.
The young in the village are proactive, possibly taken inspiration from Chaméli. They teach each other and their elders. A girl, Kabita Ghalan, decided to take a year off after SLC so that she can do “works like Chaméli didi”. If there is any social activity, they make sure that they participate and work as volunteers. The youths always come up with eventful activities to attract villagers, whether it’s a Vitamin A campaign or literacy classes.
STILL A LONG WAY TO GO
Chaméli, now single, lives with her parents. She joined primary school last year. She is happy to inform that she just passed her fourth grade and stood third in the class. She decided to join the classes after watching one of the episodes of Mero Jindagi, Mero Bishwas.
“The stories of Tripta Thapa and Nirmala Gyawali were awe-inspiring. If they could do what they are doing, I can do it as well. So, I decided to go back to the school,” Chaméli says.
“Due to my work, I don’t get to attend classes most of the times. But I do read the books in the evenings and appear in exams,” she adds. “I want to be an example in this village where boys, as soon as they fail, drop out and go to become a khalasi (helper for bus drivers). For girls, you just get married.”
It’s hard to see her not smile. It seems it is her innate ability to beam a smile, even through struggle, trouble and hardship. And she believes she still has a long way to go. Her main agenda on the list now is to build a high school and a health clinic in the village. Tasar, with 172 households, has just one primary school and a sub-health post.
She also wants to continue adult literacy classes, and an advanced level, because she realizes that is what changed her life. “And I know that is what will change the lives of the villagers here,” she says.
And today, at an event to mark the fifth anniversary of her brainchild Kalidevi Primary Child Development Center -- a kindergarten playgroup center for villagers’ children, she wrote the story of the center in a 12-para prose, and sang it in front of her villagers.
Tees deen ko bhela, ramailo mela
Karyakram banayo.
Aa-aafno ward ko yojana haru
Kramsangai sunayo.
Teesai deen ko bhelama aayo
Arkai kaam banera
Prarambhik tahako bal bikas kendra
Chalaunu bhanera.
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