This Lake Wyangan trail-blazer has been providing health care and health awareness to remote Badi women and girls in Nepal for two years.

Her passion has been recognised by the NSW and ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards, and she is one of three finalists in the ‘G.J. Gardner Homes Women Creating Change’ category.

After bearing witness to shocking customs in 2016, Sandra felt she “couldn’t go back to her other life.”

She tells stories of seeing girls barely two years old who have been raped over 100 times in one day.

Women who have no idea period pain is normal and living with the fear they are dying of some mysterious disease. 

Girls who have seen their sisters sold into sex slavery as young as four to be raped over and over again. Mothers who are forced to sell their daughters to Indian brothel owners for the benefit of their other children.

These are the common realities she sees on her trips to remote villages in Nepal, all stemming from seeing two girls from the Freedom Tour speak about their lives at the Grace Church.

“I had that pin-drop moment when I was in one village that first time ... I thought, man, I could really help these guys,” Sandra said.

“I can’t go back to my life now, knowing they are going through this.” Five trips later, Sandra is currently “brewing” a team together for the next in February 2019.

“I am hoping that if I win this award, it will raise awareness and more people will come with me,” Sandra said.

The award acknowledges and celebrates the commitment of women in initiating and leading activities which enable positive change in lives locally, nationally and/or internationally.

The reward for winning first place will not be to come out on top, but to have the opportunity to raise awareness.

“There is something everyone can offer, you don’t have to be a doctor or a nurse, everyone can help.”

The first time she went was just by herself, as a spur of the moment trip where she performed health checks. She now has a “long, long term” goal of setting up a medical camp in one of the villages.

“If you ask people if they want free health care of course they are going to say yes. So it’s about finding out those people who really need it versus those people who are opportunistic.”

“It’s all about sustainability for me – if you give someone something it doesn’t last – teach them to do it for themselves and it will.

“Hand-outs don’t help anyone, so we need to teach them how to make soap, toothpaste, help them learn. They have never had the opportunity to learn.”

‘Badi’ is a caste of people in Nepal many of whom, she says, just accept their fate, that the women and girls deserved to be raped as their lot in life.

“There is that Hindu/Buddhist belief that if you live this life now and don’t complain, you will be rewarded in your next life. Fathers rape their daughters, brothers rape their sisters – if you are a Badi girl, that is just your lot in life.

“The girls feel they don’t deserve to be loved.

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"As much as I am there to help with health and health awareness, just showing them they can be loved, deserve to be loved – that’s what really drives me.”

Her trips have received generous support from throughout the community and hospital in Griffith where she works, and she will be “forever grateful” to those who have helped and came along on the way.

While a judging panel will decide the winners in each category of the Regional Achievement and Community Awards, the People's Choice Award gives the power to the people.

To vote, head to NSW and ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards Facebook page.

To follow Sandra’s trips, head to ‘Friends of Badi’ on Facebook.

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