Program Execution Report of Training on Dignified Menstruation and Reusable Pad Preparation
- Sandesh Subedi (Dang, Nepal)
Background:
As menstrual struggle is a painfully relevant topic in rural Nepal. I have had been working in this sector since years. With the all the previous learnings and experiences, I wrote a proposal to Humanist Global Charity on Feb 3rd. On Feb 7th the fund was transferred to conduct the program. Program was successfully conducted on March 6th and 12th.
Execution:
On the morning of March 6th, our team reached the target school at 8 AM. We had 3 facilitators and 2 volunteers. The program began at 09:30AM and was concluded around 6 PM. Even though 50 students were supposed to participate in the program, only 48 students were present that day. We conducted another program on March 12th, in which 15 students participated. Total of 63 students (61 females and 2 males) were trained through the project. However expensive, we taught our participants to make multi-layered pad for maximum blood absorptions. While many other organizations make single layer pad, I feel that to be a namesake and not serve its sole purpose.
Improvisations:
No matter how calculated the planning might be, there can always be some degree of variation during execution. For us, major departure from planning was when the trainer waived the fee. Even though cost for trainer is at least $45 (NRs 5000) per day, latter she stated she cannot charge money for this program. For, she believed this to be a selfless and noble work. She even bore the travelling cost by herself. As along, only around 30 books were available in markets, which wasn't enough for distribution. Therefore, we decided to donate those books to school library. On the positive note, now those books will be accessible to all participants, students and teachers, rather than just participants. Owing to above reasons, almost $60 was remaining. Disappointingly, good-grade materials were not available in our town, so it costed us $10 more than anticipated cost to collect materials from another district. At the end we had $50 remaining.
I remember mentioning how I wanted to include 7th graders in the program but due to budget limitation I couldn't. I am overwhelmingly delighted to let you know that with the remaining funds, we provided training to 15 students of 7th grade on March 12th. Hence, we trained total of 63 students through this project, 13 more participants than proposal stated.
Limitations:
∙ Geographical Limitations:
It takes up to 6 hours for some students to reach (and be back from) school. Thus some students couldn't participate. Some students attended the program despite of extreme distance. But they had to leave by 4:30 PM to reach home before darkness.
∙ Financial Limitations:
I am extremely grateful for the funding. In the meantime, I often had the feeling of how we could have done things better, also in larger scale, if only we had more fund to serve with. For example, we had to settle for mediocre scissors as we couldn't afford good scissors. As along, 2 meters of falatin and cotton per participant was enough to prepare 4 multi-layered pad.
∙ Technical Limitations:
The projector was non-functioning, hence all the multimedia had to be shown from a laptop. As it was holiday in Nepal, none of the teachers attended the program. We weren't willing to serve junk food, so it was somewhat laboriously to arrange healthy food options.
Learnings:
∙ Integrating both male and female would've been highly impactful to the society. We are glad that we included 2 males. For, they yielded decent knowledge but in the same time developed empathy for the women of their life. As Nepal is extremely patriarchal society, understanding and empathy from male domain will aid females to a great extent.
∙ Involvement of school authorities in programs give them sense of agency hence the project can have ripple effect in the long run.
∙ We knew it could get difficult to address such a vast topic in a day but it was tougher than perceived. At least 2 days must be allocated for such programs.
Future Plans:
∙ To ensure provided materials are well utilized, there will be follow-up session in future ∙ Encourage participants to spread awareness and skills in their locality and peer group ∙ Collaborate with local government and organization for betterment of youth ∙ Partner with Humanist Global Charity for multiple project I have in my mind ∙ Represent and publicize Humanist Community and Humanist Global Charity in Nepal
