My Four And A Half Months Experience
I volunteered for four and a half months as part of VIN’s “Women’s Empowerment” program, which generally aims to improve the quality of life and empower women in disadvantaged rural communities. The idea is to try to bridge the gap between men and women when it comes to education and professional opportunities. Boys always go to school for longer, and later get real “jobs” in town, whereas women are encouraged to stay at home and present themselves as housewives (even if in reality they all work at least as farmers, and often as entrepreneurs in addition… not to mention the household burden!).
Within this program, I participated in the “Education, Rights and Life Skills” project in pairs with a Nepalese volunteer who just graduated in Kathmandu. We gave English lessons four days a week to women in a hilltop community about an hour and a half’s walk from my village, Kavresthali, in the Kathmandu district.
At first, I was skeptical about the real benefits of these English classes for women. Now, I still think that our action will certainly not make up for the huge gap between men and women, even at the village level, but I still have the impression that we were useful. First, because it is the women themselves who demand these courses, ask for homework, etc. – therefore, by responding to this request, I had the feeling that my presence was valuable. Secondly, for those who start from scratch, learning Arabic numbers in English makes it easier for them to use their mobile phones (whose keyboard is never in Nepali). For those who are starting to have small conversations in English – even if they do not always have the opportunity to practice with us – it still implies that they interrupt their intensive workday for two hours to take time for themselves. Moreover, they are the center of attention in the community during class time, since men often sit down to listen to them speak English. Above all, they measure the extent of their abilities and improve their self-esteem. Indeed, most of them are fast learners and their progress is pointed out to them. The course offers them a kind of “recreation” that they really enjoy, perhaps also because it allows them to have a different type of intellectual activity than the one they have on a daily basis.
Besides English, we also organized “Life Skills workshops” every Friday, which were speaking and reflection workshops with content provided by VIN, on topics such as domestic violence, self-awareness, and self-expression … During these workshops, it was my Nepalese colleague who spoke to them while I was holding the posters. For example, for the workshop on domestic violence, they were asked to define the concept and give examples that they noted on post-it notes. They then classified these according to the importance they gave them and placed them in a table according to whether it was a type of physical, psychological, economic or social violence. Finally, they were invited to try to find a way to anticipate or fight against each type of violence and destroy the corresponding sticky note. It may seem simplistic but when my co-volunteer translated what was said during the session, it was often very interesting and the participants always gave super positive feedback, saying that it was the first time that they had this kind of debate together.
All in all, I really enjoyed my volunteering project. I still think that it is much easier to be really useful near your home than at the other end of the world, but I also went to Nepal to enrich myself personally and on this level, this trip brought me a lot.
– Manon Guillin
Member of