Economic Social and Cultural Rights – Women's Rehabilitation Centre

Sustainable Livelihoods

abhishekraikhaling@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:39:48 +0000

Sustainable livelihood program is conducted with sustainable livelihood framework to understand the complexities and principles of poverty. This framework provides guiding action to address and overcome poverty to become self-reliant, placing the rural poor at the center of inter-related influences that affect their creativity of livelihood for themselves and their households, by identifying constraints and opportunities. WOREC address the need for sustainable livelihoods with the promotion of bio-intensive farming systems with a focus on link between food insecurity and gender based violence.

The concept of bio-intensive farming system is based on the agro-ecological principles of sustainable organic agriculture system and participatory rural development. There principles include the scientific optimization of organic recycling, participatory and sustainable management of natural resources, participatory research and extension, and higher degree of economic self-reliance of farm households against external techno-economic shocks. The concept mainly focuses on empowerment of people’s organizations, conservation and utilization of PGRs, eco and health-friendly rural system, equitable access to natural resources and public service and sustainable technology.

To promote sustainable livelihoods for farmers, WOREC applies an approach entitled ‘Model eco-village where various aspects of the traditional village are addressed alongside livelihoods and income generation.

What is an Eco-village?

Eco-village is a rural human settlement with all members committed to sustainably managed locally available natural resources with integrated comprehensive human rights based approach to meet their social, spiritual, psychological, physical (including technological) and economic needs without any negative impact on natural ecosystems, resources, climate and health. Eco-village thus addresses the social, spiritual or cultural, ecological and technological and economical discrepancies and instabilities through sustainable community based structures, practices and concepts from holistic rights-based perspectives. Eco-village covers social, physical, and cultural aspects. Each system has subsystems that interact with each other.

Currently, WOREC has been implementing 3 livelihood-focused projects in close coordination and collaboration with district/regional/national level GOs/NGOs across 6 of the 75 districts of 4Nepal. With the project interventions, the communities have got better exposure to bio-intensive farming system, new agricultural technology and inputs. As a result, low remunerative cereal based farming system has been changing towards remunerative commercial cash crop production. These changes have been witnessed in the form of intensification of natural resource (through the use of local seeds, compost and bio-fertilizers) use in general and in relatively accessible areas, in the form of commercial orientation of vegetable farming. However, the causes of concern have persisted or new issues have emerged as the challenges to agricultural sustainability and household economic security of the people. These issues call for further support to the communities to bring about sustainable transformation of agricultural systems from subsistence-oriented economy to more efficient market-oriented system in existing as well as in other needy areas of the working areas.

Criteria/indicators of model eco village

WOREC uses following criteria and indicators for an eco-village. These criteria are based on understanding among selected traditional villages. WOREC used these criteria to select traditional villages (16 villages: 5 in Udayapur, 3 in Siraha, 3 in Dang and 5 in Salyan districts) for transformation.

Community (ies) and their groups are committed to promote their profession (agricultural production/agro-enterprise (processing)/agri-business (marketing).
Village has access to motorable road.
Settlements are concentrated.
Villages have various active community groups (social cohesion) or networks.
People have access to information/educational institutions (child care center and formal schools, women health resource and counseling centers, bio-intensive farming- farmer’s field school/model demonstration farm (BIF-FFS/MDF).

At present, WOREC is working to transform 15 traditional villages in Udayapur, Siraha, Dang and Salyan into Eco-village. Danuwar community in Baireni village of Udayapur district has already been declared as Eco-village.

Women Health Right Program

abhishekraikhaling@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:38:41 +0000

WOREC understands and takes issues related to women’s health as integral issue with several other issues such as right to food, water, and sanitation to live without facing any forms of discriminations. Women’s health encompasses more than pregnancy and reproductive illness. To ensure women’s good health, gender equality in respect of their social, educational, cultural and economic status, lack of control over resources and sexuality are the major dimensions that needs to be addressed. Though government of Nepal has been making effort to make health care services more accessible and affordable, due to the lack of health care providers, both gender-friendly and skilled, and effective implementation of health care policies, women’s access to health services is being hindered. As a result, untreated, acute and chronic reproductive health (RH) morbidities have been forcing women (especially poor and marginalized) to live a discriminated and an isolated life.

Based on this understanding, WOREC, through health camps and from women health counseling centers, has been screening the cases of reproductive morbidities and VAW to bring them for a complete management and support in social reintegration of the cases. The major objective of women’s health program is to establish health as rights and advocate for the effective implementation of health policies and programs to ensure women’s health rights at community and national level.

WOREC helps to facilitate in empowering and educating women to understand women’s right to health (including RH) from feminist perspective and right-based approach. With the feminist perspective in women’s health, WOREC has been continuously supporting community women to establish community based counseling centers, counseling service and advocacy at the policy level. There are 25 women health resource counseling centers—5 in Salyan, 5 in Dang, 2 in Siraha, 3 in Dhanuha, 3 in Morang, 1 in Sunsari and 6 in Udayapur district, where community based counselors give information about health and also give orientation on gender based violence.

