Dear friends,
dear sponsors of Back to Life,
were you, too, delighted by our 4,000th Back to Life baby, named Shriya? This new life, recently born at the Jiuka birthing center, stands like almost nothing else for the shift toward more safety, health and dignity for women in the mountains of Mugu, western Nepal.
And yet: far too often I hear, and read in the Nepalese newspapers, of women and girls who lose their lives to Chhaupadi. They freeze to death in huts, die from snakebites or rockfalls, or bleed out – because during childbirth and during their menstruation they are banished from the house. All that is left to them is the forest or the filthy cowshed. Chhaupadi springs from a long-standing fear of evil spirits and is practiced mainly in the remote mountain regions of western Nepal. Although the government banned Chhaupadi in 2017, it was never effectively curbed and still costs countless lives every year. Such fates are preventable, and they show us how important our work is.
With Every Further Signature, the Fear of Spirits Fades
Now we are taking a decisive step further: In the rural municipality of Khatyad in Mugu, we recently invited people to a public signing ceremony. It was deeply moving to see who all took part: the chairman of the municipal ward, local officials, representatives of the police, teachers, midwives from our birthing centers and the many community members. Especially important was the moment when the shamans, too, signed and publicly renounced the cruel tradition. In doing so they dispelled, for some, the last doubts about breaking with the taboo. Together they declared: every girl and every woman deserves respect and dignity. They all committed to making their homes and their village Chhaupadi-free, and so they stand up for change.
With your help, dear friends of Back to Life, we will encourage many more villages to become Chhaupadi-free and to serve as an example, until one day we reach our great goal: a Chhaupadi-free Nepal.
Please help out – the goal is within reach!
