2022 IMPACT REPORT

UNATTI FOUNDATION 2022 IMPACT REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Founders Message

Girls Health Education Empowerment Program

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Why girls - Why Nepal

GHEEP Program Director Message

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Keys to Success

Preserving Art and Culture

09 Reintegration Program

10 Expanding our Impact

12 Success Measures

20 2023 and Beyond

22 How You Can Help

OPEN NOTE FROM FOUNDER | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEPHANIE WAISLER-RUBIN As I get up and watch the sunrise over the ocean in Santa Monica, I know that the Unatti girls are watching it set over the Himalayas. I feel the connection to them even though they are literally 7,500 miles away on the other side of the Earth.

Together we are making a lifelong impact on the lives of the girls and how their community supports and cares for them. It is not our vision but theirs, that drives us to try harder, reach further and turn the impossible into reality.

We welcome you into our Unatti family. If you are new to us, we want you to feel the same welcome that each girl receives when she enters the Unatti Group Home for Girls, a classroom, or encounters a Unatti auntie. We are excited to share all about our lifechanging programs for girls that are creating new paths and possibilities.

Many of you are long-time friends of our Unatti family and have shared in the stories of success and offered advice as we have grown and developed new programs to meet community needs. Your partnership is valued, the honesty of your suggestions, the creativity of your ideas, your support of programs, and the shared vision we have of a new future for girls and young women.

Regardless of our connection, we are excited to share this report with you. The next few pages highlight the work that Unatti is doing in Nepal and the success of our programs. We invite you to celebrate with us as we look to the future and all that it holds.

We are changing things for the better.

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WHY NEPAL? WHY GIRLS? Nepal is a land of friendly and engaging people, where deities mingle with mortals, and magnificent temples, monasteries, and historical monuments can be found at almost every turn. This is the home of Sagarmatha “Goddess Mother of the World”, the iconic Mount Everest. It is also where the Unatti Foundation works to change the lives of girls within its boundaries.

Nepal is one of the most beautiful countries on earth, but it is also one of the poorest. In the East of the Kathmandu valley, lies the city of Bhaktapur. Here girls face a difficult future.

One out of 10 girls is illiterate and will never have the opportunity to attend school. Of those that do, most drop out before 10th grade. Religion and a lifetime of tradition make it nearly impossible for girls to thrive beyond conventional mindsets. The crushing poverty and need to find an income source make them targets for traffickers, child marriage, and abuse.

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HOW CAN WE MAKE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT on the lives of girls, half a world away?

WE BELIEVE THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS TWO FOLD.

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COMMUNITY ENVOLEVMENT IS THE FIRST KEY WE HOLD.

QUALITY PROGRAMMING IS THE SECOND KEY WE HOLD.

First and foremost it is critical that those who live in the community and understand the needs of girls guide us to the solutions we seek. Only through this partnership can we truly do what is right for girls. Unatti employs local women and some former Unatti girls to lead the programming and partner as members of the Nepali Board of Directors.

Our new strategic plan is being developed by and for the women and girls in Nepal.

Because we know all of our girls need a safe place to live to be successful, the Unatti Group Home for Girls remains the central pillar of our programming in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

We provide a happy home, nutritious meals, education, and mental health support to local girls, ages three to twenty-one. After over twenty years of work in the region, we are proud to house thirty-six exceptional Unatti Girls who show courage, determination, empathy, and grace, as they become far more than their circumstances allow them.

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EDUCATION IS KEY IN REDUCING POVERTY

From UNESCO to the Brookings Institution, everyone agrees that education is key in both reducing poverty and disrupting harmful practices. How can this happen? Grinding poverty, caste discrimination, and the belief that women have little value mean that girls are often seen as an extra mouth to feed until they are married off. If she can leave home to earn money for the family, families who are desperate may trust strangers and not understand what her fate might really become. How do you give girls value? By educating them.

The Unatti Foundation sponsors 13 years of formal primary school education, plus an additional 4 years of college or vocational training for all residents of the Unatti Group Home for Girls. Graduating from high school can mean up to 20% increase in income and even more if they are able to transition to college or a trade school.

We believe education is the way to a safer and productive life. If a girl has value, in her own eyes and her family’s, she has the ability to change her future. At Unatti, each girl in our group home attends private school and finds the support she needs from tutoring and structured study time to succeed academically.

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REINTEGRATION PROGRAM Making this transition from school to career isn’t easy for anyone, but it is even harder for girls in Nepal. For this reason, our support doesn’t end when school does. Our reintegration program, started in 2017, works with girls as they move from the group home and into successful independent careers and lives. This program starts two years before they graduate to ensure that their path is clear and is based on each individual girls needs and goals.

The success of our reintegration program speaks for itself.

