<![CDATA[Project Didi Australia

<![CDATA[Project Didi Australia - NEWS]]>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:54:52 +1000Weebly<![CDATA[Our 2023-24 Annual Report: Looking back at 10 years of impact; please consider supporting our future]]>Mon, 09 Jun 2025 03:23:31 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/our-2023-24-annual-report-looking-back-at-10-years-of-impact-please-consider-supporting-our-futureAs we approach the 2025 EOFY, the Project Didi Board is thrilled to share our 2024 Annual Report with you. This Annual Report doubles as a celebration: Project Didi Australia’s10-year anniversary, supporting the transformative work of our key partner, Asha Nepal.

Read our 2023-24 Annual Report

Asha Nepal, like the people behind the work it does, is very special.

As we reflect on 10 years of supporting Asha Nepal, we can clearly see the benefits of our commitment to agility in that support: trusting in our partner’s wisdom and responding to their circumstances and needs as quickly and effectively as we can and as they indicated would be most helpful.

In 2011, Asha Nepal responded to the emerging evidence on the damaging effects of institutional living for children by developing a Family Based Care (FBC) model to replace the outdated model of residential care or orphanages.

FBC provides a home for survivors who cannot immediately return to their families. This care closely mirrors a family environment, with 6-8 children and a housemother in each home. This child-centred care is a holistic, individualised approach based upon the needs of each girl. This support provides children with the stability, consistency in care, and opportunities they need to build meaningful futures.

Asha Nepal remains in attitude and action at the forefront of making innovative, agile, and evidence-based decisions to have the greatest impact within the reality of their environment. As the year progresses, we will share more changes slated for 2025 and beyond, as they continue to adapt their work to best suit the needs of women, girls, and families in their community.

Led by the needs of survivors, the next evolution of Asha Nepal’s approach is underway. We look forward to sharing more about this needs-based, responsive transition in the coming months—a transition focused on a commitment to prevention.

As we approach the EOFY, please consider donating to Project Didi Australia, a not-for-profit Australian charity striving for futures of hope, dignity, and independence for survivors of trafficking and abuse, by:

Working with well-established, reputable organisations in Nepal, specialists in trauma-informed care with over 10 years of experience supporting women and girls
Providing survivors of trafficking and violence with the support, funds and opportunities they need to lead self-determined lives.
Raising awareness and advocate for action to end gender-based violence & modern slavery with our community in Australia.

Make a donation

In the 2024 Financial year, we;

continued to provide financial support to fund two Family Based Care homes
secured committed funding for six multi-year educational scholarships
increased our funding from stable sources to account for 93% of our net income

In 2025, moving into our second decade, we are as eager as ever to connect with our current community as well as new collaborators, sponsors and donors.

To become a regular supporter, or for a one-off EOFY donation of any amount (no amount is too small), please go to our Donate page. As a guide, a $30 tax-deductible donation a month provides regular, trauma-informed counselling.

We are also in need of committed volunteers for a range of projects. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please reach out!

And please share our Annual Report with friends, family and connections who might be interested in our work so we can continue to raise awareness.

Join us as a volunteer, collaborator or sponsor

With gratitude,
Chloë, Clare, Alison, Merry and Kira
The Project Didi Australia Board

]]><![CDATA[This Easter, choose chocolate that's good for people and the planet with the 2025 Chocolate Scorecard]]>Mon, 07 Apr 2025 10:00:00 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/this-easter-choose-chocolate-thats-good-for-people-and-the-planet-with-the-2025-chocolate-scorecard

Easter is coming, which means we all have the perfect opportunity as consumers to shop with our values and support efforts to end modern slavery. Project Didi is here to help you do that as we are members of an Australian coalition campaigning against modern slavery and supporting the work of our friends and powerful advocates, Be Slavery Free, by promoting the 2025 Chocolate Scorecard.

The Chocolate Scorecard will help you buy better, so you don’t unknowingly support brands that rely on modern slavery in their supply chains.

Unfortunately, the cocoa industry is a hotbed for interconnected issues that precipitate and perpetuate modern slavery, including child labour, and failing to pay cocoa farmers a living wage, even though they believe that living income is a human right.

