Tag: Girls

We are already working in the 2021 project
2020 has been like a parenthesis, but work hasn’t stopped! If we look back to the last twenty years, Nepal has ratified the Beijing Platform for Action, and the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The Nepalese women literacy rate has passed from the 25% in 1991 to the 57% in 2011; the maternal and infant mortality ratio decreased from 539 maternal deaths for each 100,000 live births to 170 in the same period. And the life expectancy for the women has increased from 55.5 years to 70. These statistics show the political will to improve gender equality and the quality of life for women in the country. The be artsy projects address education at a local level, against inequality towards women causing the Chhaupadi, which still prevails. And which aggravates it.

We are working since 2017 in the Rato Baltin (Red Bucket) project, and more recently, in other parallel projects, but interrelated: Edufem, and activities against the effects of the pandemic. We have associated ourselves with local NGOs, in the remote communities in West Nepal. We have seen the need for the project, to bring it to more municipalities of Achham. The results in Achham are just the beginning, we want to reach as many villages as possible. You can see the details of the 2021 Project in this link (pdf).

Through the creation and implementation of partnerships and workshop trainings, be artsy will pursue the project objectives via:

● Partnering with a socially conscious menstrual cup supplier to donate menstrual cups to the beneficiaries
● Partnering with ROKPA International
● Associating with a Nepali social enterprise with women committed to the project – Be Artsy Nepal
● Providing girls, schooling or out of school, with menstrual cups, hygiene kits, and adequate training in their use and upkeep.
● Hiring and training local trainers and mentors, to work with communities through workshops and maintain ongoing follow-ups and work as social mobilizers monthly.
● Conducting workshop trainings in sex education and menstrual health for girls, women, and boys, with special emphasis on respect, dignity and self-knowledge.
● Using participative photography to engage girls and communities in the topic of menstruation and what can be improved for better health and self-care during their period.

In 2021, we will keep on working also in our own environment, and in international forums. With the World Toilet Organization, we have agreed in working to create a social enterprise and to establish a training centre in Achham. This will help women and girls who do not attend school to earn money, and, at the same time, could help to make the project more sustainable. That’s our Happy Women Project.

In summary, we want to go back to all those villages where we have already been educating in sex and menstruation, for the girls who did not receive our training with the workshops. There are also plans for a sexual education group, only boys. And getting to 3 new villages and schools, one in each municipality where we work, making a total of 17 villages where we will carry out our Rato Baltin Project in 2021.
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Translation by Tere Salinero
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We need your help, please.

-Associate: – https://beartsy.org/associate /

–Migranodearena: https://www.migranodearena.org/en/cause/fighting-chhaupadi-the-taboo-that-is-leading-to-the-deaths-of-young-girls-

-Teaming (1 euro/month):

RatoBaltin: https://www.teaming.net/ratobaltinproject
Edufem to prevent early marriage: https://www.teaming.net/edufemproject

-Donorbox:
https://donorbox.org/againts-chhaupadi
https://donorbox.org/edufem

Thanks!
25/02/2021
Plan Himalaya does not only care for creating unique travel experiences…
For John Ruskin, “mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural landscapes”. And that’s how Plan Himalaya understands it, a local agency in Nepal characterized by creating customized travel experiences: adventure, trekking, sports, circuits and routes in motorcycle, bicycle, or even paragliding!, itineraries all surrounded by the wonderful natural landscape of Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Sikkim.

But, Plan Himalaya does not only care for creating unique travel experiences in the Kathmandu valley or at the foot of Mount Everest, but also does collaborate with our Rato Baltin – Red Bucket project, thanks to each of the trips their clients may want to enjoy with them.

Thanks so much, Plan Himalaya! Many thanks for collaborating with our project!
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Text by Luisa Tejada, translation by Tere Salinero
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We need your help, please.

