Julia Lee and Joanne Yong are former bankers who have dedicated their time to Project Nepal, which aims to raise funds to build better education and living facilities in a remote monastery 🏘 in Nepal for the poor children who go there. #ProjectNepal2019

In this photograph taken on February 3, 2017, Nepalese woman Pabitra Giri prepares to sleep in a Chhaupadi hut during her menstruation period in Surkhet District, some 520km west of Kathmandu.
The practice of banning women from the home when they are menstruating is linked to Hinduism and considers women untouchable at this time. They are banished from the home — barred from touching food, religious icons, cattle and men — and forced into a monthly exile sleeping in basic huts.

In many countries women are excluded from religious rituals and banished from their homes while they are on their periods.

On March 14th of this year, a 23-year-old woman, whom the police identified as Sunita, was severely beaten for refusing a marriage proposal in Kanchanpur, Nepal. She had her eyes gouged out and hot ghee poured over her body. The suspect Rakesh Chand, who had offered his hand in marriage, then fled. He had been harassing her for months and had already attacked her in the past.

Imagine this. Suddenly, one day you are accused of practicing witchcraft and are forced to live in isolation by society. You are accused of bewitching a neighbor’s child or of crop failure. You are forced to eat human excreta. Or you are tortured, attacked, doused with gasoline or beaten to death following the forced accusations.

Too many times I have been told to dress “right”. Often times I have been asked if I dressed a certain way to gain more “male attention” or to be more precise, to “tease men”. Every day, I am reminded that if I stay out too late, I could “invite trouble”. The list goes on.

Her hair is tied up in a top knot. Thick kohl lines her eyes up to the temples. Her forehead is painted in red, with a silver agni chakchuu – the third eye, which is known as the fire eye – staring out from the center. She sits playfully on her mother’s lap while one by one people kneel down to offer her flowers, donations or simply to touch her feet. She appears shy to me, as if not used to receiving strangers. Despite the shyness, her eyes sparkle with curiosity.

Urmila was never allowed to be a child. She was already a slave when she was six. She worked for a rich family. The experience left a trace but did not break her. She has declared war against the child slavery system in Nepal.