So, what are the top tips from this year's scorecard?

Named as the most sustainable chocolate companies, according to the scorecard, are:

Tony’s Chocolonely—the standout and recipient of the “Good Egg” Award!
Ritter Sport
Nestlé
Mars Wrigley

And the “Bad Egg” Award goes to Cadbury owners Mondelēz for lack of participation, an indication of a lack of public accountability

Find out more & get the easy guide on safe chocolate to buy

The Chocolate Scorecard ranks companies based on traceability and transparency across supply chains, whether they pay farmers a living income, efforts to prevent the use of child labour, action on climate and deforestation, how they support agroforestry, and eliminating the use of harmful pesticides.

Fuzz Kitto, Co Director at Be Slavery Free, said:

“Consumers are being asked to swallow record chocolate prices, and shrinking products. The least they expect is chocolate free from slavery. The Chocolate Scorecard will help shoppers make smart purchases this Easter. Chocolate companies love to talk about policies and commitments, but 25 years since they promised to eliminate child labour from the supply chain, its time to stop ‘cocoa washing’ and innovate more effective action.”

Chocolate is a multi-billion dollar industry, with some of the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world profiting from it. This is an industry that can afford to do much better, and it’s refreshing to know that we can all play a role when it comes to our Easter shopping.

So, happy shopping. Enjoy some overindulgence and we hope you all have a fun and restorative holiday.

]]><![CDATA[Our Statement of Support for a Modern Slavery Act in the ACT]]>Tue, 28 Mar 2023 03:17:30 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/our-statement-of-support-for-a-modern-slavery-act-in-the-actThis morning in Canberra, Jo Clay, ACT Greens MLA for Ginninderra, tabled a bill in ACT Parliament to address modern slavery.

The bill proposes to:

Create an ACT Anti-slavery Commissioner, who would advocate for action to combat modern slavery and protect the the rights of survivors.
Introduce steps to identify and address modern slavery risks in the goods and services the ACT government sources.

Jo Clay said, “Canberrans care about the wellbeing of those in our community, where products come from, where they end up and the welfare of those who are involved in these supply chains. This Bill is an important first step in legislating to effectively respond to modern slavery in the ACT and I look forward to the important community conversation this legislation will initiate.”

Learn more about the proposed legislation

Project Didi Australia welcomes the tabling of a bill for a Modern Slavery Act in the Australian Capital Territory.

Project Didi Australia works to empower women and girls who have experienced trafficking and gender-based violence. We partner with locally-led organisations in Nepal, who are specialists in trauma-informed care, education and pathways to safe employment. We also raise awareness and advocate for action to end modern slavery with our community in Australia.

Project Didi was established in 2014 in the ACT by three Canberra businesswomen and is actively engaged in the local community, with Board and volunteer representation in the territory and collaboration with local business and schools on fundraising and awareness raising events.

There are three key reasons we support the introduction of a Modern Slavery Act in the ACT

Modern slavery denies people their freedom, dignity, wellbeing and economic security and has detrimental, long-term consequences for their families, communities and society. Modern slavery happens in Australia and in the production of the goods and services Australia procures. A Modern Slavery Act in the ACT could support greater collaboration between government, business, civil society and people with lived experience to bring about meaningful change on modern slavery.
The leadership position the legislation, if enacted, establishes for the ACT (as the second Australian state or territory with a Modern Slavery Act) creates an enabling environment for organisations, like ours, to progress action on modern slavery.
The establishment of an Anti-slavery Commissioner could increase much needed efforts to raise community awareness of modern slavery. From our engagement with the ACT community, we have seen that, while there is a keen interest to address modern slavery and promote human rights, awareness of key risks and effective action is limited.

We urge the ACT Government to progress the bill and welcome the opportunity to engage further through public consultation.

]]><![CDATA[Empowering women and girls to transform their lives through higher education scholarships and technical diplomas in STEM]]>Wed, 08 Mar 2023 07:34:21 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/empowering-women-and-girls-to-transform-their-lives-through-higher-education-scholarships-and-technical-diplomas-in-stem

This post contains a story from a survivor of gender-based violence. We recognise that this story may cause distress or discomfort. We strongly encourage you to read this post in a safe and supportive environment and seek additional support and self-care should you need.

