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  • 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! 🙂

  • Achham: Training for the trainers and mentors for the 2019 workshops

    Achham: Training for the trainers and mentors for the 2019 workshops

    We finally made our first trip to Achham. This year the team is huge. We are in Sanphebagar and we have 10 days of training for the trainers and mentors who will be providing workshops in schools in Achham this year.

    Our great 2019 team:

    · 5 foreign volunteers: Maisie, Anne, Claudia (nurse) Eleonora (anthropology student), and Beatriz (menstrual therapist)
    · 2 project coordinators in Achham: Tejana, and Manisha
    · 6 trainers: Hiunkala, Ganga, Dambara, Juna, Rohina, and Basanti
    · 12 mentors: Tulsi, Manisha, Sangita, Lalita, Kamala, Goma, Bhagwati, Nita, Urmila, Rabina, Janaki, and Krishna
    · 1 photographer: Uma
    · 2 interns: Raunika, and Rupa (CEO assistent)
    · CEO of the project: Clara

    The buckets arrived two days later than expected and the menstrual cups also arrived late, but that’s how Nepal is. Luckily, everything arrived. We took advantage of the delay to prepare the routines and processes.

    It is very important that the trainers know exactly what they will be teaching. However, they have not been to the school and have not done the workshops. It is for this reason that we have the mentors. The mentors are girls between the ages of 16 and 18 who attended the workshops in previous years in Mangalsen. They assist the trainers and are a great help.

    On the third day, we met with the mentors and trainers in a small room at the hotel where we were staying. We went over what we will do during the first day of the workshops. We will present the project and play a game to help us bond. We will then discuss puberty, anatomy, and the menstrual cycle. We watched the film Monthlies, and taught the trainers how to use the projectors.

    The next day, we went over what we would be doing on the second day of the workshops. We practiced the meditation we will do with the boys. The trainers practiced with us to gain confidence and it went very well. While the boys meditate outside, the girls will stay in class and write what they like and don’t like about menstruating. We will use this information to make a problem/solution tree. The mentors already know how to do this and will teach the trainers.

    We continue with sex education, working as openly as possible because we know that the students at school are very curious and it is important that the trainers and mentors are prepared to respond to all types of questions. We also use questions from other years like, “How does a woman masturbate?”

    We talk about sexually transmitted diseases and methods of contraception, putting emphasis on the use of condoms because in this area the HIV rate is very high. When we explain how to put condoms on, it creates a lot of laughter and helps everyone to relax.

    We also talk about sex, gender, and sexual orientation, which is a taboo topic in Nepal. It took us a day longer than expected to finish the syllabus. We spent a lot of time planning the 6 days of the workshop. We went into detail about the menstrual cycle, the changes that come with it, and the tools we can use to keep track of it. We also discussed menstrual hygiene, menstrual products, pain management, and the importance of nutrition during the menstrual cycle.

    We discussed the topic of photography with Uma, who taught the trainers so that they can later explain it to the girls at the schools.

    We also taught them about the menstrual cup: what it is, how it works, and how to explain it easily.

    Two guests from the Possible Health (a local NGO in the hospital) in Sanphebagar came to train the team in stress control and first aid. It will be the first time that some of these girls spend so much time away from home and it is important that they feel well.

    On the seventh day, the trainers explained part of the syllabus so that we could go over it together and see what needed to be corrected. In the afternoon, Anne, with the help of Rupa and Raunika as translators, explained how to use the tablet. We all helped each other learn.

    To help the team feel more confident, we went to practice at a school. The second day we practiced, everyone was less nervous and it went better. The trainers are getting more confident.

    On the day that we had to leave, there were not any jeeps for us to take, so we took advantage of the extra time to go over the use of Kotolbox, the application that allows us to digitalize the data. The mentors upload the data so that it is in the cloud and can be used.

    The last day we bought brownies for the team 🙂, there are brownies in Saphebagar!

    There is still a lot of work left. We still have to go to the villages and teach workshops using the information learned during the training days, but we know that everything we do is important for these women.

     

    Written by Beatriz San Roman and Clara Alberta Pinilla
Photos by Clara Garcia Ortés. Translation by Maisei Still and Shae Citte

    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! 🙂

  • Trip to adapt the project to the conditions at the time we start the Rato Baltin 2019 execution

    Trip to adapt the project to the conditions at the time we start the Rato Baltin 2019 execution

    We are really happy at this time when are writing this note for the web. two weeks ago we did a quick travel to Achham (8 days) to see the work done by the new trainers and how were the conditions to arrive and work in the new municipalities.

