be artsy

This years follow up trip with the girls was really different to last year. Firstly, as planned, we decided to do all of the menstrual cup donations and trainings during the first trip to Achham in the Spring. We wanted to use the September trip solely for the “follow ups”, with more time for the menstrual cup users to identify any […]

Before we left to Achham for the Project follow up, we spent a day in a children’s home in Dhulikhel conducting a full puberty curriculum, sexual education, and menstrual health management training. We had been asked to do an intensive training, with a special focus in empowering the girls in self love for their womens’ […]

Kalagaun is a beautiful place. Green and peaceful. When we arrived everyone was very curious about us – especially the boys and girls! As usual, we were working with class 6-10. The teachers had prepared the hall for our program but everything felt like a race against time. The children were at school for just […]

On the first day at one of the schools we visited during the Spring 2018/2075 Rato Baltin project, when we came back from teaching class 10 boys and girls, we found a woman in the computer room where we kept our materials holding what we were thinking was an unconscious girl from class 9. One of our Nurses, Anju, took […]

The first week in a new village is always stressful. We have to get to know the people around us: teachers, health personnel, community leaders, and more importantly, the women, girls, and boys. In Oligaun it was no different, but we also had to get to know part of the new team. Tejana, one of […]

After Kunti Bandali, we went to Basti. This was Clara’s third time there. She explained to the team that going down is complicated, but that once you are there you don’t want to leave… It’s like another world. It’s a really remote (and hot) place, where life is hard but people are authentic and lovely. […]

For many of the global population of women and girls, menstruation is time of stress and shame. Some women and girls not only have limited access to and knowledge of clean menstrual management resources and safe, private spaces to dispose of materials, but they consider both themselves and menstruation itself as dirty and shameful. To […]

After Janalibandali we travelled to Kunti Bandali, where nothing was really new. We were only there teaching for four days. The first time we came here we taught two classes at the end of 2073 (it is now the beginning of 2075). This time we taught classes 6 and 7, as well as a school […]

On Sunday we trained the women’s group how to use the menstrual cup. Many young married girls came to the training, but not with the profile we really wanted to target: poor girls that could not go to school because of poverty or being married. There are two reasons why this group may not have […]

The first week in Janalibandali has been very intense, even too much. On arrival, we had several meetings with local liders, the nurse and the teachers. On Saturday they organized traditional dances and music, the lyrics of which was (like in Basti) absolutely against the Chhaupadi. We have been making groups of boys and girls […]