In eastern Nepal, Navina found new possibilities through a women’s group at Navjyoti Center.
After joining the group, she received a small loan that allowed her to open a shop. What began as a modest business now helps provide educational support for her family and gives Navina greater financial independence.
Her story reflects the work taking place through Navjyoti Center, where women are encouraged to develop skills, strengthen their livelihoods and support their families and communities.
In this video, Aisha shares Navina’s story and reflects on her ministry with women in eastern Nepal. She also shares how these relationships have shaped her own understanding of women’s experiences and the importance of walking alongside people as they work toward greater opportunities.
Watch the video
Video transcript
Story of Navina
Navina Tamang, a member of the women’s group monitored by Navjyoti Centre, Dharan, is a true example of women’s empowerment. Married off soon after completing class six, she faced numerous struggles in her in-laws’ home.
To support daily expenses, she would go to the forest to collect firewood and sell it. Her life began to change when she joined the women’s group at Navjyoti Centre.
There, she attended sessions on women’s empowerment and related issues. Like the other 27 members, she started saving a small amount regularly. Through group meetings and training programs, her self-confidence and self-worth gradually grew.
With the support of the group, she took a loan and set up a tiny shop near her home—four tin sheets forming its walls. She began by selling stationery, biscuits, chowmein, and a few other small items. As her confidence and business skills grew, her little shop started flourishing. After repaying the first loan, she took another to add more goods. In the following year, she rented a proper room and transformed her shop into a small grocery store, now stocked with essentials like rice, dal, sugar, and oil.
Today, she manages the shop with pride and stability. With her earnings, she can provide education for her son, who is now in college, and her daughter, who is studying in class eight. Meanwhile, her husband tends to their small piece of farmland located away from their home, contributing to the family’s progress. Navina is deeply grateful to the Navjyoti Centre for the transformation in her life. “Navjyoti gave me hope—a new life with dignity,” she says.
Accompanying women like Navina has been a journey of grace. Watching them rise from difficulties and embrace a life of dignity fills me with immense joy.
Their growth is not theirs alone—it becomes a part of my own transformation. Their courage strengthens me; their resilience inspires deeper faith in the goodness of life. I am humbled by how true change begins within a person and unfolds through God’s grace working silently in all of us.
What began as a mission to transform others has also transformed me. Walking with these empowered women, witnessing their progress, and sharing in their victories has made me more compassionate, more hopeful, and more committed to building a society where peace and harmony can truly flourish.
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This story is part of a series from the SCN Global Justice Committee highlighting Sisters’ ministries with people who are oppressed and marginalized and the relationships that shape their lives and ministries.