    To the ones that have not read our project proposal for this 2019: we want to arrive to 6 different municipalities. In each one we want to work in 3 villages. And with that in mind, we trained last September 6 new trainers in order to have 6 different work teams at the same time in Achham district to make as much noise as possible and try to avoid any girl’s death in the next rainy season and next winter.

    If you are reading this but you don’t know what we do: you should read this page 🙂 but, summarizing, since 2016 we are working against  Chhaupadi with menstrual cups, participative photography and education. In Nepal, placing menstruating girls and women in sheds or huts is a centuries-old tradition called Chhaupadi, practised in the western parts of the Hindu-majority country.

    The practise is based on the belief that women took upon themselves part of the guilt of the Hindu god Indra for a murder he committed. Hindu literature and scriptures, including Chanakya Neeti, Manusmriti and Garuda Purana, mention that menstrual blood is impure. During their periods, women are considered impure, dirty, contaminated and bad luck.

    Menstruating women in West-Nepal are not allowed to touch nutritious food and in some places are instead offered beaten rice and salt. They can’t touch their husbands, other family members, water sources, fruit trees or cattle, among other things.

    Extreme temperatures expose them to health problems including pneumonia, diarrhea, chest and respiratory tract infection. Every year 3 or 4 women die during this banishment, because of asphyxiation, hypothermia, snakebites or other wild animal attacks, and nobody knows the true numbers of how many are raped.

    The project was prepared to cover as many municipalities as we could have money for. At this moment we have the money for just 3 municipalities, but we have been preparing ourselves for 4 minimum. We have faith that thanks to all of you we will get the money for those 4 or even 5!

     

    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! 🙂

     

    As I was explaining, we visited 4 municipalities: Turmakhand, Dhakari, Mangalsen and Sanphebagar. 9 villages within these 4 municipalities (we could not reach 3 because it had been raining cats and dogs for the 2 previous days and the roads were impossible). The other 2 municipalities (Kamalbazar and Chaurpati) are ready to begin the project if we find the money, otherwise the trainers will help in other municipality and next year they will be perfectly ready to undertake the project at home.

    The places are remote and beautiful! Each one of them has different things to offer, but all of them are of an exuberant beauty! We met 5 of the 6 trainers (the one from the rainy municipality we could not visit, but we are in contact by phone).

    We met as well one of our 3 coordinators:  menstrual cup users from the first year that in 2018 worked with us as mentor and this year has been helping to prepare the project at the same time as studying class 11 in Mangalsen.
    And we met and talked with the principals from all the government schools where we are going to work, the Chairpersons from all the municipalities, health staff, teachers and a lot of other people.

    We had really interesting conversations about what we have been doing for the lasts years and what will we do during this one and everybody is really happy, willing to help as much as they can and excited to have us in their municipalities.

    The reality is that all the Awareness Projects they do against Chhaupadi have really poor results and ours has a hight rate of girls changing the tradition! So everybody is excited to see if we can begin to change that in more places and with a more continuous presence of our trainers on the field (they are all local women).

    Written and photos by Clara Garcia Ortés,
corrected by Tere Salinero.

     

     

  • 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 Rato Baltin Project Financial Report

    2018 Rato Baltin Project Financial Report

    We’ve come to an end of another year and it’s time to properly thank the people who have helped make it a memorable year.

    Our project began with the simple idea of providing basics to a woman during her menstrual period. In Nepal’s context, it is a topic that has long needed to be addressed, a subject considered taboo, but in today’s modern world need not be. It is time for change.

    Our project has focused on breaking down long held taboos, raising awareness about the subject, empowering the women of West Nepal, and offering real solutions. In 2018 we provided 321 Ruby cups to women and our journey is far from over!

    But first, to our donors and volunteers we would like to thank you from the depths of our heart for helping to drive positive change! Your support has been critical. You can read here the report 2018.

    Times are changing and there is no place in today’s modern world for taboos around menstruation to continue. With your continued support we will continue with our important work.

