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THE FOUNDER - Bishnu Maya Pariyar
 The
Association of Dalit Women’s Advancement of Nepal (ADWAN) was founded
by Bishnu Maya Pariyar in Kathmandu in 1996. It is a registered NGO. Pariyar
is one of eight daughters from a low-caste, rural family. Her mother and
older sister and many women in her village are illiterate.
From a very young age Pariyar was outraged by social injustice, which
she witnessed around her and experienced herself. She knew instinctively
that she would need education to overcome the obstacles of poverty and
discrimination and to fight for social justice. As a little girl, she
gleaned grains of rice from already harvested fields to earn school money.
Although she had to walk two hours every day to reach her school, Pariyar
became the first girl—of any caste—from her village to graduate. An American
Peace Corps Volunteer helped her get a scholarship to study social work
in Katmandu after graduation.
 As
part of her training as a social worker, Pariyar worked as a facilitator
for the Self-help Development Program, which is modeled on the micro loan
programs of Grameen Trust of Bangladesh. She found the program very successful
in improving women’s lives, but objected to the requirement of collateral
as a condition for membership in the banking groups, since it excludes
the neediest, landless women.
More importantly, even though they were all poor, high-caste women would
not tolerate the presence of low-caste women in their groups. Through
her own experience, Pariyar also knew that much well-intended funding
for programs targeted for the Dalits ends up in the pockets of high-caste
people with power and contacts. She saw that Dalits, and especially Dalit
women, had no resources, contacts or access to funding, and that these
women needed advocacy.
Pariyar left Nepal temporarily in 1999 to pursue a college degree in
the U.S. This move was facilitated by an American woman, whom she met
by chance in Kathmandu. Pariyar realized that an education in the West
was the only way to transcend her roots and become an effective advocate
for Dalits among Nepal’s caste conscious power elite.
Upon completion of her education, she plans to return permanently to
Nepal to resume the active leadership of ADWAN. While pursuing her education,
Pariyar has been an active speaker at conferences on caste and gender
rights, both in Nepal and in the West. And she has brought together a
group of American and Nepali women, who have started the American sister
organization, Empower Dalit Women of Nepal (EDWON) to raise funds for
Pariyar’s work in Nepal and to educate the public about Nepal’s gender
and caste issues.
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