A Small Business, A Big Change: Ramrekha's Story

A success story from the ENGAGE Project — Malangwa Municipality, Sarlahi Ramrekha Kumari Sah, 20, lives in Gamahariya, Ward No. 11 of Malangwa Municipality, along the Malangwa–Nawalpur highway. The eldest of five siblings, she grew up in a family of six that struggled to get by — her father earned a modest income as an agricultural laborer on other people's land, the family's own land barely large enough for their home, and her brother, who lives with an intellectual disability, required care at home. For Ramrekha, opportunity felt out of reach. Intervention and Support : That changed with the ENGAGE Project — Empowering a New Generation of Adolescent Girls through Education — implemented by Prerana Organization in Malangwa Municipality, funded by UK Aid, with technical support from VSO Nepal and Humanity & Inclusion (HI). Identified through the project's baseline survey of marginalized youth aged 10–19, Ramrekha joined a nine-month bridge class, where she built foundational reading and numeracy skills. Alongside this, the project engaged parents and caregivers through awareness sessions on gender violence, child marriage, and the importance of education. Following her pathway as part of the 15–19 age group, Ramrekha chose to pursue livelihood training — with a clear goal in mind: to start her own small business. Outcome and Positive Change : Guided by a project-led job market survey, which identified nine viable local trades, Ramrekha chose to launch a mobile food business. She completed a seven-day training at Hotel Birbal Ko Khochadi, learning to prepare dry and fast foods suited to local demand. The project then equipped her with a mobile cart, cooking pots, and starter ingredients to get her business off the ground. Twice a week, Ramrekha now sells snacks like kachari, bari, fofi, samosa, pyaji, and bhujiya at the Gamahariya market, with her mother, Shivsagar Devi Sah, by her side to help. Each market day brings in roughly NPR 1,000–1,500, adding up to a monthly income of about NPR 10,000–15,000. She saves NPR 350 every week with the Sahara Panchakanya Saving and Credit Cooperative, while using the rest to support her family — including her sisters' education.