Education is key to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and violence.

Educating girls is linked to faster poverty reduction, better maternal health, lower child mortality, and reduced child marriage and violence against women.

This International Women's Day, we're pleased to share that we have committed to increase our support for education for women and girls, through undergraduate, postgraduate and technical skills scholarships. These scholarships will be delivered through our partner, Asha Nepal, with the support of their social worker, counsellor and job coordinator.

In one of the best examples of the long-term, transformative impact of our partner's work, some of these young people, with lived experience of trafficking and gender-based violence, were the first children in Asha Nepal’s care in 2008. With Asha's support, they have graduated from school, reintegrated with their family and are now pursuing higher education!

These scholarships equip young people with pathways to safe employment and bright futures - young people like Poon, who is studying computer engineering and is determined to become a computer technician.

Poon is challenging discriminatory norms that sideline women from careers in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM). Globally, women hold only 2 in every 10 STEM jobs. Increasing representation of women in these fields unlocks opportunities for creative solutions that address women's needs and progress gender equality.

Poon kindly shared her story with Asha Nepal. Her name has been changed to respect her privacy.

Support an education scholarship

Poon is 19 years old and lived with Asha Nepal from 2014 until June 2022, when she was reintegrated with her mother. Poon’s family are Dalit and her mother is hearing impaired. When Poon was younger, her parents and her brother all moved to Kathmandu for better employment opportunities; however, they were separated from her father and brother and have never seen them again.

Poon’s mother remarried, and when Poon was about 8 years old she was sent to Darjeeling, India to work as a domestic helper. For three years Poon worked as a domestic labourer. She said they were the hardest three years of her life.

When she was 11 years old, Poon returned to live with her mother, step father and two step siblings in one of the slum communities in Kathmandu. Poon did not attend school and had to stay at home while her mother worked as a cleaner during the day. During this time, Poon was given alcohol by a neighbour and raped.

Other members of the community supported Poon and her mother to report the rape and access a women’s crisis centre. From there, Poon was referred to Asha Nepal.

During her time with Asha Nepal, Poon has been supported to attend school and has worked hard to improve her grades. She is currently studying a Diploma of Computer Engineering. While she reports that she finds it challenging, she is determined to complete the course and become a computer technician.

This International Women's Day, invest in women and girls' aspirations, financial independence and empowerment.

Your tax deductible donation supports young people, like Poon, to realise their goals through higher education scholarships.

$65 a month supports a young person to study a technical and vocational training qualification, such as engineering or nursing.

$130 a month supports a young person to study a Masters program, such as social work or business administration.

Make a donation

Project Didi Australia is a partner for Project J1082N with Global Development Group (ABN 57 102 400 993).
Tax deductible receipts for gifts over $2 with a preference for this project will be issued by GDG. If funds raised exceed the requirement for this project, funds may be directed to another approved activity. Please note, no non-development (evangelistic, political or welfare) activities are a part of, or funded by, GDG projects.
For more information please visit GDG projects: www.gdg.org.au.

]]><![CDATA[Project Didi Annual Report 2020-21]]>Sun, 20 Feb 2022 19:52:14 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/project-didi-annual-report-2020-21We are very pleased to share with you our Annual Report for 2020-21.

Thank you to our volunteers, donors, partners and community members, who share our mission to empower women and girls to achieve their full potential. We are planting seeds for trees we ourselves may never sit in the shade of, and this is important work that requires patient, steady and sustained support.

Your contributions, time and energy have immense value and we're so grateful that you choose to share them with us.

Read our Annual Report

In Nepal, COVID-19 has caused more deaths than the 2015 earthquake, with over 11,500 recorded and likely many more considering issues around reporting and testing. The national, government-run domestic violence hotline has had more than double the reports of domestic violence since 2019. Of the families Asha Nepal supports, 90% have lost their main source of income and here in Australia, COVID-19 completely disrupted the funding model we relied on to support our partners, Asha Nepal and Samunnat. The situation was, and in many ways remains dire and urgent.

