icon icon icon icon icon icon icon

Churia Livelihood Improvement (CHULI) Program

Women’s Leadership in Emergencies

The Churia Livelihood Improvement (CHULI) Program brings together groups of the poorest, so-called “lower caste” women in the Terai region of Nepal and helps them critically analyze the problems they face and identify priorities for action as a group.

Description

The Churia Livelihood Improvement (CHULI) Program in the Terai region of Nepal aims to improve livelihood security at the household, group, community, and district levels – especially for the poor, vulnerable, and socially excluded (PVSE) people in Sarlahi, Mahottari, and Dhanusha districts. The program’s secondary priorities include civil society organizations, district line agencies, local elected bodies, and political parties.

CHULI’s goal is to alleviate poverty in the Terai by helping the poorest of the poor become part of the development process. The program works closely with national and local nonprofit partners to provide people with access to resources and services related to improved livelihood, natural resources, land rights, education, etc. CHULI supports communities in forming groups and networks with a focus on PVSE women and men, developing local disaster risk reduction plans, preparing livelihood improvement plans, advocating for land rights, supporting education, and more.

After participating in CHULI, agricultural day laborers were empowered to campaign for higher wages, which resulted in a 20% to 50% wage increase in 26 of 30 VDCs.

The wages for unskilled agricultural labor rose substantially in nearly all VDCs.

Out of 30 VDCs, 26 saw wage increases of 20% to 50%.

The importance of CHULI

CHULI facilitated conversations in poor women’s groups to analyze their situations and take collective action to assert their rights. Women led coordinated strikes among agricultural day laborers of all genders to demand fair and equal wages.

Resources

Midterm Review of CHULI

This review, conducted by CARE Danmark and CARE Nepal in December 2010, highlights challenges the program met and overcame in its first three years.

Read the report