Strength TogetHER 17 - Session 2

 

                                  

November 27, 2021

कहिलेकाँही हैन, कहिले पनि हुँदैन !

Every year, 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is observed globally from November 25 to December 10. The global theme for this year is “Orange the world: End Violence Against Women Now.”

As a part of this activism, Lokopakar in partnership with Zonta Club of Kathmandu conducted a session titled “कहिलेकाँही हैन, कहिले पनि हुँदैन !” for the girls of Strength TogetHER Cohort 17 in Jumla in order to understand the scenario of women violence there and provide possible help to bring a change. Zonta Club is a legally registered NGO that has been working on the advancement of the status of women with the objective to improve the economy, education, health, and issues related to youth and violence against women.

Strength TogetHER is one of Lokopakar’s programs that provides a safe space for girls to share their personal stories and experiences to bring changes in their attitudes. 

We started the session at 10 AM with all our excitement and we were eager to hear stories of our participants of Cohort 17. The session was moderated by Ms. Ratna Karki in the presence of Ms.Bina Rana, Ms. Moon Pradhan, Ms. Sahara Joshi, and Ms. Sheba Rana from Zonta Club of Kathmandu. Our moderator of the session, Ms. Ratna Karki, is an advocate by profession who has actively engaged in empowering women by fighting legal battles for them. 

We started the session by presenting four videos on women's violence which were produced by the Zonta Club of Kathmandu. After the videos, our moderator asked the participants about their understanding of the video. With great enthusiasm, our participants replied the videos were based on Domestic Violence, Public Place Harassment, Workplace Harassment, and Child Marriage.

The entire session was divided into 4 parts based on these topics where our participants voluntarily started sharing their stories.

We started by hearing the stories about Domestic Violence. One of our participants shared how she has been experiencing domestic violence within her own family. Her mother is abused by her alcoholic father and she can’t even raise her voice because it is her own family. As a child she always thought it will stop but it never did. Recently she tried to stop her father from beating her mother but her elder brother shouted at her. She said she will complain to the police but her father said, 'At the end you are going to come to my home even if you complain to police or other.' Our moderator guided how both domestic violence and change begin at home. Hence, she should not stop speaking up. She could also take help from local authorities and be careful enough about what steps she will take.

Moving forward, we started discussing Public Place Harassment and how these girls at Jumla have encountered it. Two of our participants shared the same story where the boys from the village catcall, touch them in an inappropriate way making them feel uncomfortable, and pull the shawls of their Kurthas in the annual Mela. One of our participants raised her voice and shouted at them. Our moderator, Ms. Karki appreciated how she stood for herself.

The next part was about Harassment at Workplace. Our girls are still pursuing their education hence they have not been through this. Our moderator explained how they could be harassed when they start working and made them realize that there are laws against such Workplace Harassment.

The final part of the session was the most significant session as we talked about one of the issues that the youngsters face there: Child Marriage. Girls and boys are married before they reach 20 affecting the lives of both. Our girls shared how people around them have already started to talk about their marriage as they are in their late teens. One of our participants shared how her cousin was forced to marry even though she explained that this is not the right age for him to get married. Now he has been involved in drug abuse and the family regrets it. She even suggested to her friend not to get married so soon. As a result, she has now applied to the Forestry Department.

Our moderator Ms. Ratna Karki put forward how we can file cases against violence for us and for the people around us. She shared the list of phone numbers of 14 advocates who could provide legal help on violence to our girls when required. The girls could also dial 100 or 1145 on their phones for help. 

We were overwhelmed by the stories shared by our participants and feel really grateful for trusting our safe space to share their stories. These stories are what inspire us to grow more and learn more every day. This session gave us a wonderful opportunity to explore Jumla and strengthen our girls TogetHER.