But despite all the challenges of 2020/21, there have been many cracks where the light has shone through. The grit and practical optimism demonstrated by our partner didis (a respectful term for older sister in Nepali), in the face of incredible adversity has served as a lodestar for the Board and the wider Project Didi community. Our response was to focus our energy on adapting our funding approach to address the immediate needs of our partners in Nepal. Incredibly, our doubling down in efforts, coupled with our supporter’s enormous generosity meant:

We were able to increase our funding support from one Family Based Care home to two

Six children graduated from Grade 12 and three children from Grade 10

18 tablets were provided to children to study remotely

Six children were reintegrated with their biological families

Importantly, whilst dealing with the urgent and immediate situation in Nepal, we also embarked on an ambitious education and advocacy campaign at home. Our #SomethingforSlavery campaign to help end modern slavery in the Indian tea industry is a fundamental part of our approach to longer-term strategic change for women and girls. After 8 months of campaigning, 10+ virtual tea parties and over 200 emails sent to T2 and its parent company Unilever, the voices of the Project Didi community had an impact. Unilever committed to ensuring that everyone who directly provides goods and services to the company earns at least a living wage or income by 2030. With over 60,000 suppliers in over 160 countries the impact of this commitment for workers and their families could be wide reaching.

The beauty of the smaller scale, deep (rather than broad) work we do through Didi is the multiplier effect we know the work has. We know family strengthening, education and safe employment breaks intergenerational cycles of poverty and violence. We know that a child that grows up in a safe family has stronger health, wellbeing and resilience and has greater opportunity to make informed decisions about their future. We also know that a girl with an education has a decreased risk of domestic violence, greater decision-making power and is more likely to educate her own children.

We are small and 100% volunteer run. We have considered our size, and what that means for what we can achieve and the best path to impact. We are ambitious, yet practical. Critical local organisations like Asha Nepal and Samunnat, working for sustainable change to complex challenges in Nepal, are often stifled by short-term funding cycles, poor collaboration between local and international NGOs with overlapping missions, deficit-based approaches and the constraints of programs designed to satisfy external and often misguided policy. First and foremost, we are here to support the evidence-based work done by Nepali women with lived experience. We listen to and are guided by them. This is our greatest strength as an organisation.

In the last year we have made significant developments in capacity building, partnering with the Global Development Group to leverage their resources and tax deductibility status, strengthening our governance frameworks and filling skills gaps with new board member appointees and new volunteers. In 2022 we will continue to strengthen the administrative backbone of Project Didi to act as a springboard for the impact we want to have, with a focus on:

Diversifying our funding sources
Deepening engagement with our community
Strengthening our monitoring and evaluation

But perhaps even more fundamentally, we plan on evoking our imaginations. Global think tank, Demos Helsinki, recently released a paper on what they saw as the secondary crisis to the COVID pandemic: the crisis of imagination.

"The world faces a deficit of social imagination. We find it easy to imagine apocalypse and disaster; or to imagine new generations of technology. But we find it much harder than in the past to imagine a better society a generation or more into the future.”

Against the backdrop of all the challenges and hardship we are grappling with, our greatest weapon against despondency is our imagination. In the next month our Board will meet for a strategy session and, buoyed by what we managed to achieve during one of the most challenging years to date, we will unearth new possibilities and potential for how we can be of service to our partner organisations in Nepal, and our community both in Australia, and around the world.

We look forward to having you involved in our community. Here’s to a year of transformative imagination!

With gratitude,
Chloë Spackman
President

Read our Annual Report

Make a donation

]]><![CDATA[A year of learning and community-building.]]>Thu, 07 Oct 2021 13:00:00 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/20202021agm

At our recent AGM, we reflected on the challenges of the past year for our partners in Nepal. There are now more fatalities from COVID-19 than the 2015 earthquake and the impact of livelihoods has been devestating. Reports of domestic violence to Nepal’s government-run domestic violence hotline have significantly increased since 2019. The inability to run in-person events and trips to Nepal has made fundraising challenging.

We're proud that despite a tough year, we've been able to continue to provide vital funding for programs that have real impact for women and girls in Nepal. With your generosity, we've expanded our funding from one to two Family Based Care homes and supported new education projects.

