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.
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!
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).
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.
Sanphebagar
Sanphebagar
Meditation helps in Saphebagar
Sanphebagar
Sanphebagar
Sanphebagar
Sanphebagar
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!
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).
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!
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).
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.
bus trip 22 hours + 18 usually!
Dhamali – Trainer – Achhami Partner – Clara and Principal from the school
Toshi – Trainer – Achhami Partner – Clara and Principal from the school
Dhungachalna – Trainer – Achhami Partner – Clara and Principal from the school
Major of Thumakand
Raniban – Trainer – Achhami Partner – Clara and Principal and teachers from the school
Hichma – Trainer – Achhami Partner – Clara and Principal from the school
Dhakari – Trainer – Achhami Partner – Clara and Principal from the school
Mangalsen Major
Sanphebagar municipality with vice chairperson
On our way to Turmakhan
On our way to Turmakhan
On our way to Turmakhan, the Karnali river
On our way to Turmakhan, the Karnali river, pero ya en el otro lado, ya lo hemos cruzado
Dhamali – First village of Turmakhan
On the way to Raniban – second village of Turmakhan
On the way to Raniban – second village of Turmakhan
Raniban – second village of Turmakhan
Raniban – second village of Turmakhan
Raniban – second village of Turmakhan
We went back at night and on the mountain roads there are no signs. The driver of the jeep went down to read the mountains to know where to throw
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.
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.
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).
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?
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!
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).
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!
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).
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.
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).
After Kunti Bandali, we went to Basti. This was Clara’s third time there. She explained to the team that going down is complicated, but that once you are there you don’t want to leave… It’s like another world. It’s a really remote (and hot) place, where life is hard but people are authentic and lovely.
Some of the volunteers had problems on the way down like Clara had predicated, but once they reached the people, they fell in love with them. The day we left, some village girls were really sad because we were going, as well as some volunteers. The rest told the girls, “see you in September!” 🙂
In Basti, we taught classes 6 and 7. We did the menstrual cup training to more than 20 new school girls, and 9 young women not in the school. It was a pity to see girls so young that had left school, in the best case, in class 5. When you ask them why they left, they usually answer: “Too much work to do, didi…”.
In September we will do the follow up to these two villages (Basti and Kunti), with the rest of the villages we are teaching during the spring. We are planning to go with a big screen and projector and show some films to empower the girls, and do some playful programs for all the community. That way they can all enjoy our visit, and we can again speak in a different way about women’s rights and menstruation. We are planning a collaboration with Photo.circle for that.
Let’s see how everything comes, but we have big expectations for this year and next years project! 🙂
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).
After Janalibandali we travelled to Kunti Bandali, where nothing was really new. We were only there teaching for four days. The first time we came here we taught two classes at the end of 2073 (it is now the beginning of 2075).
This time we taught classes 6 and 7, as well as a school girls group, menstrual cup training, and a young women’s group.
The school in Kunti was (as usual) strict with or timetables and their students. In this school discipline is an everyday thing. There were three periods every day, and we had to finish on time. Something really complicated, sometimes…
The school had finished its new building we had seen growing over our last two visits, and they now had a clean, beautiful library and hall.
The young women’s group was really interesting, made up of young women that were not attending the school. We think the menstrual cups we buy to give to women outside of the school could get good use here. The only thing we are not happy with is that they could only join us for one day because of work, and we are quite sure that the follow up will be more complicated that usual. But both Jamuna, a nurse, and the nurse in town, took responsibility of following up on time after our phone calls.
We completed the follow up with old users from Dashain in Jamuna’s house, which we also used to eat, sleep, and boil menstrual cups.
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).
We hope 2018 has begun with joy and harmony.
The whole be artsy team has started the year with great enthusiasm, as we have been working hard over the last few months to analyze the data collected during our last trip to assess the impact of the 2017 Rato Baltin project. We have been encouraged by what we have found, and are more committed now than ever in the fight against chhaupadi using sexual education, participatory photography and menstrual cups.
2017 was a great success! You can read about it here:
DESCRIPTION
In West Nepal, the lack of safe sanitary options often results in health problems and school absenteeism. Menstruation is a topic touched by embarrassment, insecurity, and degrading traditions for women like chhaupadi.
Chhaupadi is characterised by the banishment of women during menstruation from their usual residence, due to supposed ‘impurity’. It has been criticised for violating the basic human rights of women, and for associated physical and mental health impacts. Despite having been outlawed and criminalised, it continues to exist.
The Rato Baltin Project run by the NGO be artsy is a Menstrual Health Management (MHM) and sexual education program that aims to eradicate this practice. The Project includes girls, boys, women and their communities in its design.Atb eartsy ,webelievethateducationistheonlywaytochangethesedeeplyheldbeliefs.
