Thursday, March 25, 2010

Just came back to Kathmandu from a two day field visit in Nepalganj and Bardia District and have many things in mind.That is the beauty of this job: being exposed to different cultures in such a deep and emotionally involving way. The objective ofour visit to Nepalganj was to visit a few of the projects carried out by Save the Children in the area.
The first project we visited was pretty impressive: we met the members of the so called Body Committee (see picture), a group of young people that have formed a cooperative that allows its member to start income generating activities. The peculiarity of this group of people is that they are all children of former sex workers living in what used to be a red light district. These children were awarded scholraships, registered and are now more accepted by the society. Most of them are completing their studies and dream of becoming actors, or social workers. They are very aware of their rights, self confident and very proud of what they have achieved. None of them knows the name of their father, but they know very clearly what kind of people they want to become in the future.
We then visited a Muslim school, whose curriculum is being developed with the support of Save the Children and its partner organizations in order for it to become integral part of mainstream education in an effort to make education in the country as inclusive as possible, together with the Ministry of Education. Same goes for education initiatives for the Dalit population, which has been excluded from society for centuries and is now fighting to see its rights recognized in the country. Although there is some space for improvement, I am very proud of the projects I visited, regardless of the steaming hot (40°, almost).

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