A video call with small squares with each of the 13 attendees' faces.

The Project Didi team at our 2020-2021 virtual AGM.

We focus on having deep, rather than wide, impact. In the past year, we supported:

The holistic care of 16 survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence, through Family Based Care, counselling, healthcare, education and pathways to employment.
The reintegration of 6 children with their biological families.
6 children to graduate from Grade 12 and 3 children from Grade 10.

These may seem like small numbers but we know family strengthening, education and safe employment breaks intergenerational cycles of poverty and violence. We know that a child that grows up in a safe family has stronger health, wellbeing and resilience and has greater opportunity to make informed decisions about their future. We also know that a girl with an education has a decreased risk of domestic violence, greater decision-making power and is more likely to educate her own children.

Women in face masks in Nepal standing on a road and sorting through sacks of rice.

The Asha Nepal team distributing food to families in the community during COVID-19.

In Nepal, with the exception of a few months, schools have been closed since March 2019. Last year, thanks to your donations, we provided tablets to 18 children to study remotely. This had immediate and significant benefits.

Previously children, all at different stages of their schooling, were sharing 4 laptops between them. They were unable to speak with their teachers directly and, as the laptops were at Asha's community centre, it was risky for them to travel during the height of the pandemic. Now all the children can attend school virtually while at home. Asha reports that children’s wellbeing has improved and housemothers, who were previously trying to cover the gap in schooling, are less stressed.

A girl and a boy in Nepal sit on the floor at a low table. They are using tablets to attend virtual school classes. They have notebooks, textbooks and a calculator around them.

Children in Asha Nepal's Family Based Care using their new tablets for virtual school.

We have also been focused on increasing the engagement and expansion of our community, through volunteering, screenings, newsletters and social media.

#SomethingForSlavery, our campaign in collaboration with Be Slavery Free, called on T2 and its parent company, Unilever, to commit to a living wage for tea workers in Assam, India. After 8 months of campaigning, 10 virtual tea parties and over 200 emails to T2, Unilever committed to providing a living wage for any worker that provides direct goods and services to the company by 2030. With over 300 suppliers in Assam alone, this will have significant impacts for low wage workers. While #SomethingForSlavery is on pause at the moment while we focus on our partners in Nepal during COVID-19, we will continue to monitor Unilever's progress towards their commitment.

We further developed our governance frameworks with the finalisation of two key policies in Partnerships and Safeguarding, which will include training for our partners and volunteers.

Two men standing in an office and holding up tea cups. Their tea cups are touching, saying

Australian Ethical's Tommy St Jack (Office Manager) and Mark Simons (CFO) hosting a virtual tea party at their office in September 2020.

A special thank you to all our volunteers, including eight new additions to the team and two new board members. As a volunteer-run organisation, their passion for the rights of women and girls and hard work keeps Project Didi going!

And of course, a very special thank you to our donors and community who have supported Project Didi Australia over the past year. Thank you for your commitment to meaningful futures for women and girls!

We look forward to sharing our Annual Report with you soon.

Continue to support Asha Nepal's work

]]><![CDATA[Meet our founders: Leonie Keogh]]>Sat, 02 Oct 2021 14:00:00 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/leonie-keoghOur founders, Leonie, Sarah and Fiona, have worked for over 15 years to support independent, dignified and bright futures for women and girls in Nepal.

They met in Nepal and formed Project Didi in 2014. They chose the name Didi, which is a respectful term for older sister in Nepali, as it reflected the supportive, collaborative role they wanted to take in Nepal, one working in partnership with local organisations.

Do you have any dreams for Project Didi and our work in Nepal?

I hope Project Didi's work in Nepal will continue to grow and be able to help more of those in need. I would also like to see us develop programs that support self-sufficiency and independence. In Australia, I hope we can raise more awareness and support for the issues facing many women and girls in Nepal.

Why is volunteering important to you?

I am very fortunate to be living in Australia with the luxuries and freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. There are so many causes in the world that need support and it can sometimes be overwhelming to know where to start. We don't need to change the world but if we can each do something small - that will lead to greater change.

