One Community One Family Nepal
Officially nearly 10% of Nepal’s population works abroad – with many thousands more migrants uncounted in official statistics. Migration is highly attractive to those with few options for making a living. Yet it can come at a great cost.
Women and children left behind are at higher risk of exploitation, abuse and violence in many forms, with no support network to back them up. Even the return of a husband can escalate the risk of violence.
VSO/Peter Caton
Members of a women's empowerment group in a remote mountain village in Nepal
Many of Nepal’s migrants find themselves in heavy manual work, where they can face a violent, abusive and exploitative life with no rights. When they at last return home, they can bring their anger, aggression from years of abuse and a need to reassert themselves.
Funded by the What Works research fund, this project hypothesises that the experiences of migrants and the changing gender roles in migrant communities are driving a rise in violence against women and girls.
Working from the grassroots in Baglung District to central levels, and targeting both potential victims and perpetrators, the project is testing whether psychosocial and livelihood support can prevent violence from occurring and can challenge wider acceptance of violence as a relationship norm.