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Battimaya is of old age and lives in a small mud house  with her son, his wife and their children in remote village of Nawalparasi . Just like most of the villages in Nepal, Nawalparasi houses many families that are struggling to join their hands and mouth. Battimaya Sunar was one of many such women.

She says that she was not only worried that she was unable to generate any income for her family, but also because she was idle most of the days.
But with the help of Asal Chhimekee Nepal, a group named “Pragati” was formed in her village where the group was encouraged to start a saving and credit scheme.

Battimaya being one of the executive members of the group, participated in various events of the group. She also engaged herself in a candle-manufacturing training.

Being an old- aged woman, farming or other activities like tailoring was difficult for her. Making candles, though not easy, was right for Battimaya and selling them would help her make some money for herself. At first, she hesitated to start the business thinking that she was not quite capable but with a lot of encouragement from the group members and ACN staff, she thought of giving it a try. And so, she took help of fund from her Self-Help Group and bought herself a cast for making candles. Things have taken a swift advance since then.

Now, she often takes the opportunity to market and sell her candles to anybody who goes to visit her but also takes her candles to the local shops and sells them.

Nepal has a long sessions of power-cuts, candles are important goods in the villages of Nepal and has a fairly good market.

Battimaya does not sell candles at an industrial scale but she says that the business has been able to embed some new perspectives to her life and she has future plans to grow the business into higher levels one step at a time. She says she is content with taking the decision to start the candle- making business.

Saving and credit groups have become a great boon for the village economy. In Nepal, it has promoted the habit of saving and also has encouraged people to try out their micro- enterprise of their interest. Apart from this, there are many stories of people who have changed their personalities from shy and house- limited to dynamic and social.

Many stories like Battimaya encourage us and many like us that the changes that are occurring are slow but gradual and with a combined effect of many like us, the transformation of our society is just in the nearest horizon.

Even for many Nepali people who have found themselves living in the small cities of Nepal, villages in Nepal are really different with in comparison of sanitation and economic status. Imagine a traditional Nepali village in the plains where the heat reaches to point where walking without protection seems next to impossible. Midst the illiteracy that prevails in rural Nepal, health and sanitation seems to be a little scarce. Navalparasi is one of such districts. The main inhabitants being the “Tharu”, often thought of as one of the races in Nepal that has been left behind for decades, even in Nepali standards, the villages are poorly constructed mud- houses with almost no toilets. Imagine the health and sanitation in one of such house-hold.
But that is not the house of Hirmati Mahato.

Hirmati has not been this way forever though. Hirmati came to live in the village after she got married to her husband. She was of Indian origin and did not know much of Nepali. She was known in the community as one of the most impolite person. To add to the disliking, she had a massive foot which was so due to Gangrene. She would not even  wear slippers. Often she would be biased in the water-fetching taps. They owned a very small piece of land, which could not bear enough to feed them throughout the year and her husband had to go to work in the fields  of other people even on Saturdays. This meant that they could not attend the church. She was illiterate and could not even write her own name.
But she joined one of the community self- help groups that was encouraged by Asal Chhimekee Nepal. There, she learnt to read and write from one of the vocational education courses that the group ran. Asal Chhimekke Nepal referred her to Tansen Mission Hospital and with their joint contribution along with her own efforts, her foot as treated. She is now the chairman of her self- help group.
Her field is aided with the wastes from her eco-san toilet and does not use any chemicals in her fields. Tunnels wrapped with plastic sheets can be seen from far away (these tunnels provide green- house for the tomatoes and other vegetables and increase the yielding). She and her husband now farm in their own land that is just beside their house. The most encouraging thing about her is that she is regarded as one of the wisest in the village and many people look up to her at hard times. It is very obvious that her house is cleaner than most, if not all, the houses in her community.

When asked about the feeling about the experience with Asal Chhimekke and the community group, she tends to become emotional and says,” If there was only some, I could list them but I have not experienced a change but a transformation of my entire life…”, and starts telling her story from the beginning.

Hirmati is not an individual who has transformed a her life and lives happily for the time remaining, but one of such who has been transformed and is seeking actively to touch the lives of other people. She is not the one who remains calm after receiving grace but her life and living will surely have a clear and substantial effect upon her community.