Empower Feed Educate Single mother headed families

Family of the Month – September 2025
A Mother’s Flight from Violence and Despair
(Names changed for privacy purposes)

Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) was born into a landless family in a remote village of western Nepal. She was the only daughter among three sons, growing up in poverty so deep that survival itself was the only goal.

While her brothers went to school, Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) spent her days fetching water, cooking, and working in the fields. Her childhood, like that of many girls from marginalized communities, was one without laughter or learning but filled with endless chores and obedience.

At eighteen, she was forced into marriage with her cousin, Dil Bahadur (Name changed for privacy purpose), a man who had already been married once before. The marriage was not about love or choice; it was about convenience and social pressure. A small hut beside her in-laws’ home became her world, one filled with humiliation, rejection, and pain.

From the beginning, her husband’s cruelty had no limits. He drank heavily and was often violent. Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) endured years of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse that scarred both her body and her spirit.

She gave birth to two daughters, Laxmi (Name changed for privacy purpose), who is now 22, and Kabita (Name changed for privacy purpose), who is now 21, and poured all her strength into raising them. Instead of support, she was taunted by her in-laws for giving birth to girls. Even the birth of a son did not end the cruelty.

In an act of unimaginable violence, her husband’s family took the life of her infant son (Name changed for privacy purpose), later disguising it as an accident. The tragedy was silenced by local authorities and justice never came.

Broken but not defeated, Sita’s (Name changed for privacy purpose) will to protect her children only grew stronger. After years of abuse and four more daughters, she made the hardest decision of her life. One night, while everyone slept, she gathered her girls, wrapped the baby in a blanket, and fled.

Days of fear, hunger, and exhaustion followed until they reached Pokhara. There, she rented a small room on the city’s edge and started again. Her health was frail, but her spirit refused to surrender.

Her two eldest daughters began cleaning houses to earn a few rupees for rice and rent. Each day was a struggle, shadowed by the fear that her daughters could fall victim to exploitation or trafficking, a fate faced by many girls from poor, single-mother households in Nepal.

In early 2025, a local social worker introduced Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) to Bahini Educare Foundation. Her story left our team speechless. The pain she endured, the courage she carried, and her love for her daughters moved us deeply.

BEF immediately brought the family under its care. Today they receive full educational support for the school-going daughters, monthly nutrition and hygiene supplies, health insurance and medical assistance, as well as regular counselling and emotional support.

Two of her elder daughters, Laxmi (Name changed for privacy purpose) and Kabita (Name changed for privacy purpose), are now married and safe. Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) lives with her four younger daughters under BEF’s continued guidance. Her 17-year-old daughter, Pooja (Name changed for privacy purpose), currently works to help her mother make ends meet. Our Sustainable Futures Coordinator is advising her to join a job-training program once she turns 18, as required by law. In the meantime, she has agreed to start informal education classes. With ongoing counselling, we believe she will soon choose education over hardship.

Sita’s (Name changed for privacy purpose) life today remains modest. She lives in a small rented room, but it is no longer filled with fear. Her daughters laugh freely and go to school with bright faces and hopeful hearts. It is the start of a new chapter built on courage, love, and dignity.

Sita’s (Name changed for privacy purpose) story is not unique. Across Nepal, thousands of women still suffer in silence, forced into early marriage, trapped in violence, and stripped of their rights. But with your support, we are changing these stories.

Each contribution you make helps mothers like Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) and their children rebuild their lives safely, confidently, and independently.

“All my life, I lived in fear,” Sita (Name changed for privacy purpose) said quietly. “Now, when I sleep, I do not hear shouting. My daughters wake up safe and smiling. That is enough for me.”

It is simple, it is life-changing, it is simply BEF.

With gratitude,
Surendra, Raymond and the BEF Team
Bahini Educare Foundation