You can feel the gods here': a village homestay in Nepal that supports Indigenous women

"As the Nepali night takes on the texture of velvet, the party naturally divides. The men sway in a circle, singing plaintively. The women surround an elderly lady who smokes tobacco rolled in writing paper. And I settle into swapping stories with the girls. Alina and her younger cousins Miching and Blinka may be draped in the silks and heavy jewellery of the Indigenous Aath Pahariya Rai community, but they're as keen to talk love and travel as any young women."

"Since launching with just one homestay in Panauti, south-east of Kathmandu, in 2012, CHN has grown to more than 362 families across 40 communities. This is the first in the country's rural east. The writer stayed with Prem and her daughter Alina As rising temperatures, seasonal flooding and erratic monsoons force droves of Dhankuta's subsistence farmers over the border into India, this remote region is turning to international tourism for the first time."

Community Homestay Network (CHN) is a social enterprise collaborating with governmental organisations and NGOs such as Human and Social Development Centre (Husadec) to help women open their homes to travellers. CHN launched one homestay in Panauti in 2012 and grew to over 362 families across 40 communities, including its first presence in eastern Nepal's Dhankuta. Dhankuta faces climate-driven migration as rising temperatures, seasonal floods and erratic monsoons push subsistence farmers toward India, prompting a local shift toward international tourism. CHN emphasizes empowering women to earn locally and implementing sustainable rainwater-harvesting solutions. National tourism earned about $2.2bn in 2024 but remained geographically concentrated, causing overloaded infrastructure and uneven economic gains.

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