The project has a four-tiered approach:
Workshop which provide sex education to both male and female teenagers in local schools of targeted communities
Hygienic education delivered through workshops to all women in targeted communities
Menstrual cups and training provided to volunteer girls attending school in targeted communities
Participatory photography workshops utilised to showcase how girls and women feel about chhaupadi and their periods, and what they would like to change about the experience
An important component of the Rato Baltin project is the distribution of a healthy and environmentally friendly solution to MHM in rural areas of Nepal: menstrual cups. Ruby Cup, a UK based company, are the manufacturers and donors of this life changing, medical grade silicone menstrual cup of the same name.
Twice a year, we visit remote villages to distribute menstrual cups and conduct hygiene and sexual education training. We also revisit villages to check in on those who have already received training and a cup to see what (if anything) has changed, and evaluate the results of the program.
We have already distributed more than 250 menstrual cups to school girls in remote villages. Each girl received a cup and training in how to use it. They are also given a metal bucket (baltin) to prepare clean water, and have somewhere to boil the cup.
Intended use of the evaluation
The intended use of the Rato Baltin project evaluation is to measure any changes in the lives of individual participants and communities targeted in the program, and assist in reaching new project donors for be artsy to achieve its aims in::
● Educating women, girls, boys and communities on sex, biology and HMH practices
● Reducing school absenteeism of girls in targeted remote communities of West Nepal
● Providing girls and women with tools to facilitate menstrual dignity
● Achieving long term project sustainability of the programFocus of the evaluationThe principal focus of the evaluation is to address the question of:
– What changes have occurred around the practice of chhaupadi in the lives of girls and communities after the implementation our program?
To ensure the program is based on best practice methodology and lessons learnt, the evaluation also aims to address the questions of:
How culturally accepted and sustained is the use of menstrual cups in the targeted remote communities of West Nepal?
What (if any) aspects of our program can be improved in design and/or implementation?
Data sources and methodology
Throughout the 2017 project implementation period, we have conducted monthly telephone follow-up calls with the volunteer menstrual cup users, as well as participating volunteer local teachers and nurses.
The be artsy Staff Nurse and volunteers have travelled to the targeted communities twice in 2017 to conduct face-to-face follow-up with the girls, in order to measure how implementation of the cup is progressing. During these trips, girls have completed surveys about changes they have experiences around chhaupadi since our first visit, and initial use of the ruby cup. Informal conversations with community members were also used to discern impressions of the use of menstrual cups and the impact of workshop training and education.
Girls that participated in the survey are users of the donated menstrual cups. However, our program has delivered workshop training and education to more than 1000 people since its commencement, in 4 villages: Basti, Kunti Bandali, Rachuli and Chilkhaya.
The results
CHHAUPADI:
Only 9 girls reported no change in their experience of the chhaupadi tradition after our program. The rest of the Ruby Cup users experienced some changes.
Some girls reported changes concerned access to food. Indeed, some girls reported they are now allowed to eat vegetables, some can eat fruits, and some can drink milk. A number of girls reported that after participating in our workshops, their mothers allowed them to have a warm blanket in the chhaugot (Hut), while some reported that they now sleep inside the house but in a separate room or space to other members of their family. A few girls reported that since the workshop trainings they are no longer required to participate in the exclusionary practices of chhaupadi, including being able to cook food.
Girls communicated that because they no longer bleed outside of the body when using the cup, everything is
cleaner, and both their families and themselves feel more self-confident. They attend school during their cycle, reducing their absenteeism, and actively try to help other girls in things related with menstruation.
Girls that did not report changes related to chhaupadi have seen their lives improve in other areas:
“ For me it is a positive experience. In my life this has brought some changes. My blood is not smelly also it is not bleeding out. And going to school is also easy with the cup.” ~ Bhawana Upadhya (Chilkhaya)
MENSTRUAL CUPS:
Of the 111 cups distributed between March and June 2017 to school girls in Achcham and Kalikot, 8 were confirmed as non-users. We were unable to personally contact 14 girls, but on their last follow-up call over the phone they reported they were still using their cups. A minimum of 2 of these girls have been married and now reside in India.
“I am happy that i got the opportunity to use the ruby cup.” ~ Binda B.K. (Rachuli)
REASONS FOR USING THE CUP:
– No fear of staining clothes
– No feeling that they are menstruating
– They do not have to worry about drying rags
– They do not feel self-conscious of having a bad smell
– It is easier to attend school as they do not need to carry any pads or replacement materials, nor hide anyrubbish
– Nobody knows they are menstruating, so they can engage in regular activities such as touching tapwater
– They feel cleaner than when using traditional methodsREASONS FOR NOT USING THE CUP:
– They are pregnant, but after the baby’s birth they want to begin using it again
– Some reported slight pain/feelings of discomfort
– Having lost it
– Superstitions at home:
▪ The house of one of the girls collapsed; a chaman told the family it was due to a bad spirit, and the family was not allowed to reenter. They were forced to leave the house, and in turn left the village. The cup user could not go inside to take their cup. When her family left she had already been married to someone in the village and now resides there. She asked us to provide her with another cup, which we did. She will continue going to school until she finishes grade 10.