While nearly 80% of women in Nepal work in “unofficial” work environments that do not protect them through minimum wage or employment regulations, 100% of Unatti girls gain employment in regulated businesses making far above the average wage for a woman in the country.

Our girls have grown into young women who studied social work, nursing, environmental science, accounting, and business management. Many now work or volunteer for Unatti providing peer tutoring to other children or supporting our art and music classes for all community children, giving back some of what was given to them.

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EXPANDING OUR IMPACT We know that the impact of COVID was felt worldwide but for Sony, age 14 and Kripa, just 4, it devastated their lives. They lost their father during the COVID lockdown and now live with their mother in Kamalbinayak, Bhakatapur. Their mother supports the family as best as she can and works as a dishwasher in a government school. Her job is the only source of income in their family and what she makes does not bring in enough to pay for even the most basic needs, let alone school for the girls. Living together in a small and narrow trust, about 6 ft by 10 ft the potential future for the girls was bleak. Until Unatti.

The Unatti family was thrilled to welcome Sony and Kripa as the two newest Unatti sisters as part of our Educational Sponsorship program. Sony and Kripa join a small, but special community of girls that we support, but who do not live at the Unatti Group Home for Girls. Since the girls play an important role in their home with their mother, our social workers determined that displacement to the Unatti Group Home would be too destabilizing to both daughters and their mother. Keeping the family together was a priority as is their education.

Sony and Kripa with their mother

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As sisters in the new program, they will have similar support of our other Unatti girls to ensure that they have what they need to thrive both in the community and in school.

This includes tuition to private school, uniforms, supplies and tutoring. Additionally, the girls will work with the social worker and other aunties so they feel connected and supported until they too, are ready to be strong independent career women. Currently the Unatti Foundation supports five girls in our Educational Sponsorship program. The goal is to continue to support girls like Sony and Kripa until 500 girls have a chance to beat the odds with the same opportunity each year. With the strong educational and career outcomes of the Unatti girls in the group home, we are certain that the Sony and Kripa will have the bright future they deserve.

The room where the family of 3 live

SUCCESS MEASURES While the challenges for girls in Nepal are significant, the Unatti Foundation’s success shows the impact of locally directed support on preventing negative outcomes and achieving more than many believed possible.

In Nepal, 37% of girls are forced into child marriage, 20% become pregnant and an unknown number (estimates are as high as 200,000 a year) are trafficked. Because of the success of our programs, NOT A SINGLE Unatti girl has suffered any of these fates.

COMMUNITY AVERAGE | UNATTI

20% | 100% Transition from lower to upper school

20% | 94.7% Graduated high school

05% | 100% Achieves computer literacy

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COMMUNITY AVERAGE | UNATTI

00% | 100% Receives art and music education

22% | 100% Gain “official” employment

44% | 100% Girls who can read

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UPLIFTING THE VALUE OF GIRLS BY CONFRONTING HARMFUL PRACTICES For those of us in the US, menstruation is a natural process of the body. But for millions of women and girls in Nepal, this bodily function gives rise to superstitions, stigma, and discriminatory practices every month. One of these practices is called Chhaupadi.

Chhaupadi is a form of menstrual taboo, where it is believed that women are “impure” during their menstruation. Many women and girls are banished from their family homes and social activities, staying in isolated “menstruation huts”. They are often not allowed near food or male family members.

While Nepalese law criminalized this harmful practice in 2017, it is still widespread throughout Nepal.

The Unatti Foundation Girls Health Education Empowerment Program (GHEEP) was started to allow girls to open up the conversation on periods in private and public spaces and make menstrual health management more visible.

Through direct communication with girls about menstruation and its management, we ensure that young girls are more empowered and equipped with fact-based information, tools, and confidence to manage their menstruation.

They become familiar with menstrual health and hygiene. With each GHEEP workshop, more girls & women at all levels of decision-making and society are provoked to speak out, loud and clear.

Traditional Chhaupadi hut 14

It is not just enough to change the minds of girls, so Unatti works with boys and men as well. GHEEP uses a gender transformative approach that encourages in-depth discussions with men on power dynamics in the communities, how they affect girls and women, and how they can become allies in the social change process. Our team works to involve school management committees through training and awareness-raising sessions so that they will provide supportive environments for girls in schools as well as inspire men to become agents of change.

Gheep Workshop participants

OUR GHEEP PROGRAM HAS REACHED 3,000 GIRLS AND BOYS AND PLANS TO REACH ANOTHER 5,000 THIS YEAR. NONE OF THE UNATTI GIRLS ARE EXPOSED TO CHHAUPADI AND 100% RECEIVE HEALTH EDUCATION.

IN HER OWN WORDS Girls Health Education Empowerment Program Director

How has the practice of chhaupadi affected you and the women in your family?

My family is Buddhist. The Buddhist community believes menstruation is a natural physical excretion that women have to go through on a monthly basis, nothing more or less.