Associate: – https://beartsy.org/associate /

Migranodearena – crowdfunding: https://www.migranodearena.org/en/cause/fighting-chhaupadi-the-taboo-that-is-leading-to-the-deaths-of-young-girls-

Teaming (1 euro/month)

RatoBaltin: https://www.teaming.net/ratobaltinproject

Edufem to prevent early marriage: https://www.teaming.net/edufemproject

Donorbox:
– https://donorbox.org/againts-chhaupadi
– https://donorbox.org/edufem

Thanks!
01/02/2021
Word of thanks to On Coach Communication
When we think about a coach, the first thing that comes to mind is that of a sports coach who will help us change our attitude in order to achieve our personal goals; of course, through discipline and effort, values that elite athletes know very well.

And, from this passion for coaching and sports, is how ON COACH COMMUNICATION was born: a firm that can transfer sports values to the executive, corporate and administrative field, and what is more, under the guidance of Albert Barceló Casals and his sports team, all exceptional athletes of proven professional trajectory, who give masterclasses and motivational seminars to companies, sports organizations, mountaineering clubs, educational centres and other associations.

On top of that, ON Coach Communication shares its passion for coaching and sports with values such as solidarity and social commitment, via communication campaigns, documentary films, videos or publications. And it is precisely thanks to this commitment that ON Coach Communication has prepared a documentary on our Rato Baltin (Red Bucket) Project, where they inform about our aim, our work, and the reality we face at be artsy. A splendid documentary that will be released worldwide, in three languages, on the 28th of November (Fair Saturday), in streaming: https://app.fairsaturday.org

Many thanks, ON COACH COMMUNICATION, for collaborating with be artsy!
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By Luisa Tejada, Translation by Tere Salinero
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We need your help, please. Make your donation to the Rato Baltin and Edufem projects today.

Crowdfunding: https://www.migranodearena.org/reto/21328/contra-el-chhaupadi-la-tradicion-nepali-que-exilia-a-las-mujeres-durante-la-menstruacion

Teaming (1 euro/month)

RatoBaltin: https://www.teaming.net/ratobaltinproject

Edufem to prevent early marriage: https://www.teaming.net/edufemproject

Associate: – https://beartsy.org/associate /

Donorbox: –https://donorbox.org/againts-chhaupadi – https://donorbox.org/edufem – Covid-19🦠 https://donorbox.org/mask-4-health-nepal Thanks!
22/11/2020
Actions on sanitation, hygiene and health

The 20th World Virtual Toilet Summit (WTS) has invited be artsy to participate. This was done by Clara Garcia i Ortés, founder and director of the Rato Baltin project, on 19 November.

Project ECHO and the World Toilet Organization organized the Summit with the aim to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water, sanitation, hygiene and health issues at all levels, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of wash in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of the Earth. Clara Garcia participated as a panellist in the session on ‘Menstrual hygiene’.

The WTS explains that ‘meeting the hygiene needs of all women is a fundamental issue of basic public health, basic dignity, self-esteem, and human rights. Period poverty simply means a lack of access to safe sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities and the proper waste management. More than 800 million people menstruate daily. Yet, more than 1.2 billion women lack the access to basic sanitation and hygiene care. The World Health Organization in the United Nations has recognized menstrual hygiene as a global public health and human-rights issue. Women and young girls in many developing countries are discouraged from socializing, going to school or doing certain basic activities when they menstruate. The cultural shame often attached to menstruation and a shortage of resources such as clean toilet with basic sanitary care or sanitary products stop the young girls from going to school and women from working when they menstruate. Many girls and women cannot afford menstrual products on top of lacking the use of the essential sanitation facilities make them harder to manage their monthly affair safely with dignity. These women are often torn between purchasing food and necessities, and sanitary products are not in the list. Many girls and women in developing countries still use old clothing, leaves, ash, cow dung etc. unsafe materials to absorb according to research conducted by UNICEF.

Be artsy often finds these important shortcomings in Nepal, in the Achham area, where we work with projects that give access to hygiene and menstrual education for girls and women. Clara’s participation in the Summit made this clear, and the way we do it.

We need your help, please. Make your donation to the Rato Baltin and Edufem projects today.

