We are already working in the 2021 project

2020 has been like a parenthesis, but work hasn’t stopped! If we look back to the last twenty years, Nepal has ratified the Beijing Platform for Action, and the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The Nepalese women literacy rate has passed from the 25% in 1991 to the 57% in 2011; the maternal and infant mortality ratio decreased from 539 maternal deaths for each 100,000 live births to 170 in the same period. And the life expectancy for the women has increased from 55.5 years to 70. These statistics show the political will to improve gender equality and the quality of life for women in the country. The be artsy projects address education at a local level, against inequality towards women causing the Chhaupadi, which still prevails. And which aggravates it.

We are working since 2017 in the Rato Baltin (Red Bucket) project, and more recently, in other parallel projects, but interrelated: Edufem, and activities against the effects of the pandemic. We have associated ourselves with local NGOs, in the remote communities in West Nepal. We have seen the need for the project, to bring it to more municipalities of Achham. The results in Achham are just the beginning, we want to reach as many villages as possible. You can see the details of the 2021 Project in this link (pdf).

Through the creation and implementation of partnerships and workshop trainings, be artsy will pursue the project objectives via:

● Partnering with a socially conscious menstrual cup supplier to donate menstrual cups to the beneficiaries
● Partnering with ROKPA International
● Associating with a Nepali social enterprise with women committed to the project – Be Artsy Nepal
● Providing girls, schooling or out of school, with menstrual cups, hygiene kits, and adequate training in their use and upkeep.
● Hiring and training local trainers and mentors, to work with communities through workshops and maintain ongoing follow-ups and work as social mobilizers monthly.
● Conducting workshop trainings in sex education and menstrual health for girls, women, and boys, with special emphasis on respect, dignity and self-knowledge.
● Using participative photography to engage girls and communities in the topic of menstruation and what can be improved for better health and self-care during their period.

In 2021, we will keep on working also in our own environment, and in international forums. With the World Toilet Organization, we have agreed in working to create a social enterprise and to establish a training centre in Achham. This will help women and girls who do not attend school to earn money, and, at the same time, could help to make the project more sustainable. That’s our Happy Women Project.

In summary, we want to go back to all those villages where we have already been educating in sex and menstruation, for the girls who did not receive our training with the workshops. There are also plans for a sexual education group, only boys. And getting to 3 new villages and schools, one in each municipality where we work, making a total of 17 villages where we will carry out our Rato Baltin Project in 2021.