Strength TogetHER 10- Session 6

 


April 29,2021.

Strength togetHER is a safe virtual space where girls from different backgrounds come together and share their stories. We believe in rising ourselves by lifting up others. We walk with the motto of “girls supporting girl”. 

On the evening of 15th of March 2021, we talked about the struggles of being a female in Nepali society and how we are biased and excluded and treated differently just because of our gender. Our topic for the session was, “Because I was a girl”.

Our session was moderated by Shailaja Kharel who is currently pursuing her masters in sociology. Having completed her Bachelor’s degree in social science from National College affiliated to Kathmandu University, she has worked on her own project called “Developing psychological competence” and is an active counselor as well. She is an analytical thinker who believes in understanding the root of mental health issues through socio-psychological perspective. The former President of ‘Rotract Club of Kathmandu Metro’ and an active member, she has also been involved with various projects under it.  Alongside, our amazing moderator is an avid reader, frequent traveler, nature lover and a foodie who wants to start her own talk show on food. 


Most of our stories revolved around the basic stereotypes we have faced inside our own house. The common one being the homemaker that whenever there’s the job related to cooking, cleaning and serving, it’s the girl child who would be encouraged to do it alongside a boy child if seen doing so discouraged to do so and mocked at instead. We shared our stories about how we as young girls are not allowed to go outside our home or stay out late as our society cares about our safety much more rather than looking out for the root cause of patriarchy. We shared a common story on how our parents look out for us staying out late or going to a party because they fear us, daughters getting stared upon and care less about the men staring which is such a big problem even today. 


We got an insightful feedback from our moderator. 


This blog is written by Samikshya Aryal, an undergraduate student of Bachelors in Development Studies who identifies as a feminist. She has developed a keen interest in literature and is an aspiring poet. Besides an avid reader and enthusiastic learner, she wants to travel as much. 

-Samikshya Aryal, Cohort Coordinator (LOKOPAKAR)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strength TogetHER 10 - Session 5

Image
F eb 20,2021. Strength togetHER is a safe virtual space where girls from different backgrounds come together and share their stories. We believe in rising ourselves by lifting up others. We walk with the motto of “girls supporting girl”.  On the evening of 20 th of February 2021, we talked on the topic of “LGBTQ”. Our topic for the session was, “Love wins and it is all that matters.”  Our session was moderated by Mx. Soph Gautam, a queer writer, photographer, and advocate for equality. They recently graduated with a BA in International Relations and Media Communications. They are passionate about feminism, mental health, queer liberation, and fat liberation. They use their photography and art to talk about taboo topics and call attention to social causes. As usual, we started with getting to know our moderator and moved on to hearing from amazing speakers who spoke their heart out and shared personal stories. This session was a little different than usual. We had the most productive c
Read more

Strength TogetHER 10- Session 3

Image
  5th Jan 2021 With the motto of ‘girl supporting girls’, LOKOPAKAR, a youth development organization is currently running “Strength TogetHER”, a safe virtual space where girls from different backgrounds come together and share their stories. We believe in rising ourselves by lifting up others.  The third session of cohort ten took place on a chilly evening on 5th of January 2021 which extended up to two hours of interaction. Our topic of discussion was “A Time I Felt Low”. We had a very productive session with strong input from speakers and feedbacks form the moderator. We had Miss Kavya Biswokarma as our moderator, a fresh graduate of Bachelors of Social Sciences. Experienced with mentoring, she have now been emceeing for over 14 years. Previously associated with Maiti Nepal as translator, she has also worked as a junior journalist at The Republica. She is a self-trained dancer who have won many competitions and choreographed for a programme recently for a school named Bloom Nepal. O
Read more

Strength TogetHER 10- Session 7

Image
April 29 2021 Strength togetHER is a safe virtual space where girls from different backgrounds come together and share their stories. We believe in rising ourselves by lifting up others. We walk with the motto of “girls supporting girl”.  On the evening of 8 th of April 2021, we talked about ‘Consent’ and how it comes in various layers other than the mostly talked sexual consent. Our topic for the session was, “NO is a full sentence”.  Our session was moderated by Pratikshya Rajopadhyay who is a mental health advocate and practitioner who's passionate about inclusive mental health education, self-love and body positivity. She recently completed her post-graduate degree in counseling psychology. She's a writer and a feminist and believes in the power of storytelling and radical empathy to bring social change. The moderator asked us a question in the very beginning of her feedback that awestruck us. It was “How do you set a boundary?” This question answered our consensual bounda
Read more