KATHMANDU: A South Korea-based organisation that works for women empowerment, Asia Woman Bridge, has operated various projects in Nepal with the objective of the economic empowerment of women from the marginalised communities.

The organisation has been running bakery and cookies production training, tailoring training and programmes for women leadership development aimed at supporting the social transformation by means of enhancing the vocational skills and capacity of such women for ending gender discrimination.

It has started bakery and cookies production training for the fourth time in association with Asia Women Friendship Centre Nepal and the Ekata Multi-purpose Cooperatives Limited, in coordination with the Nepalis living and working in South Korea for long.

The bakery training is around eight months and is conducted in accordance with the international curriculum. The participants are trained to bake doughnut, bread, various types of cookies, biscuits and cake as part of the training.

Chief of the Asia Woman Bridge Jang Pil Hwa said they provided some financial assistance to a few programmes in Nepal to make the women self-reliant as they have fallen prey to various sorts of violence due to lack of access to means and resources of production.

Seventeen women from within the Kathmandu Valley and its outskirts are currently attending the training. These women are imparted three-month basic education, three-month modern cookery education, one-month entrepreneurship skill and one-month internship at DD Bakery Café at Kumaripati. DD Bakery Café is operated by South Korea-returnee Nepalis.

The Asia Women Friendship Centre, established in 2015, has so far provided bakery training to 49 women and helped them become economically self-reliant by providing employment to some while economically supporting others to start their own business. It has been providing Rs 900 thousand to the three outstanding trainees every year for starting own bakery business.

Representative of Asia Women Friendship Centre, Kim Yuan Yong said that this time the organisation is providing Rs 350 thousand to Gurans Thapa of Gulmi, Rs 250 thousand to Pushpa Tamang of Kathmandu and Rs 250 thousand to Archana Karki of Lalitpur for their outstanding performance in the training.

Senior journalist Rupa Sharma provided training to the trainee women on leadership development, Sita Aryal on economic empowerment, and Samar Thapa and Hemanta Thapa on market management.

The women trainees said that the training has increased their self-confidence. The training will conclude in November next year.