How everything started:

Nepal fascinates with its cultural, ethnic and natural diversity and its hospitality. But it is also a country with poverty, rapid growth of its population and political instability – although in 2007 its political system turned into a parliamentary democracy. In 2006 the illiteracy rate among adult women was at 62 % so that the majority of women is seriously restricted in their professional and social development.

Gaby Krüger and Helga and Detlef Gründel experienced these features when on tour in Nepal and talking to Mr and Mrs Acharya, a couple active in education in Patan.

What to do? – Or: “The best path out of poverty is the path to school.”

Mr and Mrs Acharya developed a plan to teach women without any or with little education in the basic subjects costfree. Education will increase the self-esteem of women and their chances for social participation. This is what appealed to us and made us found the Association for Supporting Women Projects in Nepal – Mahadevi.

In November 2008 the Mahadevi Women Education Center (M-WEC) was opened in a poor neighbourhood in Patan in the Kathmandu valley. Until 2017, 350 women have attended the literacy courses, 100 have been in the sewing courses, of which 60 have graduated with a certificate.