— Anshu Thapa

ANSHU THAPA, President of Central Police Family Association, spoke to SPOTLIGHT on various issues regarding the training programs launched to support the widows of police personnel.

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What is the aim of the ongoing training program?

Our aim is to provide the short-term training for the widows of our police personnel who are in a desperate need for some sort of training. We are providing training to 35 widows in this first batch. We are currently providing them with tailoring and candle making skills.

What is the average age of the widows?

They are mostly young and below 25 years. Along with giving them training, we also support their small children to send them to schools.

How are you running the program?

We are running on our own through our own limited resources. If we had adequate resources, we could have provided training to more widows. As you know, our training will benefit those widows whose husbands were low rank personnel. Due to lack of resources, we are just able to provide training to 35 out of 1,000 widows.

What are your challenges now?

The challenge is the sustainability of the programs. We generate the fund through the donation from the officials of the association as well as by performing some fund-raising programs.

Do you have any plan to extend it?

We are planning to extend the program so that more widows of low-level police personnel could benefit. Since we have regional offices in all five development regions, we are planning to extend them to other parts so that more widows can reap the benefits.

What is the significance of your training?

The training is also a part of counseling. After living two months together, the widows share their difficulties. It helps to end their isolation. The short training given by us will make the widows self-reliant. Thanks to the support given by some boarding schools, we are also providing scholarship to those children who have lost their parents in combat.