Mandira's Story Shows That Education Is A Powerful Tool That Can Transform

Come hell or high water: Mandira Rai didn’t let raging rivers or long walks stop her from finishing school

 As we celebrate International Women's Day, Mandira Rai's story tells a tale of triumph and serves as an inspiration to all women who aspire to achieve their dreams, no matter which challenges they face. 

Mandira Rai is the first girl to attend school, not only in her family, but in her entire community. Growing up, her family’s situation wasn’t much different from others in her village, except for the fact that her father used to work as a porter. This job involved lugging tourists’ bags to various mountain base camps, and it enabled her father to save some money for the family and her education.

Since neither he nor Mandira’s mother had ever set foot in a school, she assumes that her father must have got the idea of educating her while working porter jobs. While trudging along mountain paths he must have come into contact with many different people and seen girls going to school along the trekking routes. 

When Mandira went to primary and secondary school, every day she had to walk for an hour (one way) up and down hills and across a river. When the monsoon season came, heavy rains filled the river and it swelled immensely. She recalls floods and landslides causing devastation each year as children and family members lost their lives to these natural disasters. 

Despite hours of walking daily and treacherous weather conditions, Mandira pushed on to finish secondary school (Grade 10). Then, the next challenge to her education arose: She would need to travel to Salleri, the Solukhumbu district headquarters, if she wanted to complete her high school studies. But in order to do that she would need to travel very far from home, rent a room in a place where she knew nobody, and pay for tuition, books, uniforms, etc. Unfortunately, her family was not in a position to cover these expenses, so for a time it seemed that all was lost.

Then, one day while listening to a local radio station, Mandira heard something that made her heart skip a beat and changed her fate forever. The radio show was reporting on The Small World (TSW) and how it supports girls to finish their final two years of high school in Salleri. Not only did it cover most of the costs associated with schooling, but the program also offered girls a  safe and nurturing place to live.

In the beginning Mandira thought this all sounded too good to be true, but she was determined to stay in school. She kept pestering her father to take her to the district headquarters to find out more about TSW. She had to know if this organization could make her dreams of graduating come true. 

Mandira took a group picture with her batch of grade 12 at The Small World girls education program in 2015. Mandira is in the first right on the second row.

Now, Mandira is a university graduate and sometimes she still cannot believe her good fortune. Through TSW, she could live in the girls dormitory in Salleri and get the help she needed to complete her last two years of high school. She also went on to get a Bachelor’s degree in social work in Kathmandu.

Mandira's journey was not an easy one, but she didn't let her circumstances hold her back. Instead, she found ways to overcome the challenges that stood in her way and didn’t give up until she achieved her goal of being educated. Looking back, she says her experiences with TSW girls education program nurtured her and gave her the confidence she needed to succeed in life. 

She says she also found a new family in the group of 40 fellow students whom she shared the dorm with in Salleri. She also mentions that the lifelong connections she made there helped her become the person she is today.

These days, you can find Mandira back in the Solukhumbu region, in a village that’s a two-day walk from  the district headquarters of Salleri. There, she is living out her lifelong dream of serving her community. She currently works as a family counselor in a local non-profit which helps children with disabilities. She also teaches at the local school. 

She says she can’t imagine what her life would be like if the doors to education had not been opened for her. She is a proud advocate for education in the area. She especially encourages local girls and women to take any opportunities to experience the changes that can happen when women educate themselves.

Now, Mandira is living out her lifelong dream of serving her community. Investment in girls' education has the highest-return investment in a developing country like Nepal.

Mandira's story shows that education is a powerful tool that can transform lives. By educating herself, she was able to pursue her passion for helping others and make a positive impact in her community as a social worker. She serves as an example of the potential that lies within every woman who aspires to achieve her dreams.

This Women's Day, let Mandira's story inspire you to support and empower women to pursue their dreams. Let's work together to create a world where every woman has access to education and the opportunity to fulfill her potential. With determination and support, every woman can overcome the challenges she faces and make a difference in the world.

While we are happy to share success stories like Mandira’s, these are unfortunately not very common. As people across the world recently celebrated International Women’s Day, the truth is that many in the remote Himalayan communities where TSW is active did not have much to celebrate. In these far-flung corners of the world most women’s daily struggles continued, with lack of access to education and healthcare, child marriages and domestic violence continuing as usual.

We would love to be able to share an ever-growing number of life-affirming stories from brave, victorious women and girls in the Himalayas. TSW would also like to take this opportunity to announce its bold goal of supporting 100 girls’ education in the 2023 school year. The aim is to help students from remote village schools, high school students in the district headquarters of Solukhumbu, and university students in Kathmandu all to achieve their academic goals this year.

As we have seen with Mandira’s story, the positive impact that TSW is having on communities in Solukhumbu is already visible. We are determined to help as many girls and women as possible to get an education and pursue their dreams.

“We can proudly share today that over two dozen of our graduated girls are now teaching in remote village schools and over a dozen are nurses providing much-needed health services in remote communities,” says Karma Sherpa, Co-Founder and CEO of TSW. 

“At The Small World, we believe on investment in girls’ education is the best way to improve their quality of life and uplift entire communities. If girls are educated, then they are in a better position to participate in communal decision-making and find solutions to lift themselves - and those around them - breaking the cycle of poverty. ”

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

In honor of International Women’s Day, you can support a girl’s education to educate the world.