Asia Pacific Regional Meeting in Nepal

ICA Nepal got the opportunity to host the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting (APRM) this year. The meeting was held from 29 October
to 3 November, 2017 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The participants from Australia, Japan,Taiwan, India, Bangladesh, UK and USA participated representing their countries. On the first 3 days which was called Pre-APRM, ToP training on Facilitating Client Collaboration was facilitated by Mr.Lawrence Philbrook. Dialogue on ToP in Asia was focused on regional and global collaboration. This 3 day training was done by dividing participants in 3 different groups.bit different from past ones. The whole APRS was based on 3 thematic dialogues and all were observed and discussed on their respective project sites. Three thematic dialogues were Community Education, Community Governance and Leadership and Community Resilience (Climate change and Disaster Recovery).
For Community Education two schools of Bungmati were selected, Tri Ratna Cooperative School and Chunni Devi Basic Level School. After the observation of both schools, challenges, issues, and suggestions were drawn.
For Community Governance and Leadership, participants visited Changunarayan Women and Children Learning Center, Changunarayan. Here groups were made along with women of learning center and strength, challenges and action were drawn after group discussions.
For Community Resilience, climate change dialogues were carried out with the Creative Women Group at Banepa. Similarly, effects, challenges and actions of climate change were drawn after group discussions.
Overall the APRS went really well and it also discussed about the sustainability of ICAs. APRM, 2017 has been a memorable event in terms of thematic dialogue, project sites visits, interaction with communities and active participation from all.

After Pre APRM, there happened APRM which was later recommended to call Asia Pacific Regional Seminar (APRS) by Mr. Tatwa Timsina. This year APRS was

Aussie's in Nepal - A visit to ICA'S Women and Children's Learning Center

 We are students studying social work from
Australia. Our names are Sarah and Kaitlyn :) We were lucky enough to visit the Women and Children’s Learning Center in Changunarayan a couple of weeks ago. The center was built in partnership with ICA Japan and is designed to be a place where women and children can come for training, education and recreation. After a scenic drive through Kathmandu valley we were greeted by a crowd of excited children and thrown into a session of furious beading and necklace making. We had a lovely time playing with the children at the center. Together we played energetic games of tag, drawing and reading. While we were at the center the staffs were working on building a library for children and teens. This library will mean that visitors to the center will be able to borrow books to read, as well as be read too at the center, in both English and Nepalese. One of the exciting projects being run through the Women and Children’s Learning Center is the production of low cost sanitary napkins. The aims of this program are two-fold. Access to affordable sanitary napkins can be difficult for many women and this program aims to increase accessibly for women. This program also aims to build women’s economic empowerment, giving women access to industry through the production and sale of the sanitary napkins, called “Surakhshya Pads”. We were lucky to have a tour of the workshop where the pads were made. After visiting the women and children’s learning center, we also visited an economic empowerment project for women nearby that makes Champak Candy - yum! This project offer training for women to produce the candy and sells it in nearby shops. Overall, it was a lovely day meeting friendly people!

Period Blurb Thing

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am from Australia. Currently I am working as an intern in an NGO named ICA Nepal. Menstruation Hygiene Management Awareness Program is one of the core projects of ICA Nepal. While working as an intern I went to different schools and communities and came cross the different case stories then I found that the Nepalese perception on Menstruation is totally different from the Aussie’s.

In Australia periods are still something we keep private. I feel comfortable talking about periods with my close girl friends but I would not talk to many men about it. In high school we would tease boys by showing them a clean tampon and watch them run away in fear, so we still have away to go in reducing the stigma of periods and menstruation. Periods can be hard, you feel drained, crampy and a bit ick and it would be nice if people could more understand of a natural part of life rather than grossed out and uncomfortable. Half of the world gets them! 

While I was writing I was thinking about how lucky I am that in Australia people just think periods are gross, while in Nepal, people are ostracized when they have their periods and can even die from being forced to follow Chaupadi while they are menstruating.  In Australia we have sanitary bins in all our public toilets, pads and tampons are easy to get and are sometimes even handed out for free at our university. It sucks to see how difficult it is for women here and I hope that with projects like this one, periods can become much easier for everyone.

So, let’s talk about periods!