be artsy

Another of the problems that we are facing during our Rato Baltin workshops is seeing 13 years girls who are married and with children. Everybody (some may not agree) find this practice “normal” in west Nepal (actually in all rural area of Nepal). In Nepal  the legal age for marriage without parental consent is 20 years and […]

Photographies made by the students of the participatory photography workshop #breakthesilence © of each student. 7-6-2017 We have not yet found in Kalikot anybody referring to the tradition using this name, they call it “Chuii” “Chuiigoath” or “Chuiighar”. But as to existing, it does exist the same. Maybe the conditions seem better (in Rachuli, so […]

4-6-2017  The menstruation cup training that we have set at Rachuli, exceeded all expectations. We have spent, so far, 10 days in town, talking with the ladies and girls, teachers of both sexes, and trying to reach out to the men. to talk with the men… The girls were asked to talk with their parents […]

Writing and Photos © por Alba Parrado Puente, Spanish Nurse and Midwife, Volunteer of be artsy in Achcham. From one of the most chaotic Indian cities (Varanasí)  to one of the most peaceful little villages in Nepal there are around 800 km. and a four days journey by local bus, a bus as hellish as […]

31-5-2017. We already have the first results form our participatory photography workshops. Seeing how girls start freeing themselves and start explaining things through photography is exciting. The first thing that surprised us was that most of them are convinced to follow the tradition. There are few Chhaupadi huts here, most girls sleep in the cowshed […]

28-5-2017. 7 days after leaving Kathmandu we were able to start teaching at the school. Our first school day at Rachuli’s school had cracking-up moments. We started with 10th grade, which means some of the students were 17 years old, only 3 years younger than the two nurses we hired. Being so close in age […]

26-5-2017. Our contact people in the area (all male) told us that here there was no Chhaupadi unlike in Achcham: that there are no special huts for women on their period, that they have a room inside their homes. However, during our journey we saw a few of them. There are some characteristics that make […]

May 25, 2017. Getting to Rachuli (pronounced RAH-chuli) took us 5 days. At the moment of writing this, I can’t imagine having to leave this place. The ways to get up here are mountain roads with very few paved parts. There are lots of rocks all around, landslides everywhere, heavy rocks in the middle of […]

We had it very clear that getting out from Basti wasn’t going to be easy, the descent we did the day we arrived had as all quite scared. On my side, I found a walking stick and decided not to follow the same path we used to go down; following the blood track left by […]

Written by Clara Go. Translate to english by Tere Salinero A few days before returning to Nepal, I participated in a women’s group organized by Mila Torró (From Círculo Afrodita) together with Vivian Parra, to help us gather funds for the Rato Baltin Project. For me it was a very special day, the last one I […]