February 1: Nepal AVO and Aakansha Creation have signed an agreement to “create jobs” for women displaced by landslides and floods in Sindhupalchowk district. Aakansha Creation’s Tekka Initiatives, a social campaign of the company, will lead the project in collaboration with the local ward office.  The campaign will organize trainings for the displaced women on making soft toys.

The materials used for making the soft toys and the training will be provided free of cost, the organisers said in a joint statement.

“Once the training is completed, they will be provided an opportunity for employment to produce soft toys for AVO Nepal. The concept is build with an aim of improving the livelihood of displaced women and helping them become economically independent. These toys will be sold via different outlets throughout Nepal, India and Japan,” the statement added.

“It’s our absolute pleasure to collaborate with Tekka Initiative to start something inspiring,” said the Co-Founder and Director of AVO Nepal Sudixya Adhikari, adding, “Our company is focused on promoting Nepali Avocado and its various sub-categories of products. To launch our brand with soft toys is not only a part of our business strategy but also our intention to help marginalized communities, especially women. We were looking for a company that worked with women and found Tekka Initiative as a perfect match for our objective”.

 The Managing Director of Aakansha Creation said, “We plan to offer training on crochet and supply materials free of cost. Once they complete the training, we will use their skills to manufacture soft toys with an intention to provide jobs to at-least 100 women in the next six months”.

Battered by a series of natural disasters in July and August that caused huge loss to life and property, Sindhupalchowk was declared a crisis-hit region by the government on 24 September, 2020, the statement further said. The government is reortedly planning to reconstruct the disaster-ravaged physical infrastructure in the district with the assistance of World Bank.