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  • United Nations puts the 2020 focus in the sexual and reproductive rights

    United Nations puts the 2020 focus in the sexual and reproductive rights

    Sponsoring girls, to facilitate scholarship and avoid early marriage in some areas in Nepal, is a new project of be artsy.

    The United Nations has called for meetings of governments, women rights activists, and other agents, between May and July this year. Agents who promote a global campaign – Generation Equality, centring in Mexico City and Paris – in the 25th anniversary of the Declaration and platform for the action – Beijing 1995.

    The declaration denounced gender inequality and proposed possible changes in women rights, and the “equality norm”. In an introduction to the campaign, UN Women explains: “Imagine a world where every person has got equal rights and opportunities. Women and girls are not afraid of walking home at night and men and boys are not trapped in oppressive masculinities. And where there is equality in political leadership, corporate boardrooms and factory floors. Women have a word in the decisions that affect their lives, their body, their policies and their environment, from villages to cities”.

    This year 160 countries are expected – 189 states that entered into the declaration will adopt it by unanimity – to inform about the progress achieved, and that the United Nations Secretary-General makes a general evaluation. The new campaign talks  “to facilitate synergies” – explains Katja Iversen, leader of the Women Deliver global group – “to advance effectively in matters such as abortion rights, reproductive health, or to put an end to violence. The potential for this change is huge” – she continues – “but there are already too many empty compromises, we must end up this year with a categorical, responsible and daring action”.

    This declaration also included, amongst 12 key areas, decent work in any sector and equally paid, and to evaluate the impact of the environmental degradation in women, and their role in a sustainable development, specially in rural areas, where women and girls suffer also from a more difficult access to education. This right is challenged in some countries and, if not that, the difficulties to access education cause that, for example, many girls are forced to marry prematurely. The United Nations and other organizations do also point out the violation of basic rights, in the early or forced marriage of the girls.

    Sponsorship project of girls and young women in Accham.

    To this regard, the Edufem project of the association be artsy is based on the assumption that, for every year in school, the marriage age can be delayed in two years, in the remote rural areas of Nepal where the association works. Girls of 13 or 16 are married before having the chance of doing a more advanced grade – they think that their future implies working at their in-law’s house -, or else leave school earlier because they need to work in their parents fields. This project is parallel, and complementary, to the Rato Baltin Project that the NGO is carrying out since 2017, through which it denounces the extreme discrimination suffered by girls and women because of tribal origin traditions – Hindu ones, considering a woman impure when she is having her period -. And which also exposes them to being raped, or to die away from their own house when they are subject to the Chhaupadi. Via workshops and activities, the project promotes the education and the public debate about this sociocultural factor in the country.

    With this new project, Clara García i Ortés, co-founder of be artsy, who has been nominated to the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award in its 2020 edition, personally began in 2018 to assume the sponsorship of two girls, Manisha N. and Tejana, and in the 2019 be artsy has counted with two sponsors helping two more girls, Sangita and Manicha B. To continue with the project, they are working to get sponsors for the schooling of Tulsi y Kamala. The feedback, the reaction, in terms of greater well-being and self-insurance, that these girls are giving, has encouraged the NGO to start this new project. Some volunteers have started to impart English lessons, online, to the girls, to help them communicate better with the people participating in the project, with support to pay the school and have the basic day to day help to facilitate them to continue going to the school.

    Text by Josep Marín & Photos© by Clara García Ortés.  
Traslation by Tere Salinero.

    For just €1.80 a day you can change the future of a girl and prevent her from being forced to marry at 14 years old!

    There are several ways in which you can get involved and sponsor a girl in Achham:

    Teaming Group: 1 euro a month – become part of the team and get your friends to help you sponsor her!

    Regular donation: to https://donorbox.org/againts-chhaupadi

    Become a member: https://beartsy.org/associate/

    🙂 Thanks!

  • First part of the Rato Baltin 2019 project: general assessment

    First part of the Rato Baltin 2019 project: general assessment

    Taking some days rest after coming back from Nepal, we let you know how did this first part of the Rato Baltin 2019 Project go.

    We had a risky bet, to cover as many villages as our financial resources may allow. From September 2018, we prepared everything for six municipalities, but after the trip we made in situ during January, after seeing the difficulties and taking into account the resources we seemed we had found, we decided to focus on just four municipalities.