A woman stands in a puffer jacket and with walking sticks in front of a mountain range, with Mt. Everest in the far backgound, Nepal.

Leonie on one of Project Didi's women's trips to Nepal with Mt. Everest in the background.

Where is your happy place?

Can I cheat and have two? My home on my farm is one of my happy places. Being in Nepal and working with the girls at Asha Nepal is the other.

What is a trip that changed you and why?

My very first trip to Nepal changed me. I ran a photography workshop with some of the young women at Asha Nepal and saw that the course made a difference and had a positive impact on them. I was also blown away by their strength, resilience and ability to trust after going through extreme circumstances. I think I got just as much from them as they from me.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

It doesn’t cost anything to be nice.

What would you share about Nepal with someone who hasn't been there before?

On arrival, your first impression of Nepal will be of a crazy, chaotic country but you will leave Nepal having fallen love with the people, culture and landscape.

]]><![CDATA[Inner mountains are hard to climb.]]>Sun, 26 Sep 2021 10:22:30 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/inner-mountains-are-hard-to-climbSue Barmos

Seeing the Everest trek advertised as empowering travel for women, I thought I’d better go before I get too rickety and humourless. It was good to be free, to fill up on pure air, be inspired and walk. I adore monasteries, singing, eating momos, watching Sherpa and their pack animals tackle the days with tenacity. With the challenge of altitude, appreciating the hard lives of others was ever present.

Project Didi helps young women who need protection from violence, sexual abuse and support to be self- determining. Climbing escarpments of fear, discrimination and repression is exhausting. Asha Nepal work tirelessly to help women who have no family support. I’m glad our donation really helps. Housemothers are kind. Solidarity and safety their strength.

Snow capped mountains and a blue sky with pink clouds at sunrise in Nepal

Whilst Nepal’s sights and sounds are tantalising, a visual surprise around every Kathmandu corner, the real life of cultural constraints and customs makes a tattoo. Take your laundry for washing, there’s a brothel above… women with no choice. A lovely bangle is made by a family sitting on the dirt floor of their very hot hut. A beautiful carpet made by women in a shed, fibres and stale air for breath. A man selling a flute no one wants. He shouts his frustrations. Indelible memories of shrines and marigolds and at Asha house; hands inked in henna.

Our lady powered walking group were delightful, interesting, supportive, funny, energetic, grateful. A gang of Didis.

Ang Dami Sherpa spoke of running from Everest to Namche Bazaar. In May 2013 she was 3 months pregnant and won the women’s marathon challenge for a second time. Incredible as this feat is, she has recently lost her husband, runs a guest house, treks 4 hours to visit us, she is a gutsy gazelle and I’m in awe.

A group of women and one man standing out the front of a hotel in a town in Nepal, part of the Everest Base Camp Trek

The group with high altitude marathon runner, Ang Dami Sherpa, in Namche Bazaar

Inner mountains are hard to climb. There’s time to think whilst trekking, the culmination of where you are in the big human picture a recurring theme. Most days I was last walking in our happy group. ‘I’m proud of you,’ one of the youngies said. ‘I’m proud of myself,’ I replied.

‘Look up,’ said our guide, ‘Our mother…sacred mountain never to be climbed,’ and a white majestic peak that protects the whole valley shone in the sun. Pristine. I love the Nepali landscape and the support for women who climb all kinds of mountains.

A group of women resting on a low stone wall in the mountains in Nepal, part of the Everest Base Camp trek

Sue and the group on the route to Everest Base Camp

Sue Barmos joined our November 2019 Women Empowering Women trip - and was a joy to travel with! Thanks for taking us back to the vibrancy and resilience of Nepal and its women.

]]><![CDATA["School teaches us which path to take in our lives"]]>Mon, 13 Sep 2021 14:00:00 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/girlseducationEducation is essential to ending gender-based discrimination and poverty. For the women and girls we work with, survivors of trafficking and abuse, education strengthens their agency, empowering them to take part in the decisions that affect their lives.

In Nepal, only 3% of girls complete upper secondary school.