Crowdfunding: https://www.migranodearena.org/reto/21328/contra-el-chhaupadi-la-tradicion-nepali-que-exilia-a-las-mujeres-durante-la-menstruacion

Teaming (1 euro/month)

RatoBaltin: https://www.teaming.net/ratobaltinproject

Edufem to prevent early marriage: https://www.teaming.net/edufemproject

Associate: – https://beartsy.org/associate /

Donorbox: –https://donorbox.org/againts-chhaupadi – https://donorbox.org/edufem – Covid-19🦠 https://donorbox.org/mask-4-health-nepal

Thanks!

21/11/2020
United Nations: ‘All this needs to change… now’
Chhaupadi: a particular form of hard violence against women. International Day to eliminate violence against women: panel discussion online and presentation with international guests who speak about women and menstruation in Nepal, entry by contributing €5 to the project.

In the United Nations message for the International Day to eliminate violence against women, the General Secretary António Guterres, denounces the “sexual type abuse and because of being a female, violence, rape, one of the most horrible, persistent and generalized human rights violation, affecting one in every three women in the world. “The violence against women and girls is rooted in centuries of male domination. Let us not forget that the gender inequalities that fuel violence culture are essentially a question of power imbalances”. “The stigma, erroneous ideas, the lack of information and the non fulfilment of the laws, only perpetuate impunity”.

The be artsy project has covered, by explaining about it, a lesser known form of violence against women, the Chhaupadi. Not only: we work since 2017 in an educative program that has showed its effectiveness in eradicating this practice in Nepal, based in workshops, awareness activities, participative photography, and empowerment for girls. To very much summarize what is our main project, the Rato Baltin Project, which we accompany by other interrelated parallel projects, in November, the month of the International Day to eliminate violence against women, we denounce all forms of violence, amongst them this terrible practice of extreme discrimination towards women just because they are female. We denounce, and work in situ in Nepal to eradicate this practice. Your support helps us to be effective in fighting against these forms of cultural, physical and daily violence.

Be artsy organizes, next Saturday the 7th of November, at 15h (UTC), an online discussion panel and exhibition, with international guests that shall speak about women and menstruation in Nepal, with entry by contributing €5 to the project: https://donorbox.org/charity-event

In November, be artsy proposes more activities within the frame of the International Day to eliminate violence against women. On the 28th, a documentary will be released and be artsy will offer an exhibition online that can be followed in three languages, and on the 19th Clara Garcia i Ortés, co-founder and president of the association, will participate via a discussion panel, on one of the 10 subjects treated at the World Toilet Summit, about hygiene personal spaces: that about menstrual hygiene management. 2,300 million people do not have access to a bathroom offering good sanitary conditions and personal dignity, according to the United Nations.
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Translation by Tere Salinero
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We need your help, please. Make your donation to the Rato Baltin and Edufem projects today.

Crowdfunding: https://www.migranodearena.org/reto/21328/contra-el-chhaupadi-la-tradicion-nepali-que-exilia-a-las-mujeres-durante-la-menstruacion

Teaming (1 euro/month)

RatoBaltin: https://www.teaming.net/ratobaltinproject

Edufem to prevent early marriage: https://www.teaming.net/edufemproject

Associate: – https://beartsy.org/associate /

Donorbox: –https://donorbox.org/againts-chhaupadi – https://donorbox.org/edufem – Covid-19 https://donorbox.org/mask-4-health-nepal Thanks!
01/11/2020
Thanks so much Himalayan Paradise!
In times of crisis, solidarity is one of the most precious values and, even more, in these times of Covid-19, in which sustainable and respectful projects with the environment and with people like Himalayan Paradise help us to continue helping.

Himalayan Paradise believes in fair trade, cultural exchange and a more equitable world, which it recreates not only in its Barcelona store, but also in their actions, which, for example, have allowed us to provide food to nearly 250 people!

Thank you very much, Himalayan Paradise, for your continuous collaboration!

Thanks for joining us year after year!
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By Luisa Tejada
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There are several ways in which you can get involved with our projects and help girls in Achham:

Teaming Group: 1 euro a month – become part of Rato Baltin Project!

