This is an organisation set up by Anna Townsend to support vulnerable women in Nepal. Anna was previously a member of Hope Church and she continues to be involved in helping to run Women Without Roofs (WWR). Women are particularly at risk of becoming vulnerable in Nepal. Early marriage, gender and caste discrimination together with psychological and physical violence remain common.

WWR helps by contributing towards rent, medical bills and the education of their clients’ children. Women are referred to WWR by pastors and their wives or by women that WWR are already helping. The WWR team then meet with the prospective client in her home to assess her circumstances. They check that she is on her own and doesn’t have any other sources of income that she may not have told her pastor about. If the woman meets the WWR criteria, they immediately begin contributing towards their rent and any medical bills. If her children are of school age or younger, WWR will usually provide a monthly fixed sum per child.

Usually, these grants are enough to get the woman back on her feet. She knows that WWR will be with her for the long term and can find security knowing she won’t be thrown out of her house for lack of rent money. She will still need to work to find money for food and clothes but this gives her a reason to get up in the morning and improves mental health. Some women are now too old to work and they receive a small subsistence grant from WWR to help pay for food and other essentials. Furthermore, those women who cannot live independently due to old age, ill-health or mental health issues are invited to live at WWR’s women’s home where all meals and accommodation are provided free of charge and the women receive a small stipend to pay for extras.