In Nepal, there is a tradition that considers women impure during their menstruation days and forces them to isolate under inhumane conditions, putting their health and dignity at risk.
It is called CHHAUPADI
The menstruation that you and I experience as something completely normal is a nightmare for them.
You need to watch this documentary
If what you have seen about Chhaupadi already feels shocking, this short video will take you deeper into the hard reality of these girls and women. See for yourself their situation with first-hand images.
What does Chhaupadi mean for them?
They cannot touch water, food or people
Women and girls are considered impure during bleeding days, which affects everything they touch. They are not allowed to handle shared food, touch their family members or the water sources that supply the village. This restriction forces them to seek alternative water sources several kilometers away or wait for someone to bring them water so they can drink, cook or wash.
They are exposed to serious dangers
As impure, they must wash everything they touch every day, including the blanket and mattress they use. During cold times their bed could not dry enough so they risk dying of hypothermia at night. Those who light fires inside the hut to keep warm risk dying of suffocation. In the summer, many die from snake bites or from wild animals attacks… remember there are tigers in Nepal.
They are pointed out and blamed
During menstruation, women are considered bad luck bearers. So if something bad happens in the village, the girl will be singled out and accused with phrases like: “It’s your fault for not following the tradition”. This is a social pressure that falls heavily on them from a very young age, forcing them to bear an intense emotional burden that stops them from rebelling against tradition.
Not all deaths from Chhaupadi are reported.
Nobody knows the true numbers of how many are raped.
Help us stop these menstrual evictions!
Our project Rato Baltin has been going village by village, school by school, implementing education and giving menstrual materials for 8 years now, and there is still more to do!
What we are doing
Rato Baltin is an educational project on the ground. We have found that the solution lies in making them understand that “menstruation” and “Chhaupadi” are different things, as they often use the same term for both things.
To get them to open up and talk about a “taboo” topic like this, we use participatory photography: we give them recovered cameras and ask them to photograph their Chhaupadi, their menstruation. The images the girls bring back are the starting point of the conversation.
Each girl and woman in the Rato Baltin program receives a menstrual cup (which is donated by the company Ruby Cup) and is trained in its use. They are also provided with soap and a metal bucket to ensure that they can sterilize the cup in boiling water.
Thanks to the use of menstrual cups, the practice of Chhaupadi has been reduced in many families and this motivates us to continue until it is eradicated.
Some results
5500
menstrual cups distributed
75.888
people directly benefited
93%
are still using the cup 1 year later
About us
The Rato Baltin project is part of the work carried out by the Associació be artsy, a Spanish NGO registered under number 60067 in the Registry of Associations of the Generalitat of Catalonia and declared an ONGD -non-governmental organisations for development- by the AECID.
be artsy is a non-profit organization founded in Barcelona in 2017 by Clara Garcia i Ortés after seeing the reality of Chhaupadi on a personal trip to the western part of Nepal. Her passion for equal opportunities for women led her to dedicate herself to improving the lives of women and girls in Nepal using another of her passions, participatory photography.
Our structure is agile, with low fixed costs thanks to the remote work of our collaborators and to the work of many volunteers around the world, who make management and marketing tasks possible. On the ground we have a team of Nepalese nurses and mentors, trained and hired to provide the training in the villages using their own language and culture. All the money we raise impacts directly to the projects on the ground.
HOW YOU CAN HELP THE GIRLS
Make a donation
Private donations are an important part of our project’s funding. Every euro counts to get the training and the menstrual cups (donated by the company RubyCup) to more girls and women in more villages in western Nepal, as quickly as possible.
A donation of as low as 13€ helps a girl to get out of her hut!! If you set your donation as MONTHLY you will help the stability of the project, allowing us to reach more territory, more women, more girls. Please consider donating on a recurring basis!
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Associació be artsy is registered with number 60067 in the Registry of Associations of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain). Since June 2021 it has been declared of public utility and a Non-Governmental Development Organization (NGDO) by the AECID. info@beartsy.org