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

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

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

🙂 Thanks
27/07/2020
Emergency in Achham, Nepal. Masks 4 Health and food against Covid-19
We are in Nepal, on the ground, weaving a network of women who sew and distribute masks 😷 so that when the biggest part of the pandemic arrives, probably in late autumn, the area will be more prepared with this contribution.

At the moment there are few cases, but the country does not have hospitals or how to deal with it, so precaution will be the best solution. We also will work in passing on comprehensible messages about the precautions, physical distancing, hands hygiene, and clear information about the real dangers.

And we can, with your donation, help to provide food for hundreds of returnees from India, now in quarantine centres (schools). There is a food emergency (read Food for returnees Project) where the municipalities have not enough resources. You can read here our Mask 4 Health Project.

With only 3 euros you can help us to respond to the problem of covid19🦠 in west Nepal.

Please donate now: You can give in your own currency from this convenient web: https://donorbox.org/mask-4-health-nepal

Thank you 🙏🏽
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Text by Clara Garcia i Ortés, photos by Rohina Bandhari.
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There are several ways in which you can get involved with our projects and help girls in Achham:

Teaming Group: 1 euro a month – become part of Rato Baltin Project!

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

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

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

🙂 Thanks!
10/06/2020
Project 2020: promoting local leadership, facing the changes
The Rato Baltin Project is on site since the beginning of 2017, working to eradicate the Nepalese cultural practice establishing that during the menstruation, girls and women are considered impure, and are deprived of their basic needs. This practice is penalized since 2018, but they will never denounce, because that would be denouncing their mother, their father, their mother-in-law… Nobody in be artsy uses the term ‘Chhaupadi’ without the participants mentioning it before: menstruation, different from the tradition. Be artsy – Nepal shall take a leadership role in the evaluation of the project, in order to ensure a non-biased perspective on the results, and determine the efficacy of the project.

We have also 🦠 COVID19 response project (Masks 4 Health) 😷 🙏🏽

The project has been a success in Achham, and apart from the activities, it must ‘make noise’, to discuss menstruation and Chhaupadi in a context of change. In this link you can see the results from the year 2019, and we will continue in this line to set the project, to strengthen the impact in the areas we have already worked in, involving the community, also with boys groups. In new schools as well, located near the villages where we may have already worked.

Photography allows girls to showcase their own thoughts and experiences

be artsy trainers talking with girls about the menstrual cup.

Manisha and Clara in photography class.

A goup in a workshop.

We want to stimulate a critical dialogue on their worries, and it enables them to display and reflect their experiences in their communities. Be artsy and the Rato Baltin Project, being relatively new endeavours, has limited capacity for its implementation at a bigger scale.

The 2020 project is adapted to the lessons learned with the 2017, 2018 and 2019 projects, and taking into account the important new factors that have taken place this year worldwide.

We shall emphasize on the implication of the local communities of Achham, and working with local entities: eradicating the practice should not be by a foreigner cultural judgement. This would inhibit the efforts in matters such as hygiene, health and menstrual sexual education, and would finally have a negative impact. The local be artsy partner is formed by women so committed to the project that they themselves have created a social company. They are three Nepalese women who worked with be artsy last year, with studies in cooperation, business administration, and gender studies. Also, local girls do conform the trainers group, and they can be future managers. ROKPA International and Ruby Cup continue being our strategic partners.

Some members of be artsy are interested in a parallel project, and during some follow-up months, they will prepare with our local mentors a social theatre piece against the Chhaupadi.

Sangita

Sunita, Manisha Nath, Tejana.

Manisha, B. Tulasi, Kamala.

Six collaborators do benefit from the Edufem project, read about this new project here!

They will have the opportunity of having a better future and avoid an early marriage. They remember that they were our students and now are working with us. For those ready to continue studying but whose families were not able to pay their way through high school, we pay for that, and for the housing, uniform, food, etc. to avoid them being married too soon.

