The winners of the Ripon Racecourse Charity Christmas Dash, Girls Empowered by Travel – Nepal, were this weekend awarded a ‘With and For Girls 2019 Award’; a global initiative supporting organisations working with and for girls to tackle issues such as gender discrimination, inequality and harmful practices.
Sajana Bhadel and Pabitra Majhi of GET travelled from Nepal to London to collect the award and as part of the visit to the UK they travelled to Ripon, accompanied with UK ambassador for the Charity Mark Goddard who explained:
“I first visited Nepal in the aftermath of the devastating 2015 earthquake and began supporting Girls Empowered by Nepal soon after. The project allows girls from rural areas to learn new skills and return to lead projects in their own community.
“The empowerment is far reaching, with each girl trained creating a legacy in their community and a relatively modest sum of money can have life changing effects not just for one individual girl but for a whole community”.
Sajana Bhadel, President of Girls Empowered by Travel, said:
“The £450 which we won from the Ripon Charity Dash has been used to train two girls from rural districts in our ‘Hitaishi’ project. ‘Hitaishi’ means ‘Bond of friendship’ where girls learn about adult literacy, education and cleanliness and deliver this project to around 25 girls from their region which will help to eliminate the cycle of poverty”.
Pabitra Majhi, Secretary of GET, said:
“The mission of Girls Empowered by Travel is to empower women, especially from underprivileged communities within a very patriarchal culture, through travel and that transforms not just their lives but the lives of other girls in their communities.
“It is amazing for us to visit a racecourse because we have only ever seen anything like this in films. It is a long way off at the moment but it would be great to think that other girls will aspire to travel and put their experiences to good use”.
Jonathan Mullin, Marketing Manager of Ripon Racecourse said:
“It is fantastic that Sajana, Pabitra and Mark have paid us a visit and it is really good to see that the little amount of money raised from our Charity Christmas Dash is being put to such good use and really is making a difference.
When I first heard of Girls Empowered by Travel I didn’t really grasp the reach of their projects but listening to some of the success stories and seeing the passion of some of those involved it is clear that they are doing some fantastic work to help build a brighter future for women and girls in their country”.