    Written by Akash Thapa, corrected by Monica Parekh

    Budget evaluation

    Description

    Estimate Cost

    Total Cost

    Salaries – Local staff

    Rs 462.000

    Rs 588.576

    Supplies and workshop resources + cups for women

    Rs 340.650

    Rs 589.934,84

    Utilities, bureaucracy + food and accommodation

    Rs 660.060

    Rs 822.951,5

    Transportation

    Rs 290.000

    Rs 323.450

    Total NPR

    Rs 1.753.250

    Rs 2.324.912,34

    Total Euro

    15.246 €

    €18.306,39

    General expenses – 10% of total Euro

    1524 €

    €1830

    Grand Total

    16.770 €

    € 20.136,39

    Exchange Rate: 1 Euro = 115 NPR (Rs)

    Exchange Rate: 1 Euro = 127 NPR (Rs)

     

    The 2018 budget exceeded the initial proposed expenditure by 3366,39 Euros. With a stronger than expected Euro – NPR exchange rate, which had been estimated based on the year previous, we exchanged at a rate of 127 in place of 115. If the exchange rate had stayed at 115, we would have instead exceeded the budget by 6000€ or more!

    There were four reasons for exceeding the budget to such an extent

    1 – In the first trip, we had seen the need for two nurses in place of one. Moreover, the school groups we were interacting with were large and quite difficult to manage at our then capacity. We therefore hired two older cup users as local mentors to assist the nurses.

    2 – The September follow up trip was more expensive than foreseen. As we showcased a film in the villages, we we had to buy fruits, sweets, and tea (in some case ‘iogurg’ to make banana lassi) for the communities, so that they would come to see the film and participate happily after not being present for so long.

    3 – When we saw that the Kathmandu nurses did not want to go back to Achham, no matter how much we had been paying, we decided to invest in a special training for six new Achhami trainers and six mentors. A menstrual therapist travelled from Spain to teach a more open minded way of seeing menstruation to the new trainers.

    4 – We spent more that we wanted to in official paperwork and administration in Nepal, due to the requirements of the Social Welfare Council (SJW) laws and guarantees.

     

    Where did the budget come from?

    BE ARTSY 2018 PROJECT IMPACT EVALUATION. RATO BALTIN PROJECT

    50% of our Project funding came from our partner ROKPA International. The rest came from our Associates and private donors. Ruby Cup gave us 250 Cups for the Spring Project, and 150 more in August to do an earlier training to female teachers and nurses in the 2019 villages. The cost of these cups on the European market would be 10.080 €.The three main partners of this project have been collaborating similarly. Next year, Ruby Cup will a donate 3000 menstrual cups. On the European market, the 2019 donation from Ruby Cup would be 81.000€.

     

    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.
  • Training in Sahara Children Home (Dhulikhel)

    Training in Sahara Children Home (Dhulikhel)

    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’ condition. It was a really interesting point to begin the training through our associate, the Spanish Menstrual Therapist Beatriz San Roman.

    Beatriz was here to train our nurses, trainers and mentors in another way to teach menstrual health. (La casita sanadora)

    She had taught the girls how to know our bodies better. She had a model pubis made of cloth, like a cushion, which aroused laughter among all the attendees. This allowed the girls to touch and understand what and where their vulva is, as well as their their clitoris, their fundamental anatomy.

    As in the villages, we went through the likes and dislikes about their menstruation, to see how different girls from around Kathmandu are from the girls in West Nepal where our Project is established. Girls here care about their body, whereas in West Nepal, they care about the chhaupadi tradition.

    Here girls can be girls. Their, girls are forced to feel impure and stop thinking about normal things for a menstruating person to think about. They begin to think “I can not touch water”, “I can not enter the house”, etc.

    We also explained how much plastic is in a normal pad, and conducted a menstrual cup training alongside how to use reusables menstrual pads.

    The girls of the childrens home had the great luck of having been sponsored for the  training, plus provided with menstrual cups for both them and their caregivers, as well as with reusable menstual pads.

    We were really happy to have had the opportunity to teach the girls. Moreover, we are especially grateful to the sponsor of the training for giving the girls, as well as us, this opportunity.

    It was a great day. We finished the day off with a play we saw in the menstrupedia trainings, and had decided to use because it was so marvellous.

    The girls were given a piece of paper with 3 drops of the same colours, which when you folded, formed different patterns and mixed the colours.

    With this, we taught them that we are all similar, but unique.

    We have to love this uniqueness!

    If you are interested in having a similar workshop, please get in touch with us. Workshops can be done (at this moment!) around Kathmandu by our trainers, and in Catalonia by our associate Beatriz  (la casita sanadora).

    For more information you can write to us at info@beartsy.org 🙂 Thank you! <3

     

    (Photos at the bottom)

    
Text & Photos ©  Clara Garcia Ortés ,  Fujifilm TX20, Text Correction: 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/
    Thank You! 🙂

     

  • The girl that could not be touched by a menstruating girl

    The girl that could not be touched by a menstruating girl

    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 her vitals signs and she said she was not totally unconscious because she was responding to the environment. Afterwards, Anju asked the woman, who was the girl’s mother, about her history. She told us that it was a recurrent incident, caused when a menstruating girl touched her daughter.