Community Health Program

The concept of the community health program of WOREC is to provide essential health services to the marginal3ized and disadvantaged community in an acceptable and an affordable way. The community health clinics in Udayapur and Dang districts have been providing primitive, preventive (including counseling) and curative services at the grass root level. These clinics in coordination with district health offices provide primary health care to the communities that do not have an easy access to health care services. The community health clinics are 24-hour clinics and provide maternity services, family planning, counseling, immunization, RH morbidities (identifying fistula, RTIs, the degree of uterine prolapse and fitting ring pessary as appropriate or refer for surgical intervention in case of complicated cases), promoting medicinal herbs for minor infections and general check-up.

Community Health Program

abhishekraikhaling@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:37:55 +0000

The concept of the community health program of WOREC is to provide essential health services to the marginalized and disadvantaged community in an acceptable and affordable way. The community health clinics in Udayapur and Dang districts have been providing primitive, preventive (including counseling) and curative services at the grass root level. These clinics in coordination with district health offices provide primary health care to the communities that do not have easy access to health care services. The community health clinics are 24-hour clinics and provide maternity services, family planning, counseling, immunization, RH morbidities (identifying fistula, RTIs, the degree of uterine prolapse and fitting ring pessary as appropriate or refer for surgical intervention in case of complicated cases), promoting medicinal herbs for minor infections and general check-up.

Right to Mobility & Decent Work

abhishekraikhaling@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:37:17 +0000

WOREC has been working to address trafficking and its consequences since its establishment centering women’s empowerment, recognition of women’s agency and advocating women’s right to work and live with the principle of equality at all spheres of public and private life. The vulnerability of women to forced labour is created due to different dynamics of power relation however WOREC’s underlying belief is that reducing vulnerability to forced labour is possible by applying the approach that leads to transformative power relation between male and female. This can be done by facilitating women’s empowerment process through information and appropriate training/life skill, enabling environment for women to defend, demand, protect and promote their rights. Likewise, WOREC strongly believes that continuous lobby and advocacy with the key stakeholders is equally important to influence policy and practices at household, local level, and national level to ensure women’s right to equality. That, in turn, will create an environment for women to exercise their right to mobility and get treated as decent workers. With this understanding and approach, WOREC was the first organization in the country to initiate dialogue with various stakeholders on the concept of safe labour migration and the right to mobility of women. WOREC started disseminating information on safe migration through information booth at Dhanusha and organizing community-based orientations to make people aware on women’s right to equality. In addition, the organization pioneered the concept of safe migration information booth by establishing it at Janakpur, Dhanushadham, which later was expanded to the districts such as Morang, Sunsari, Udayapur, Siraha, Dang and Kailali. WOREC is still giving continuation to the booth in Morang, while the booths in the remaining districts have been handed over to the government and Safer Migration Project (SAMI). Similarly, WOREC institutionalized the concept of community-based information centres establishing information desk at VDCs (now rural municipalities) of Morang district.

Besides this, WOREC has set up an excellent example of how trafficking survivors can properly get reintegrated or mainstreamed into the society when support is provided from the right based approach and guided by victimhood to agency philosophy by facilitating to establish Shakti Samuha, the first organization of survivors in this globe^[2].

Under this the campaign, WOREC works at the local level to empower marginalized community women and ensure women’s right to mobility by reducing possibilities of labour exploitation, abuses, and trafficking. The majority of the interventions in this campaign focuses on women’s empowerment including the capacity of community workers to support women’s empowerment focusing on aspirant women migrants and returnee women migrant workers. Information Dissemination, capacity building, and skill development training and strengthening are the major tools to support the empowerment process of women. Issues and cases collected from the community will be documented to strengthen WOREC’s evidence-based advocacy practices.

The pertinent issues that come out of the community interventions will be taken at the national and international forum for further interventions through discussions, meetings, interaction programs, workshops, rallies, and demonstration. Need-based and time demanded advocacy papers including attention letters and press releases related to the emerging issues of women migrant workers will be prepared to sensitize the government and non-government stakeholders. The majority of lobby and advocacy activities under this campaign are;

· Proper implementation of existing policies on foreign labour migration and human trafficking and formation of gender-sensitive migration policies

· Proper implementation of Nepal Labor Law 2074 and Social Security Act 2075 and series of discussion at the local, province and national level.

· Advocacy on ratification of international instruments to protects and promotes the rights of migrant workers

· Promotion of fair recruitment practice and proper implementation of the Employer Pay Model

National Network: Alliance Against Trafficking of Women and children in Nepal (AATWIN), National Network for Safe Migration (NNSM), Coalition for Women’s Right to Mobility^[3], trade union and other like-minded organizations.

International Network: Global Alliance for Traffic in Women (GAATW) and Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA).

^[2]According to Trafficking in Person (TIP) report, 2007 disseminated by American Government.

^[3]Coalition for Women’s Right to Mobility is a loose network of seven women’s led organisations advocating for Women’s Right to Mobility. The members include WOREC, POURAKHI, Shakti Samuha, Jagriti Mahila Mahasangh, Shakti Milan Samaj, National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders, Amnesty International Nepal and Women Forum for Women (WOFOWON).