Therefore, the women in my family have never been traumatized by the restrictive practice of chhaupadi. I only learned about this in school when I noticed my young friends exhibiting emotional trauma during menstruation.

What prompted you to start GHEEP? As a young girl, it came to me as a surprise and disbelief that a girl's freedom, mobility, education, and wellbeing could be compromised by the monthly period. This is what prompted me to be a part of GHEEP. I wanted every girl and woman to be able to embrace menstruation with the same level of freedom that I, fortunately, have been given.

What changes have you seen because of GHEEP? GHEEP has influenced the availability of free menstrual supplies in schools and has created space for girls to begin talking about period issues without any fear of school and parents.

GHEEP has influenced schools to revise their curriculum and cover basic health issues; such as hygiene, menstruation, and nutrition, as well as safety issues.

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THE POWER OF ART AND PRESERVING CULTURE One aspect of Nepal that does not escape any visitor is the beauty of the art, crafted over centuries, that adorns buildings, temples, and homes. Art is a central part of the culture and history of Nepal yet due to limited resources it is not taught in schools.

We know that art is not only important in preserving part of traditions and history but it is also a healing outlet that promotes creativity and expands the mind.

All the girls at the Unatti Group home receive music and art education but it was clear that the need was far greater. So in 2010, Unatti opened the Unatti Art & Music Center, and later developed partnership with local schools and now offers in school art classes to students at no charge.

Since that time, we have provided art classes to thousands of children in partnership with local schools. Through these programs, children can learn more about their heritage and gain new skills and expand their creativity.

Like our GHEEP program, the introduction of art and music classes has been so popular and so well received that partner schools are now asking Unatti to expand access to all students both in their schools and in rural communities.

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Growing up at the Unatti Home, Roshani has always dreamt of being an artist. She knew the challenges of pursuing a career in art, especially in Nepal. Roshani chose to follow her dream and study fine arts in college - a dream made possible by our Make Her Dream, sponsorship circle.

“Unatti has given me the opportunity to not only dream about pursuing art but the support and education to support my dream.”

Roshani shares that creating art has always defined and given her life a meaning. ”I have always been drawn to the beauty of the world. So I try to share this feeling of beauty and happiness with everyone through my art.”

Along with two of her Unatti sisters, they have launched an Etsy e-commerce site called Nepalique Art Boutique, to start on the journey to turn their passion for art into selfsustaining careers. With support from mentors, they are ready for the responsibility of running a business and fulfilling their dream. The path from the support of the group home through the reintegration program and on to a career highlights the power of Unatti in changing lives.

“I see the possibility of standing on my own and not having to give up my passion to create.”

"We will donate 50% of our profits from our Etsy business back to Unatti to support the education of our younger Unatti sisters." https://www.etsy.com/shop/Nepalique? ref=shop_sugg&section_id=39993794

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2023 AND BEYOND

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The Unatti Foundation continues to grow its impact on Nepal, we have an exciting vision for the future of our work and our girls. Over the next three years, our team on the ground in Nepal will set the direction for our support and has developed the following priorities:

NEW IN 2023 COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

Continue to support the safe home for our Unatti girls with access to all their needs and high-quality education.

Increase school scholarships and tutoring to ensure 100s of girls not housed at the Unatti home and are able to stay in school and graduate.

Ensure that each girl who graduates has access to a career and support through the growth of our reintegration and entrepreneurship programming.

Increase the reach of the GHEEP program from 3,000 to 10,000 girls each year by adding trained volunteers with transportation access to more rural areas where the chhaupadi traditions are most deeply held.

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HOW YOU CAN HELP We invite you to join us in making an impact for girls in Nepal. Your investment will build powerful futures for our Unatti girls in the year ahead.

EDUCATION CIRCLE Educational Circle- $500 annually: $42 monthly recurring Join our Education Circle and provide one year of school for a girl in the community who is ready to thrive. Your sponsorship covers: Uniforms Tiffins- School lunch Tuition fees Stationery & books After-school academic tutoring

SPONSORSHIP CIRCLE Sponsorship Circle- $1,650 annually: $137 monthly recurring Join our Sponsorship Circle and help turn hopelessness into empowerment for a girl who lives with us as a family, full time at the Unatti Group Home for Girls for up to 15 years. All of her care is provided for.

MAKE HER DREAM CIRCLE Make her Dream Circle- $3,000 annually for 3 years: $250 monthly recurring Join our Make Her Dream Circle and provide one girl with the opportunity to have higher education and a career. Your sponsorship pays for; Tuition Books and materials Room and board Transportation allowance

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REACH OUT!

824 17th St No.4 Santa Monica Ca 90403 310.453.8968 www.unattifoundation.org stephanie@unattifoundation.org @unattifoundation