    This decision has brought us both positive and negative things. We always say that in Nepal everything changes and anything can happen, but this year we have been able to ascertain that this is also applicable in our own country.
    In Catalan, we have a saying that goes: ‘Do not say wheat until it is in the bag and well tied’. Its equivalent in Spanish is: ‘Do not sell the skin of the bear until you have hunted it’ (what a cruel proverb). In English the same would be: ‘We must not count our chickens before they are hatched’ 🙂

    The positive things:

    We have been to 4 municipalities (16 schools/villages):

    • Sanfebagar, a municipality with a high presence of Chhaupadi, despite not being as far away as many others. This is where our partners are located for this part of the project, in Accham: 3 villages/schools.
    • Dhakari, just in the little mountain opposite our very much loved Basti: 3 villages/schools.
    • Turmakand, one of the most remote places in Accham, near the river Karnali. And where last year died the girl whose parents buried to try to hide the fact. 3 villages/schools.
    • Mangalsen, district where we have been working for the past three years and from where most of our staff comes from. 4 new villages/schools + 3 from last year. In November, during the follow-up, we will do a further two.

    In summary: in Achham, during this 2019, we have been working in 16 villages/schools and in November we will add another 2. We have reached 5,347 direct beneficiaries. With 1,353 new users of the menstrual cup.

    What we feared most about the project this year was that all the facilitators were, whether local women from each municipality, or former students from previous years. On one side, we had the security that the message would arrive best with local girls than with nurses from Kathmandu; on another side, we were afraid about if they had assimilated the information we gave them in September and the hyper-intensive training of 9 days we imparted before the start up.

    And I have to say that here laid the wonderful surprise, of which we all felt very proud: the girls absolutely rose to the occasion at all times. Where one could not reach, another would, and the groups complemented each other marvelously!

    To see those girls, so sure of themselves and empowered, has been one of the best things of the project, just for that, it has all been worth it!

    In each group there was at least one trainer (in some even two because we had six already trained) and three or four mentors (ex pupils of ours, users of the Ruby Cup), and a foreign volunteer.

    It has been a hard experience for every one of the volunteers: these girls do barely understand English. But an interesting one. Bea already wrote about the training we did in Sanfebagar, and Eleonora, Anne Laure and Maisei will do it as soon as they have some time to spare. At the same time, for each team of Nepalese girls, to have a foreigner who could not understand them has also been hard because of the difficulty to communicate, but a great help in what regards technical and safety matters. The foreign girl is like a ‘bait’ to attract the women, men and girls to the class groups!

     

    Rato Baltin's teams of 2019

     

    On another hand, Rupa and me (Clara) have been acting as managing team and trying to sort out queries and problems that may raise. Rupa is an extraordinary woman with whom I have worked really well and I think that she is the perfect Project Manager for our project in Nepal. She is an independent woman with her own import company of “Cozy Cups” menstrual cups. Quality cups that she sells at a fair price to women in Kathmandu: 1,500 rupee. In Achham, if any mother does want one, the price is 800 rupee.

    In Kathmandu, we have had our interns Raunika and Simran. Two veritable gems that will come to be fighting women, promoters of the change in their country. Both are studying for a master, one about gender studies and the other in international cooperation.

    In all, we have three angels working with us!

    We have also had the help of Pashupati Kunwar, who, as adviser in Samabikas, has assisted us in specific and difficult subjects such as how to sort out all the legal paperwork to be able to receive the donation of the 3,000 Ruby Cups, organize the accommodation and the place for the training in Sanfebagar, and she has as well helped us to ask for financial support from some municipalities. The district of Sanfebagar contributed with 100,000 rupees and the one of Mangalsen with 50,000. Mangalsen promised to provide some more funds during the next tax year.

    The negative things:

    Our Achham partner has not functioned that well. The project is very big and complicated, and it requests complete dedication that our partners could not give.

    Two big donations have failed to be finally granted. One we expect to have it still, the other we don’t count on it because we have lost all contact. This has put us between a rock and a hard place sometimes, and we have had to modify the project, spacing out the work of the facilitators and depending completely on the money we still don’t have to continue paying salaries and to undertake the follow-up after the six months.

    Faced with adversity, we always find creative solutions, but it is particularly exhausting to have to think about this all the time.

    My proposal to all of you – the continuity of the project depends on you :

    1 – Please fill in this form to become member of the NGO. We urgently need to have a regular income to be able to continue. Every donation helps.
    2 – Do become members of our Teaming group (1 Euro a month, all destined to the project), and do bring in your friends and colleagues (all the people in the company) to also collaborate. If we are 1,000 people giving €1,00 a month it represents a big help (we are now 10 members,
    and, by the way, it is deductible in your tax returns).
    3 – You may make now your donation in Gofundme  (If you are from Spain better use migranodearena), no need to wait for the end of the summer!

