New-found hopes : training former abandoned women in the Himalaya’s women-led social enterprise farms

Women-led farming communities in Nepal

New found Himalayan hopes

In 2015, Nepal ranked 121 of 136 countries in the Global Gender Gap report. One in two Nepali women married before the age of 18, while many experienced domestic violence and abandonment. Their country’s patriarchal system generally discouraged them from public life, leaving little room for self-expression.

But in the middle of rural Nepal, one of the country’s only women-owned farms has set ambitions to provide a safe space and a self-sustaining community for abused and abandoned women in the region. Our feet naturally reached Her Farm in autumn 2015 to work with its inspiring employees.

Our partner

Lensational reached Nepal through partnering with Mountain Fund, a non-profit organisation founded to protect Nepali women and give them the skills and safety to provide for themselves. The Mountain Fund’s Her Farm programme, one of the country’s own women-owned farm, provides a community for women who were formerly abused and abandoned in rural Nepal, allowing them to care for themselves and control their destinies.

Photographer in portrait : Namuna

Namuna comes from the Rasuwa district, a landlocked, rural province of Nepal and has been working at HerFarm for the past five years now. As part of the farm’s community, she takes part in activities ranging from farming, nursing, teaching, and taking care of the farm’s animals. Although other employees tend to specialise in one activity, Namuna enjoys being versatile, as the variety of her work makes her happy.

Namuna has always felt very connected to the mountains, and it’s this connection that inspires her photography, often focusing on nature, landscape, and flowers. Alongside the beauty of rural Nepal, her photographs provide a glimpse of her daily life, from her home village in the mountains, to her buddhist traditions.

Purchase the girls' photographs here