Stories from the field

"From Client to Counsellor" (Livelihoods and Dignity)

Background               Sometimes a single meeting can change how a person sees their whole life. When someone wi...

"A New Mother, Alone" (The Turn to Mental Health)

Background               We met her during a routine follow-up visit for our mental health program. A woman at the most difficult time of her life, rejected by nearly...

"She Was Told to Prepare for the End" (Treatment and Survival)

Background: Seema (name changed) was born into a poor family in a remote village in Ramechhap, where there was rarely enough to go around. Because of that poverty, her family marri...

"What We Missed for Twenty Years" (The Turn to Mental Health)

Priya's pain started when she was a child, far too young to carry it. Her parents went abroad for work and in their absence, she was abused by someone in her own family, someone wh...

"Naming the Second Epidemic" (The Turn to Mental Health)

For years, Gita (name changed) carried two lives inside one body. To the world, she was a wife, a mother, a grandmother. In private, she survived through sex work carrying the weig...

"What Adherence Actually Costs" (Treatment and Survival)

Rekha (name changed) hardship started early. After losing both her parents young, she was raised by an uncle and aunt but instead of the love and care a child needs, she faced reje...

"From a Heavy Heart to Hope"

Divya (name changed) lost her mother as a small child, and grew up without the care a child needs. At fourteen, her father arranged her marriage, ending her childhood before it had...

"Nothing About Us Without Us - Tested" (Advocacy and Voice)

For a long time, I struggled to understand my own identity as a transgender man, and everything that came with it. I've felt firsthand how patriarchal thinking pushes communities l...

"Standing Her Ground"

She first encountered the program through a mental health orientation for marginalized women; a session that talked about violence, anxiety, and when to ask for help. She remembere...