Stories

A closer look will CHANGE your perspective

Photo Credit: Jan Møller Hansen

Over 4 million Nepalese have left to work abroad.

More than 14% of total population.

However their life abroad and back home both present

BIG

challenges.

The upcoming slides peek into their lives.

12 men in a Room

In some labor camps in Musaffah industrial area of Abu Dhabi, up to 12 men live in a single room of around 100 sq. ft.

A Day of a migrant Worker	Time
Wake up	4 AM
Company Bus Arrives	5 AM
Arrive at their factory	7 AM
Work all day with an hour break for lunch	7 AM-7 PM
Return to their labor camp	8 PM

16 Hours of a Migrant Worker

Cleaning floor

Watchman

Kinds of work:

After 8 PM, they take a shower. If there are no proper places to dry their wet clothes, their bed serves as a drying rack.

They buy a packed lunch and eat it outside their camp.

After the dinner, they sleep and the routine follows!

Not all those who work abroad, return back with money. Some return back in coffin.

More than 5000 workers have died abroad.

Photo Credit: AP News

Yet they leave the country because,

Nepal has a very high unemployment rate of 46% (CIA Factbook)

Meet Ratan

Left to work in 2002
8 Years in Malaysia
Returned in 2010

From his remittance earnings, he bought:

A Motorcycle
A tractor (Rs 500,000)
Payment for his daughter's dowry

I am planning to go back again to earn more to pay back the debt.

Photo Credit: Puru Shah

Ratan and people like him go abroad

so that they can overcome the CYCLE of

POVERTY

Khairba is one of the villages in Southern Nepal which largely exports migrants to Gulf countries.

The upcoming slides provide a peek into the lives of the people in Khairba.

Note: Names have been changed to preserve identities.

This plastic bag is his backpack and has all his books, notebooks, and stationery items.

His schooling is possible due to his father's remittance.

Meet Pancha

Photo Credit: Puru Shah

He and his friends go to a private school together

Meet Ravi Krishna (left) and Krishna (right).

(Pancha's close friends)

Photo Credit: Pallavi

Pancha's brother.

Meet Jibcha, Pancha's father.

He returned from Saudi and now he has no work.

Have you made a cake?

Pancha's mother makes dung cakes (not edible). Dung Cakes are a primary source of cooking fuel for many families. It needs water, straw and dung (from buffalo).

Dung Cakes left for drying.

A lot of families have a buffalo

Pancha's buffalo

Or a goat.

Pancha's bullock cart.

This cart takes Pancha and his family to the city during festivals.

Pancha's grandmother returns home after a long day of work in the fields

Photo Credit: Preeti A Karna

Pancha

uses firewood to cook food
has 2 sets of clothes
takes his buffalo for grazing in the fields
goes to school in the morning
helps his mom in households in the evening
takes care of his brother
has no Internet
no access to newspaper
has no consistent access to electricity

His father works abroad so that Pancha does not have to struggle.

There are many more families like Pancha's.

Meet Bahadur.

He has 2 granddaughters from his 2 sons. His sons work abroad in Kuwait and Qatar.

Bahadur's wife

Buys and sells fruits/vegetables for income.

Bahadur's daughter-in-law

Its women who perform household chores in this community.

Meet Mathiwali, Bahadur's daughter-in-law

Married at the age of 10

She collects cholocate and biscuit wrappers and makes baskets from them.

Photo Credit: Pallavi

Bahadur calls his sons ONCE a week.

Like most families, he misses both of his sons.

Because youths work abroad, it is mostly old people and children left behind.

Meet Mantiya.

She makes tasty Jhili and Kachadi. People come to her Dhaba to eat. It is her source of income.

Meet Sato

He tills the fields and sell the produce to earn a living.

Preparing flour

Photo Credit: Jan Møller Hansen

works in the field and cooks in her home

Photo Credit: Jan Møller Hansen

Winter Blues

Young men leave their homes to work as migrant workers in the Gulf region so that their children can have a brighter future. A child with only one layer in the middle of the winter. Taken on Christmas 2016.

Photo Credit: Puru Shah