Simon and Judith with VSO, Nepal: Monthly dilemmas and Training for Big Sisters

Sarita, Ann and I set off from Besishahar at 8am for 30 minutes on a local bus and alighted near a hydro power reservoir. The first part of the walk is a joy, down steps to a suspension bridge, similar to the one below, and then we started to walk up a gentle incline between terraces. We soon began the climb which gets steeper and steeper. The forested areas give us some welcome shade and we reach a bit of a plateau. On my first visit I thought that we had nearly arrived, but no, there is another tough climb as we get hotter, arriving about 2 hours 30 minutes later in a muck sweat!!

Samjhana and team heading to a similar workshop

Having eaten porridge this morning I am ready to start but this is not acceptable. We are invited to eat dal bhat at the house of the female focal teacher and it would be rude to refuse. The Sister for Sisters project has 3 Adult Champions in each group, an Uncle, Auntie and Female Focal Teacher. The latter is the link between and Big Sisters, Global Action Nepal team and the school. Here in Hiletaksar she is also the Assistant Headteacher, an unusual situation, an English teacher and a very good role model for the project.

After dal bhat with Sarita, Khambi and Ann

Sarita and I have come to run a Women's Health and Menstruation Workshop at Hiletaksar.

(Ann has joined us to do some monitoring and teacher training at the school.)

The Sister for Sister project is being run in 4 districts of Nepal where there is a negative trend in retention of girls in education and female literacy is poor (39.9%). Attitudes towards menstruation and access to sanitary facilities, gender inequality and harassment are stated as reasons for girls drop-out. Early child marriage (arranged and elopement) is also a real problem with some girls getting married as young as 12 years old ( the age is gradually increasing but is still a real issue ).

Following an inspiring presentation, to VSO volunteers, by a female Nepali

Doctor who specialises in Women's Health, I decided to bring this information to our groups.

Little did I imagine how well it would be received by the Community Mobilisers, Big Sisters, Female school staff and Adult Champions.

Although there is a page in school science books there is no teaching in school and this forum for information and discussion has been very exciting. I used the Doctor's presentation and made it appropriate for our target audience. I have been amazed at how keen the ladies are to share worries, misunderstandings and cultural practices. Today, fortunately, there is very limited practice of Chaupadi in the Lamjung region. This is a cultural practice of women being banished, whilst menstruating, to a goat shed or similar. They are not allowed to see the male members of the family, not permitted to prepare food, touch livestock or crops. This is still common in West Nepal and in some areas of the flat Terai region.

However in some of the ethnic groups in Lamjung, girls still miss a considerable amount of school when they first menstruate. They are sent to another woman's house, of a lower caste, where they spend 10 days for the first, 7 and then 5 days for subsequent periods away from their families in a dark room with no time outside. They are visited by female members of the family and brought food but are otherwise banished.

So today we go back down to school where we meet the ladies who are unsure what to expect from this old "Bideshi" woman. I quickly put them at ease and we are soon laughing, usually at my own expense, and sharing. The Health Post Nurse was a great asset to the group.

We are joined by a lovely young Health Post nurse and an American Peace Corps volunteer.

Having gone into quite some detail of anatomy, menstrual cycle, hygiene and how to prepare our Little Sisters we move on to challenges. There are more here than at home. The state of the toilets in many of the schools allows no privacy and the lack of water at some is obviously a huge problem. So many girls stay at home at this time of the month.

At another school......This looks hopeful but no water and the locks are on the outside!

A communal girls squat toilet with no water

The Doctor also told us that there is a great number of prolapses in Nepal due in part to the squatting habit while working, women carrying extremely heavy loads, early childbirth and other causes. We covered these subjects and finished by learning how to do pelvic floor exercises - another excuse to laugh!!

No I hadn't been knock out, it was tika on my head!! Someone's got to do it!!

Then onto the practical session. I forgot to say that I had carried a rucksack full of material and sewing equipment. The making or re-useble, cloth sanitary pads is an amazing "hit". There are many problems which I will not go into in this forum but you might notice that I have chosen red cloth. The idea is that these can be hung out in the sun which is normally taboo, so the sun can do it's natural sterilising good.