    We asked if when the girl is menstruating has these kinds of episodes, and the mother told us ‘no’. It only happened when she was touched by another menstruating girl.

    We tried to give the girl Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), but she was holding her jaw closed. We were therefore unable to give her the ORS. The mother explained that usually when she had these kinds of episodes, they would give her some drops of cow’s urine and she would wake up a moment later…

    Anju asked the mother to bring the cow urine drop’s to see what would occur, as she couldn’t find any normal explanation for the girl’s state.

    The mother arrived with some cow urine and grass. After asking for the assistance of a small girl on the school grounds who was not menstruating (Kumari, 8 years old), the girl spilt the urine soaked grass on top of the unconscious girl, who began to open her eyes. Anju asked the girl her name, which she answered correctly. She was completely back to normal.

    The pressure of beliefs from both families and wider society is so strong and convincing that girls really think that if they don’t practice chhaupadi, something wrong will occur. In this case, the girl really believes that she loses consciousness when a menstruating girl touches her.

    Written and photo © by Clara Go. Correction by Kristy Davies

    The girl that could not be touched by a menstruating girl

    Now you can contribute for paying one month salary to the nurse, or for some hygiene kit : https://www.gofundme.com/menstrual-cups-in-nepal-chhaupadi

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

    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/donate/

    Thank You! 🙂

  • Travel log: Oligaun, the most hard Achham

    Travel log: Oligaun, the most hard Achham

    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 our Mentors from Basti, and Manisha, one of our Mentors from Kunti, came with us. They have been using menstrual cups since the first Rato Baltin trip. Also with us was Uma Bista, a photojournalist that helped us a little with the photo workshop during part of our stay in town.

    In the health post at the first contact, we explained about the cup. They were really interested and we asked them some questions about women here. They explained to us that girls and women here were educated and nobody slept outside. When we left, one of our nurses told us: “Let’s see, I don’t think this is so”. I told them: “If they didn’t, it would be great news that in this part of Achham they have eradicated chhaupadi, but I have already seen Chhaugots on our way here”.

    The reality is that here chhaupadi is more normalised and more accepted. Like in other places, women are the ones that want to do it, but men don’t do anything to stop the practice. They speak about it like it is a joke. There is so much work to do here, but we were not really happy about what we felt we could do.

    The classes ran with some difficulties. Sometimes teachers seemed to not want to be involved, for them, the normal curriculum is the most important thing and girls needs come second. We learnt a lot here: the girls accepted chhaupadi, so, at the beginning they didn’t find learning about menstruation interesting. After they knew about the menstrual cup, this changed a little. In classes 10 and 9 girls weren’t really interested at the beginning, but by the end were really happy with the participative photography results and with our video from the closing ceremony.

    In the menstrual cup training we had 95 girls, but we couldn’t give one to every girls as we didn’t have enough. We could give 61 cups to the girls in school plus the women’s group.

    With the girls here we saw that there had been some changes in chhaupadi. Before they stayed in small goat sheds on the ground floor, but nowadays some of them are on the first floor. We saw too that the chhaugoats here are bigger than the ones in KuntiBandali, or the remaining ones in Basti.

    We have been trying to set up a men’s group, but this has still been unsuccessful. In some places a teacher may try to help us, but nothing works, the men did not come. Here in Oligaun it has been impossible to do it. However, we had small conversations with different groups of men, where we spoke about the importance of help from them to assist doctors and community leaders to stop the practice. We spoke openly about rape, about how many drunks have abused girls in the chhaugots, and I think that touched them. We told them that we are not from the community, that they were the ones that should do something about the problem. Let’s hope that they will try to do something.

    We will try to involve more girls, women and men in Kalagaun, our next village, but it is time to plant the rise and we are a little scared whether they will make time for us.

    Two months in the field is a really hard experience, but we try to have as much fun as we can. We are enjoying the simple life in the villages and the smiles from children – Sano Manche (small people), as our nurse Anju likes to call them.

    Written, and photos with Fujifilm XT20, © by Clara Go.
Correction by Kristy Davies

    Now you can contribute for paying one month salary to the nurse, or for some hygiene kit : https://www.gofundme.com/menstrual-cups-in-nepal-chhaupadi

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

    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/donate/

    Thank You! 🙂