Dalit and Indigenous women in rural Nepal are building connected solutions across livelihoods, food security, education, health and rights, so progress in one part of community life strengthens every other.
Heart of Nepal exists to move power and resources into their hands.
organizing through 30 women’s groups
eating a school meal each day
learning beyond school hours
connected to a living local ecosystem
In the communities where we work, poverty rarely exists alone. A child missing school may also be living with hunger. A woman trying to earn an income may be navigating caste discrimination, unpaid care work, or violence. A family growing food may still struggle to afford a nutritious meal.
Lasting change does not come from solving one problem at a time. It grows in an ecosystem, when communities have the resources, power, and space to shape their own futures.
Heart of Nepal is a grassroots nonprofit organisation working alongside Dalit and Indigenous women and children in Indrawati Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk. We build community-led systems connecting women’s economic empowerment, capacity building, food security and nutrition, children’s education, extracurriculars and well-being, and community leadership.
Our programmes are developed with the communities we serve and shaped by what women and families tell us they need.
Learn moreLife does not happen in silos. Neither should development.
Our model begins with community priorities and moves in every direction. Livelihoods, nutrition, education, knowledge, rights and local institutions continuously strengthen one another.
Women receive skills, resources, and support to build livelihoods. They organize through self-help groups. They save together, lend to one another and decide where resources are most needed.
Some invest in poultry, goats, agriculture or kitchen gardens. Their work creates income while improving what families eat. Women sell eggs and vegetables in local markets and to nearby schools.
Their livelihoods begin supporting school meals. Children receive better food. Families face fewer pressures to pull them out of school. Scholarships, remedial classes and learning centres give children the support to remain and progress in education.
Digital, health, legal and entrepreneurship training gives women practical knowledge they can use in their businesses, homes and communities.
Each part strengthens the next. Resources stay within the community, women have greater control over their lives, and children grow up with more choices than the generation before them.
We organise women’s groups and connect women with savings, skills, productive resources and markets so they can build livelihoods and control their income.
Self-help groups · Agriculture · Poultry · Goat rearing · Entrepreneurship
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We connect women-led food production with household nutrition and school meals, keeping food, income and opportunity within the community.
Kitchen gardens · School gardens · Midday meals · Local purchasing
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We combine scholarships, learning centres, school meals and child clubs so children can remain in school, progress and shape their own futures.
Scholarships · Remedial learning · Educational materials · Child protection
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We equip women with practical knowledge of technology, health, safety and law and support them to use it in their homes, businesses and communities.
Digital literacy · Reproductive rights · Legal literacy · GBV support · Peer leadership
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When Lalita Gurung joined a women’s group formed by Heart of Nepal, she was looking for a way to turn her education and willingness to work into an income of her own. After training in savings, financial literacy, leadership and poultry farming, she received 35 vaccinated chickens to begin. Within months, Lalita had earned NPR 12,400 from selling eggs and roosters—while keeping some of the eggs to improve her family’s meals.
Read Lalita’s Story
At ten years old, Laju was balancing school with responsibilities at home and had begun missing classes. After Heart of Nepal worked with her family and connected her with a local tuition centre, she began attending regularly again. Her confidence grew, her results improved, and learning began to feel possible again.
Read Laju’s Story