EMERGENT MYTHS:
– A mother from Kunti Bandali communicated that she believes the cup will prevent girls from being raped during their menstruation, both when they are in the chhaugot and when they have to go into the jungle alone
– In Basti, some people were telling users not to use the cup because it might cause cancer when it is inside themWhat the girls think about our program:All girls feel more comfortable with their bodies after our workshop. They understand the biological processes and reasoning for what is happening, and many feel that they are now able to help other girls understand.
Most of the girls considered their participation in the program to have been a positive experience, and that their lives have changed for the better in using the cup.
In response to the question of “What would you change about Rato Baltin?”, most girls communicated that they would not change anything. Girls also rated the workshops on a scale of 0 – 10, with 0 being bad and 10 being excellent. Respondents rated the workshops with an average score of 9.
BUDGET EVALUATION
Description
Pr evist Cost
Total Cost
Salaries – Local staff
Rs 243.000,00
Rs 269.280
Supplies and workshop resources
Rs 121.280,00
Rs 184.967
Utilities
Rs 180.000,00
Rs 299.092
Transportation
Rs 227.436,00
Rs 288.741
Total NPR
Rs 771.716,00
Rs 1.042.080
Total Euro
6.710,57 €
9061,56 €
General expenses – 10% of total Euro
671,06 €
906,15 €
Grand Total
7.381,63 €
9967,71 €
Exchange Rate: 1 Euro = 115 NPR (Rs)
The 2017 budget exceeded the initial proposed expenditure by 2,586 Euros. This was the case for several reasons:1.b eartsy receivedanunexpectednewdonationof160menstrualcupsfromRubyCups
2. This donation led to the doubling of the expected amount of work and needed complementary resources, particularly in terms of the menstrual kits
3. Difficulty in finding volunteers to travel to West Nepal without financial compensation
5. Difficulty in contracting a staff nurse for only three to four months of the year requiring higher than expected remuneration
Great care was taken to adjust the budget and account for the increase in work and resources required by the unexpected donation, but a substantial increase was unavoidable to deliver the new cups.
Discussion and plan for the future
The results of the evaluation lead us to the conclusion that project is working well. Findings from the survey reveal our initial idea that the cups can break the taboos surrounding menstruation and chhaupadi was correct. However, our evaluation of the program also illustrates a need to implement some changes in the future.
We have seen the need to design a workshop component aimed at the men in targeted communities, in order to holistically disseminate MHM knowledge and education. We will pursue the design of a men’s group workshop to be delivered in 2018.
To see the full scope of the impact of the project among non-Ruby Cup users in communities, we will design a survey for all girls in participating schools, as well as the participants of the women’s group. This will be implemented in 2018.
be artsy is also aware of a large gap in the delivery of the program. The menstrual cups donated by Ruby Cup are to be disseminated among girls that attend school, as a way of addressing absenteeism and MHM. However, not every girl in targeted communities are able to attend school. For instance, some girls are married, must stay at home to assist their families with housework, or tend to family owned fields. be artsy will work to make the program and provision of menstrual cups more inclusive of all girls and their contexts. be artsy is considering implementing a chhaupadi and menstrual cup education program on college and university campuses to raise awareness of this issue, and fundraise for this component of the 2018 project. This will require the hiring of one or two persons for the entirety of 2018 to successful and sustainably implement.
We experienced problems working with our Nepali partner organisation, the Starts Foundation, throughout every stage of the 2017 Pilot Project. These difficulties in communication and delivery of agreed human and material resources rendered the implementation and evaluation phases difficult. Although the 2017 Pilot Project was successful thanks to the hard work of be artsy volunteers and President Clara Garcia Ortes, present in Nepal for 11 months of the year, it is necessary to consider other options to ensure effectiveness and accountability.
We have been working to establish a strong volunteer team assembled under the banner of a new Nepali NGO. This new Nepali NGO will be named: be artsy Kalaa Shakti Nepal (be artsy, the power of art).
In conclusion, in August of 2017, the Government of Nepal passed a law that punishes those forcing women to adhere to chhaupadi-mandated exile while menstruating with a fine of 3,000 Nepalese rupees or three months jail-time. Yet we believe that these advances will not have a significant impact on its prevalence. The practice of chhaupadi is strongly embedded in social norms and cultural practices. However, it is a significant step forward in the right direction on the political level, and represents a developing social change in opinion. Combined with programs such as Rato Baltin that address education on the local grassroots level in remote areas where the practice is still prevalent, we believe that there is significant potential for change into the future.
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Thank you very much for being with us, we will soon send you exciting news about the 2018 Rato Baltin project.
