Designer Profile: Beni Ghale

Beni Ghale

Helping women find work

Born in the Dhading District of Nepal, Beni Ghale grew up up in one of this country’s many mountainous villages. She was forced to quit school and cut grass to help her family put food on the table. There were many times, she recalls, when for six months of the year her family had nothing more than corn and potatoes to eat.

It’s the same situation she and her family still face today.

Beni longed for a better life and, and despite many obstacles, she found every opportunity to gain education, sneaking to classes whenever possible. She pieced together a minimal education and then, between the ages of 13 to 17, worked with the Himalayan Health Care organization.

Beni’s desire to work was regularly questioned by friends and family, but that didn’t stop her. She walked all nine wards of the Dhading District, explaining the basics of healthcare to the various unwilling and often hostile villagers she encountered. Many children in Nepal die of worms, and most people suffer from skin infections and other common irritations caused by an overall lack of basic cleanliness, and Beni made it her goal to try and change this. Additionally, she became certified to deliver babies and has helped bring 14 healthy children into this world.

Beni, who taught herself English, is incredibly practical. Six years ago she convinced the women of her district to start producing a recyclable version of their traditional grass baskets, and after bringing those baskets to Kathmandu they’ve become a big seller both locally and across the world.

This has enabled some of the 300 female artisans in the Dhading District to earn as much as 5000 rupees ($80) a month, but that’s still not enough to live on.  There are more and more women who wish to get involved with this program, and more and more who want to get the necessary education to help them improve their job skills. But without the right opportunities these women have instead resorted to taking dire measures, such as selling themselves into the sex slave industry. When these women return home several years later — bandaged, broken and, in some cases, insane — their chances of achieving their educational and occupational goals are slim.

Beni knows this can be fixed by educating her people and helping them find ways to make a proper living. She wants to help create a sustainable living for these women by offering them affordable adult education in a safe, clean environment. If these women become educated, Beni believes, they will in turn be more likely to educate their children, thus continuing the educational cycle and furthering the goal of increasing literacy in Nepal.

Beni’s dream is to have an adult education center in each of Dhading’s nine wards, where at least 30 women apiece can learn to read and write, among other skills