The total sum needed for the project is €74,230, without including the Edufem Project. It is higher this year because we want that two girls, in each village, do work throughout the year as social facilitators to attack directly the issue of the Chhaupadi, apart from the trainers. A single person cannot, with the existing social pressure, keep her mind strong against the tradition. If we do not have all the money we need, we shall do this every two months, but it would not be that effective. The expense for each of the 4 teams we have is €18,557.

We shall work on the social distancing and hand hygiene messages

We part from the idea that in Nepal, the peak of the Covid-19 shall arrive at the start of this next winter; we wanted to have a network of women sewing face masks, but that is complicated; it should be the Town Halls themselves facilitating the resources. Our contribution will mostly be to pass on comprehensible messages about the precautions, social distancing, hand hygiene, and clear information about the real dangers.

Conferences with film screenings and exhibitions in several Catalan towns

We have started working to create awareness, with conferences and exhibitions in several Catalan towns, on the problems relating to the Chhaupadi, avoiding ethnocentric and patronizing arguments, to inform about our need for collaborations. We do still need support, from more people!

You can read here our project for 2020. Thanks!
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Text by Josep Marín, photos by Clara Garcia i Ortés.
Translation by Tere Salinero.
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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 Rato Baltin Project!

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

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

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

🙂 Thanks!
03/05/2020
Nepalese women explain with images how they experience menstruation, isolated because they are impure.
05/02/2020

Les dones nepaleses expliquen amb imatges com viuen la menstruació, aïllades perquè són impures.

L’exposició “La menstruació al Nepal: un turment cultural” es pot veure a la biblioteca del districte 2 (Bd2) fins al 28 de febrer. És un dels actes de la programació del Mes de la Pau, organitzada per la Regidoria de Solidaritat i Cooperació i la BCT Xarxa per difondre els valors de l’educació per la pau, la solidaritat i el respecte als drets humans.

La mostra resumeix en fotografies com les dones de l’occident nepalès i les dones europees viuen el fet de tenir la regla. Al Nepal estan sotmeses a la tradició Chhaupadi, una pràctica centenària que desterra nenes i dones a cabanes o coberts durant la seva menstruació. Se les allunya perquè se les considera impures.

L’objectiu d’aquesta entitat és mitigar les conseqüències d’aquesta tradició a través de l’educació, l’ús de copes menstruals i l’art. Be artsy és una petita ONG amb seu a Barcelona que va néixer per desenvolupar aquest projecte (Rato Baltin Projecte). A banda de la mostra, la Bd2 acollirà una xerrada sobre aquest tema el 24 de febrer a les 6 de la tarda.
News publiched in Terrasadigital.cat
02/05/2020
We must be many more Teamers!
We have sent the proceedings from the Teaming Group, where the people that help us contribute with €1 per month to the Rato Baltin Project of be artsy.

With this contributions, we add resources to the project and help it grow and consolidate. Rohini Bhandary and Hiukala Chalaune, our trainers from Turmakhand and Mangalsen, have followed with the project this winter, and also training new users of the Ruby Cup menstrual cup. Our project is showing itself effective in eradicating the tradition of Chhaupadi, which penetrates across a large part of Nepalese society, and because of it, girls and women are strongly discriminated when they have the menstruation. With our project, the girls and the communities themselves do determine the need for changes.

The money we have sent has been used to cover the expenses and salaries of the winter training in Mangalsen (we have distributed 136 menstrual cups), and in Turmakhand (17 menstrual cups). Our trainer Hiukala and our collaborator Rupa Pandei do explain all of it. The contribution of €1 monthly from each of our Teamers is very important, because without it this would not have been possible. Help the Rato Baltin project. In 3 years we reached 13.700 direct beneficiaries, and more than 2.075 users of the menstrual cup.

We have created a separate group to pay for the school of the girls to whom we pay for school, home, food and English classes to give them a chance and prevent them from getting married at 17. Thank you!

A goup in a workshop.
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Text and photos by Clara Garcia i Ortés, translation by Tere Salinero.
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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 Rato Baltin Project!

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

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

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

🙂 Thanks!
17/04/2020

Thank you to WPML for supporting NGOs