Art for Social Change
Testimonial write in Nepali by Rupa Pandey, after the Nepali one you can read the English translation. Just like every other day, on January the 11th, 2019, I was checking my Facebook and suddenly a post drew my attention: that post was about the Rato Baltin Project, about the menstrual tradition “Chhaupadi”, which is still […]
One day, in the Facebook of the university where I am studying a degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology, I read a note where it said that they were looking for anthropologist volunteers for a project in Nepal. This name, Nepal, caught my attention; a country that I really like, that I have visited seven times […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
For many of the global population of women and girls, menstruation is time of stress and shame. Some women and girls not only have limited access to and knowledge of clean menstrual management resources and safe, private spaces to dispose of materials, but they consider both themselves and menstruation itself as dirty and shameful. To […]