Nepal

Priyanka's Tipping Point

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Most girls in Priyanka’s home district are forced to marry before their 18th birthdays, some as young as 7 or 8. Many poor marginalized Dalits are under intense pressure from neighbors and family to marry children young. Priyanka is a young woman who was a participant in a program called Chunauti—a child-marriage prevention project implemented by CARE and funded by USAID. Through the program, which provided the families of 220 girls with various forms of financial aid, Priyanka’s family received a deposit of 18,000 Nepali rupees (roughly $180) into a bank account for the family. The money would not be accessible until Priyanka turned 18 and only if she remained unmarried until then. Now 18, she is graduating from secondary school and actually works as a Social Mobilizer for CARE’s Tipping Point program. Given the proposed U.S. federal assistance budget cuts, Priyanka personifies the kind of lasting impact that can be realized from USG-funded work. 

Location: Nepal
Client: CARE
Project: Tipping Point
Funder: USAID

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