Lily Thapa: Lily Thapa is the founder of Women for Human Rights, which works to fight Discrimination against women in Nepal. Women are constantly marginalized and single women (widows) are in a even worse state. Furthermore unfavorable laws and policies that are often discriminatory only further aggravate their suffering. WHR addresses all the issues. WHR initially focused on encouraging single women to step outside the confines of their home and share their sorrow, fears and frustration at monthly forums.
The group met informally for 2 years in a small room to share their pain and grief at the loss of their husbands until WHR as a formal organization in 1994. Today, it works in 73 districts and 1550 VDCs, with over 100,000 single women members. An Ashoka Fellow Lily Thapa won the Best Social Entrepreneur Award in 2007. We are privileged to confer on her the Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman for year 2016.