     

    We do really need cash now to send to Nepal so our facilitators can be paid their salaries.

    Something else that can help: I will be in Europe up to the end of October. We are looking for people who can assist us in planning events, lectures, expositions, shows, fundraising meals, or anything that you may think of, to raise funds!

    If any location comes up to mind or you want to organize anything, please do contact us! info@beartsy.org

    Many thanks for everything! 🙂

    Written by Clara Garcia i Ortés, translated by Tere Salinero

    West Nepal girls need this kind of program. And we need help to continue the project!

    Paypal recurring donations:

    Select a Donation Option (EUR)

    Enter Donation Amount (EUR)

    Or if you feel like it, you can donate via bank transfer at: Banc Sabadell IBAN: ES23 0081 0900 8200 0430 1934 BIC: BSABESBB (your recurring donation will help us have a better planning of our budget to carry out the projects undertaken).

    Or take a look to others ways to donate at http://beartsy.org/get-involved-with-rato-baltin/   or https://beartsy.org/become-an-associate/
    Thank You! 🙂

  • Testimonial for MHDay –Menstrual Hygiene Day– Walk

    Testimonial for MHDay –Menstrual Hygiene Day– Walk

    My name is Shruti, I live in Columbia, Missouri, United States. At my school we did not have free feminine products for school. So I worked with some administrators to provide free products district wide at the high schools in the bathrooms.

    It is a completely student-run initiative. Afterwards, while researching how others are impacted by this problem, a friend of mine (Olivia DeClue) found the Rato Baltin project. It was horrifying to read and learn about how girls our age go through so much more.

    We decided that if we inform more people about the problem, then maybe we can help raise funds. We started a charity walk in order to bring friends together and raise money for Rato Baltin. That’s how MHDay Walk began.

    #Menstrual Hygiene Day 2019

    We registered under the international MHDay organisation and are so proud of how far wave come. We raised over $1000 dollars, which is incredible considering it was a first time event regarding a generally taboo subject led by high scholar. Thank you so much also for Ms. Clara for continuously supporting us!

    Written by Shruti G. and friends, at MHDay Walk Como

    West Nepal girls need this kind of program. And we need help to continue the project!

    Paypal recurring donations:

    Select a Donation Option (EUR)

    Enter Donation Amount (EUR)

    Or if you feel like it, you can donate via bank transfer at: Banc Sabadell IBAN: ES23 0081 0900 8200 0430 1934 BIC: BSABESBB (your recurring donation will help us have a better planning of our budget to carry out the projects undertaken).

    Or take a look to others ways to donate at http://beartsy.org/get-involved-with-rato-baltin/   or https://beartsy.org/become-an-associate/
    Thank You! 🙂

  • Project Proposal for 2019

    Project Proposal for 2019

    In 2005 the Government of Nepal declared the practice of Chhaupadi illegal, and since 2018 has been considered a criminal offence with explicit consequences. However, there are places where belief in the tradition is stronger than that of the law.

    The risk of sexual exploitation through Chhaupadi in Western Nepal is still therefore present, but thanks to organisations such as be artsy this is beginning to change. Be artsy conducts a sex education project that tackles ideas behind the tradition which discriminates against and ostracizes women during their periods, leading to subhuman conditions and or death.

     

    Project Proposal for 2019

     

    Throughout 2019, be artsy will work in Accham with Samabikas Nepal, a local NGO, to execute the Rato Baltin (Red Bucket) project in stages. These stages range from training adolescents in sex education, conducting participative photography workshops, and disseminating 3,000 menstrual cups donated by Ruby Cup. We hope our work and commitment to training local staff in 2019 will result in Nepalese women leading the project in 2020, and into the future.

    You can read the whole project here: https://beartsy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2019-project-plan-EN.pdf

    Written by Maria Isabel García Marques, corrected by Kristy Davis.

    West Nepal girls need this kind of program. And we need help to continue the project!

    Paypal recurring donations:

    Select a Donation Option (EUR)

    Enter Donation Amount (EUR)

    Or if you feel like it, you can donate via bank transfer at: Banc Sabadell IBAN: ES23 0081 0900 8200 0430 1934 BIC: BSABESBB (your recurring donation will help us have a better planning of our budget to carry out the projects undertaken).

    Or take a look to others ways to donate at http://beartsy.org/get-involved-with-rato-baltin/   or https://beartsy.org/become-an-associate/
    Thank You! 🙂

  • 2018 Project Evaluation Report

    2018 Project Evaluation Report

    A year has come to pass and much has changed in terms of our project development here in Nepal.