“Through lower expected earnings in adulthood and higher fertility over their lifetime, a lack of education for girls leads to higher rates of poverty for households, increasing the risks of trafficking. This is due to both losses in income and higher basic needs from larger household sizes. ”

“Women with primary education earn 14 to 19% more than those with no education at all. Yet women with secondary education may expect to earn almost twice as much, and those with tertiary education three times as much as those with no education. Women with a secondary education are less likely to state that they do not have enough money to buy food versus women with primary education or less."

Secondary/tertiary education also improves:

labour force participation, especially full-time work,
higher standards of living
improved psychological wellbeing
decreased risk of family and domestic violence
increased participation and autonomy within the family and community

From: Missed Opportunities: The High Cost of Not Educating Girls, The World Bank

Throughout their schooling, Asha Nepal provides the young women in their care with tailored support, important in preventing the high school dropout rates for young women and girls in Nepal. Once in grade 10, the girls start selecting courses, with Asha providing guidance, employment pathways and options for further education.

We asked two girls at Asha Nepal about their school experience, and what education means to them.

School is very important in our lives. We meet a lot of people and get to know everyone’s different characters. School is not only a means for us to acquire knowledge, but it also teaches which path to take in our lives.

What do you like most about school?

From school we can learn many good things and skills that we can use in our daily lives. The school develops our abilities and qualities. From school we can know what is wrong and what is right.

What do you change about school in Nepal to make it better?

I want to reduce the numbers of students in classroom because there are many students, so it is difficult to understand.

Students should be able to choose the subjects that interest them. Teachers should teach in a practical way. All students in poverty have the right to get education so government should give them free education.

What do you want to do when you finish school?

After finishing my schooling, I would like to visit places full of natural beauty and then want to complete my studies.

I go to college. I want to learn computer engineering after the Secondary School examination.

We know that education for girls can transform their futures.

The cost of a school year for each girl is $860, covering school fees, uniforms, textbooks, exams and all program fees. Project Didi supports the primary and secondary education of girls in Asha Nepal’s Family Based Care and encourages them to pursue tertiary education, but this is only possible with your help.

Your donation provides the tools and opportunities they need to reclaim their lives after violence.

I'd like to support education for girls

]]><![CDATA[We are committed to representing survivors' stories in a respectful, dignified, accurate and empowering way.]]>Thu, 29 Jul 2021 22:53:31 GMThttps://www.projectdidiaustralia.org/project-didi-updates/mystorymydignitypledge

That's why, on World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, we've signed Freedom United's My Story, My Dignity Pledge.

Raising awareness of the lived experience of modern slavery and human trafficking is essential if we are going to make progress to end it, but too often, survivors' stories are told with disempowering language and images.

These images and lanuage can unintentionally create or reinforce stereotypes and further victimise survivors.

We commit to the principles of the My Story, My Dignity pledge:

Choose respectful images that are representative of the issue
Use strength-based language that accurately represents the story, avoiding sensationalist language
Respect survivors' right to privacy and dignity
Obtain prior consent to using a personal story or photograph, be transparent and accurate about the process and how it will be used

How are we putting the pledge into practice?

We ensure images used in our communications are respectful and honest. We do not publish identifying photos of children and seek informed consent before sharing a photo or video of a survivor. In our campaigns, we are careful that our use of stock photos accurately reflects the circumstances of the women and girls we support.

Our partner, Asha Nepal's philosophy is to work with, rather than for survivors. Surivors are involved in the development and improvement of Asha's services. One example is Asha's transition from a large group home to family based care, similar to foster care, driven by survivors' feedback on the type of care they needed to build healthy, dignified lives.

Asha facilitates a child club, elected and managed by children, where children have an opportunity to discuss their rights and contribute to the development of Asha's work.

Asha aims to recruit their staff from women who have been through their programs. Currently their library assistant, nurse, computer teacher, finance assistant and tutors are alumnae.

We recognise there is more work to be done. Project Didi is in the final stages of drafting its safeguarding policy which will guide our organisational decisions to ensure the prevention of any form of sexual, physical, and emotional harassment, abuse, and exploitation. We look forward to working with our partners in Nepal to ensure the principles of safeguarding are effectively communicated and embedded into our work.

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