In the months after her husband's death in an air crash in 1992, when Lajana Manandhar felt her world had fallen apart, she decided the best way to honour her husband's memory was to fulfil his vision. An architect and urban planner, Ramesh Manandhar always thought outside the envelope, designing cheap eco-friendly houses using mud, working on housing for the urban poor. So, Lajana turned grief into activism and started Lumanti (Newari for 'memory') to help landless squatters and slum dwellers in Kathmandu Valley.
Widowed at 30, Lajana also had to raise their son and daughter. She had just finished her MPhil in agriculture economics and had no clue how to go about addressing the issues of urban poverty. But with help from friends and colleagues of her husband, Lajana sought ideas and suggestions to find ways to promote self-help and welfare.
It took three years to develop a close relationship with slum dwellers in Patan, and without any other financial support and just a skeleton staff, Lumanti hosted an international workshop on urban and housing issues. In 1997, with support from Action Aid, Lumanti began a women's saving and credit scheme for squatter families.
Members would contribute Rs 20-30 per week to a central kitty from which others in the group could take loans at low interest to pay school fees, repair their hut, or invest in a small shop. Within six years, Lumanti set up 110 groups with nearly 2,000 female members from squatter communities around Kathmandu and Lalitpur. Today, their savings total Rs 5 million.
The difference can be seen in the slums of Patan: dirt lanes have been replaced with stone pavements, each ward has a children's library and learning centre, and all houses have toilets. With the help of Lumanti's scholarship program, children's school enrolment has reached 95 percent.
Along the way, Lajana and Lumanti have turned what was once a non-issue into a subject of national debate. The urban poor have now set up a solidarity network called Society for Preservation and Habitation in 22 districts. Says Lajana: "All we did was to show them the way, and give them moral support. They did the rest themselves."
NARESH NEWAR
