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
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! 🙂