• Name: Gita Ale
• District: Chitwan
• Training Name: OJT in Professional Cook
• Training Start Date:
• Training Duration: 10 months (1696 hrs. on-the-job training)
• Age: 28 years old

Gita Ale had to shelve her dream of studying hotel management after high school due to financial constraints. She got married at a young age and now lives in a joint family of 11 members including her four years old son. Her husband is a labor migrant returnee and until a while ago was the sole earner of the family. Now, she owns a restaurant and contributes equally to supporting her family.

Once her son started going to school, Gita started to explore opportunities to learn some income-generating skill. She started meeting people from various organizations and government offices inquiring about work and trainings suitable for her. In this course, one day she received a call from her ward office informing about an on-the-job training on Professional Cook funded by ENSSURE project. She was on cloud nine to have found an opportunity close to her childhood dream. Hence, she quickly applied to the course and also got selected.

Gita completed her five months long on-site training from Himashikhar Restaurant, Narayangarh. As a part of her training she also participated in the Entrepreneurship Development Class where she gained a good knowledge on how to deal with customers, how to keep accounts, how to save, how to provide first aid, how to take a loan and the process of registering a business. She continued to work at Himashikhar Restaurant even after the the training was over and stayed until she cleared her level 2 skill test. After that, she set up her own restaurant called Banbatika Cottage next to her house with an investment of around Rs four lakhs. She earns Rs. 35,000 per month from the business.

Gita plans to expand the restaurant business to add more cottages and provide accommodation service as well. Her husband is also currently helping her run the business. She also plans to pursue higher education in hotel management to upskill herself. Gita has indeed set a great example of grit among the women in her community.