The Remarkable Nepal Disabled Women Association (NDWA)

Motorbike in street.Giving up one of their weekend days off, staff and board members of the Nepal Disabled Women Association came to the office to talk with me about the status of women with disabilities in Nepal, the founding of their organization, their work and their plans.

Rama Dhakal, Meena Pandel and Nirmala Dhital, all women with disabilities, started NDWA in 1998, in response to the discrimination they and other women faced in Nepal. As in many countries, they experienced gender discrimination compounded by discrimination based on disability.
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Nepal or Bust – Journeying Across the World

Marigold-150x150While we were building the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC) in Berkeley, California we often said to funders that one of the important features of the building would be the ability for individuals with disabilities from around the world to leave their homes, arrive at San Francisco International Airport, access BART, and connect with some of the most outstanding disability rights and independent living organizations in the US. I lived that experience in reverse this week, catching BART in the basement of the ERC at 4:30 on November 21, and arriving about 28 hours later in Kathmandu, Nepal on November 23. As the plane descended into the Kathmandu Valley, we could see the incredibly majestic (though all I could think of at the time was "big") Himalyan mountains. As expected, I was warmly greeted by DREDF's Empower Partners
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