    However, Nepal and the way women are treated here still remains somewhat the same, although we can proudly say our efforts have not been in vain. We’ll talk further down the article about our operations and purpose with the Rato Baltin Project by be artsy NGO.

    To date, we have distributed 600 Ruby Cups along with complimentary much needed sexual health education. You can read our complete project evaluation here.

    Chhaupadi (menstrual exclusion i.e. the culture of keeping female members of the family outside their homes in-order to “protect” their family home from ill fates) is still ongoing and an ingrained part of culture, leading to recent tragedy.

     

    What are we doing?

    To tackle a subject that many Nepalis consider to be ‘taboo’, over the last 3 years we have provided sex and menstrual health education to both female and male members of villages in far-Western Nepal. Although the Government has banned the tradition and instituted jail time for those that force women and their children to stay outside in a hut for 4-5 days and nights during their cycles, nothing seems to change in such far-away places where even the Government doesn’t have effective reach. We believe that sex education can make a substantive impact to this practice and enable the rights of girls and women to live safe from harm and discrimination.

    With the help of our Donors and Volunteers, alongside the continuous hard work of the be artsy team, we have been able to understand how culture is shaping the lives of many Nepalese. This insight has led us to confidently believe there is great hope and potential for change, even though things seem rougher than ever with tragedy still occurring.

    Thank you all for your time and love.

    West Nepal girls need this kind of program. And we need help to continue the project!

    Paypal recurring donations:

    Select a Donation Option (EUR)

    Enter Donation Amount (EUR)

    Or if you feel like it, you can donate via bank transfer at: Banc Sabadell IBAN: ES23 0081 0900 8200 0430 1934 BIC: BSABESBB (your recurring donation will help us have a better planning of our budget to carry out the projects undertaken).

    Or take a look to others ways to donate at http://beartsy.org/get-involved-with-rato-baltin/   or https://beartsy.org/become-an-associate/
    Thank You! 🙂

    Written by Akash Thapa, corrected by Kristy Davies.
  • Please meet Ruby Cup: our strategic partner

    Please meet Ruby Cup: our strategic partner

    As you might already know, we are beginning the implementation of Rato Baltin Project in Nepal very soon. Rato Baltin (meaning Red Bucket in Nepalese) is a long-term project which intends to generate a space for reflection within Western Nepalese communities – where the practice of Chhaupadi is rife – in order to help improve girls’ and women’s life conditions and wellbeing. Besides participatory photography workshops and sex ed in schools, we are also going to distribute menstrual cups to four groups of girls who are going to be instructed on how to use them by local nurses.

    Please meet Ruby Cup:

    These menstrual cups were donated by our strategic partner Ruby Cup.
    Ruby Cup not only sells and distributes menstrual cups, but its social mission is devoted to helping women and girls affected by poverty, who face problems during their periods because they simply cannot afford menstrual hygiene products. As stated by themselves, “Without proper sanitary products, girls and women are forced to use degrading substitutes (like mud or old newspapers), which do not absorb well and often carry serious health implications for infections and diseases.” Moreover, the lack of menstrual products is a huge factor in school absenteeism. Through their Buy One, Give One programme – every, time someone buys a Ruby Cup, another one is donated to a girl who would otherwise not be able to access it – Ruby Cup distributes the Ruby Cups in collaboration with local partner organisations.

     

    The girls in West Nepal do face all the challenges stated above, with the addition that the practice of Chhaupadi deprives them from their most basic needs and forces them out of their homes, creating a host of problems – including death.

    Please remember that we are still raising funds for Rato Baltin at http://www.migranodearena.org/en/challenge/13821/higiene-menstrual-en-nepal—chhaupadi—rato-baltin/

    Every donation helps!

    Please meet Ruby Cup: our strategic partner

  • Raising funds for Nepal

    Raising funds for Nepal

    Would you help us raise funds for our project aimed at girls in Nepal?
    Now we have launched this challenge:

     

     

    Or If you feel like it, you can Donate:




    Data protection: Associació be artsy (G66869694) will record the donation and meet legal obligations. PayPal processes the payment. You can exercise your privacy rights at info@beartsy.org. Privacy Policy.

    Please remember: Our aim is to bring hygienic, menstrual and sex education to the most remote areas in West Nepal. There, girls are considered impure while they menstruate and are deprived of their most basic needs during 7 to 10 days.
    We will complement this with the introduction and distribution of menstrual cups in the area, which we will implement with the help of creative photography workshops. This will enable the girls to find out and express what can be improved in their environment while they are menstruating.
    The final long-term goal is to reduce Chhaupadi.

    paypal-donation