Part XI: Laljahri Mahji, community organizer, fisherwoman, farmer, and entrepreneur

This is Laljahri Mahji, a 30-something year-old woman from a remote village in central Nepal, as she prepared for her famous role play in which she asked the men in her village to be women for one day.

This is a scene in Laljahri's village which is located on the Trishuli River in central Nepal.

Laljahri heard about the conference because she was one of Renu’s “students” in a literacy program that Renu and the Women’s Foundation had established for women throughout Nepal. The program, started in 1992 was created to teach women how to read complicated legal documents, law books, write formal letters that could be used as legal documents in courts, and to take on leadership positions in their communities. This program was “jump started" when two of the foundation’s staff, and it may have been Renu and Tara, took on 25 Nepali women who wanted to learn how to read and write. Over a six month-long period, working nearly every day, the women met as a group and practiced reading and writing for hours. They were taught by their teachers but eventually helped each other. The degree to which they were taught, meaning the amount of skill and knowledge they acquired, is the critical piece. After graduation the women, working in pairs, took on 25 new students and taught them everything they had learned and in this way, with a miniscule budget, these women catalyzed a successful literacy that reaches thousands of women a year.