Nepal’s mountainous terrain, high illiteracy rates and civil conflict have posed daunting challenges to informing women about their right to live free from violence. In addition to domestic abuse and sex trafficking, some Nepali women face physical and mental harassment from their in-laws related to dowry.

Radio broadcasts are one way of helping ensure that women understand and can claim their rights. Two NGOs, Digital Broadcast Initiative and Equal Access Nepal, in partnership with General Welfare Prathistan, secured a UN Trust Fund grant for a series of 26 radio programmes called ‘Changing Our World’. The programmes reached out to two million listeners with information about human rights, peace-building, stopping violence against women and HIV/AIDS.

The weekly episodes were rooted in women’s everyday experiences, collected by a group of 12 rural women whom the project trained as reporters. Sixty women facilitators learned how to convene and manage community listening groups, in which 15,000 people participated across the country.

An evaluation found that knowledge about domestic violence had doubled in communities reached by the broadcasts, and subsequent action has been taken. Greater understanding of the connections between domestic violence and alcohol, for example, has led to community sanctions on excessive drinking.