Art for Social Change
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On Sunday we trained the women’s group how to use the menstrual cup. Many young married girls came to the training, but not with the profile we really wanted to target: poor girls that could not go to school because of poverty or being married. There are two reasons why this group may not have […]
The first week in Janalibandali has been very intense, even too much. On arrival, we had several meetings with local liders, the nurse and the teachers. On Saturday they organized traditional dances and music, the lyrics of which was (like in Basti) absolutely against the Chhaupadi. We have been making groups of boys and girls […]
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 the end of June, after our trip back from Kalikot, I was impatient, for September to arrive and go back to Achham and Kalikot to check on the results. Each time we return to the villages, the accumulated tiredness there, and all the things I have seen and experienced do take their toll. Many […]
21-8-17. Because in as Rachuli we couldn’t work with the group of women, here, in chilkhaya I didn’t accepted a no as answer, and i propose to do it, even if it was only for 2 days and at the the time that they wanted, and they accepted. It was not very numerous, because it was […]
If at all anywhere, we had a list of girls who wanted menstrual cups, from way back, it has been in Chilkhaya. As we explained in the last article, the classes were a minimum of 70 participants, the majority of these being girls. In this case though, each day we had a minimum of 100 […]