The Project Commences!

Sriya Chadalavada

July 3rd, 2019

Siddhi, Chitwan

Siddhi is a village near Bharatpur Metropolitan City. Siddhi is inhabited by approximately 500 households that are scattered along hilltops. The people are predominantly from the Chepang community, a marginalized ethnic group in Nepal. There is a central area that is accessible by car located at the base of the hills. This is where we stayed and worked. It has the main school for the region and a few small shops. The school has about 100 children, of which around 15 stay at a hostel (i.e. boarding house) in the central area.

On our first day of discussions with the community, Ashwin presented to a women’s group and later a group of school girls. To the women’s group, he also presented his model for producing cotton pads. He asked those who were interested in making and selling such pads to meet with him later. With the school girls, Ashwin gave a highly engaging and entertaining talk about periods. Following the talk, he went to look at the women’s restrooms at the school and asked for a waste basket to be placed in them for the convenience of female students.

Following the discussions, we went to visit a neighboring community on a nearby hill. The car was able to drive for part of the way and we hiked the last 10 minutes. The houses were situated into the sides of the hill with pigs, buffalo, cows, chickens, and goats sprinkled amongst them. The pigs were a new addition from the previous animals we had seen across Nepal. We were told that it is customary in this community for three fully grown pigs to be given from the bride to the bridegroom during a wedding. We also got a glimpse of rocks shaped to be a mortar and pestle to grind grains and lentils, as well as a wooden bucket and staff that were used to crush the husks off of rice grains.

Note about the school children: The reason some children stay in a hostel is because they live too far away to regularly attend school. As it is, some of the other school children have to walk up to four hours to attend school and then make the trek back home on a daily basis. When we were driving up the hill in a car, we saw around 10 school children walking along the same path. They had left for home a half an hour before us.