This is a bit of a housekeeping entry and also a welcome note as we have recently had quite a few new people sign up to receive our blog updates. So, firstly to the new subscribers - WELCOME!
Someone pointed out to me the other day that if you receive these posts in an email (as most subscribers do), replying to that email does not go to the intended place ie. to Bec or myself. I have checked this with the organisation responsible for handling distribution of our blog and it is not something we can change. What this means is, if you receive a new blog entry by email and you want to send us a comment or reply for some other reason, make sure you enter my email address in the "To" section of your email. Just as a reminder, my email address is adam@mitrataa.org.
In other news, I am madly finalising preparations for my trip to Nepal, I leave for Kathmandu on Saturday (15th March). This trip promises to be the busiest and most exciting ever and I can't wait to get to Nepal and get started! If you haven't read about the work will be doing on this trip you can access it at http://mitrataa.blogspot.com/2008/02/busy-april-looming.html. Stay tuned as I start to give progress updates on all of the new and amazing things happening with the Foundation in the coming months.
As always we welcome your comments and suggestions, particularly on ways in which you may be able to become involved with what we do!
10 March 2008
19 February 2008
More big things coming in 2008...
We had the most inspiring experience when we were in Nepal last November. We went along to a lesson with a group of women who are all illiterate domestic workers in Kathmandu. They are involved in a pilot program by CWISH which is providing them with basic literacy and numeracy skills as well as helping them to set up a micro business together. The women commit to a savings program during the course and then CWISH matches whatever they have saved to help them set up their business. The women were so energetic and enthusiastic – it was infectious and we had such a laugh with them as they performed a short play for us on women’s rights. We wanted to help CWISH launch this project on a bigger scale and to take it one step further – to “pay it forward”. This was inspired by the movie with Helen Hunt called “Pay It forward”. Bec’s brother, Simon, suggested this movie to us a few years ago and we went straight out and bought it on DVD. The lesson from the movie has been tucked away in the back of our minds ever since as we knew it would play a part in the Mitrataa Foundation at some stage. Rather than repaying the money provided by us to the Foundation as in a typical microloan scenario, they will pay it into an account for the next group of women, ensuring that the program is self-sustaining and helping them to build a network of support for their businesses.
We are very excited to announce that we have just agreed with CWISH to launch this program with an objective of providing basic business, literacy and numeracy skills to 500 women in the next 12 months and setting up 28 micro businesses with them. This is going to require a lot of fundraising so watch this space for more information. If you are interested in helping us to raise the money for this exciting new project, please contact us at adam@mitrataa.org or bec@mitrataa.org.
11 February 2008
Bec's IP Awareness Training
This is a posting of work from our trip in October last year.
As many of you know, intellectual property law is one of my passions. So I was really excited to be able to marry my IP experience with my passion for Nepal to run a workshop in conjunction with the Nepal Trade & Export Promotion Centre. The NTEPC offers support to Nepali businesses which want to export their products overseas and they were keen to raise awareness of intellectual property issues amongst Nepali exporters. We ran an afternoon session for the co-operatives and associations as representatives of a broad range of industries initially. The afternoon consisted of 3 sections:
1. An introduction to NTEPC’s services, presented by Mani Lal Shrestha, Deputy Executive Director of NTEPC.
2. Intellectual Property and Its Benefits – An introduction for Nepali businesses, presented by me; and
3. Registration of industrial IP in Nepal, presented by Jiwan Prakash Sitaula, IP Director, Department of Industries.
My session had 2 main elements:
1. To explore the potential benefits of branding and IP for Nepali businesses;
2. To help Nepali companies avoid infringing other parties’ IP when they export their products overseas.
After the presentations, there was a very lively discussion of the role of government in supporting Nepali businesses in developing their IP and a round of questions about traditional knowledge and how it can be protected as this is a core competitive advantage Nepal has.
The afternoon raised a lot of interesting questions for me about the purpose of IP and its relevance to developing countries – is it a tool which is really only relevant to developed economies or could a country like Nepal have valuable IP which it could use in its battle to develop its economy?
As a result of this afternoon, I have been consulting pro bono to the Nepal Pashmina Industry Association as to how they can protect the pashmina name and brand.
We are now in discussions with the NTPEC and WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organisation which has been working with Nepal to help automate its IP systems, about running another series of workshops for different industries as well as preparing some training materials for the Department of Industries to use in its awareness raising activities.
We hope to continue to help Nepal protect its traditional knowledge and other valuable IP in future.
Bec
As many of you know, intellectual property law is one of my passions. So I was really excited to be able to marry my IP experience with my passion for Nepal to run a workshop in conjunction with the Nepal Trade & Export Promotion Centre. The NTEPC offers support to Nepali businesses which want to export their products overseas and they were keen to raise awareness of intellectual property issues amongst Nepali exporters. We ran an afternoon session for the co-operatives and associations as representatives of a broad range of industries initially. The afternoon consisted of 3 sections:
1. An introduction to NTEPC’s services, presented by Mani Lal Shrestha, Deputy Executive Director of NTEPC.
2. Intellectual Property and Its Benefits – An introduction for Nepali businesses, presented by me; and
3. Registration of industrial IP in Nepal, presented by Jiwan Prakash Sitaula, IP Director, Department of Industries.
My session had 2 main elements:
1. To explore the potential benefits of branding and IP for Nepali businesses;
2. To help Nepali companies avoid infringing other parties’ IP when they export their products overseas.
After the presentations, there was a very lively discussion of the role of government in supporting Nepali businesses in developing their IP and a round of questions about traditional knowledge and how it can be protected as this is a core competitive advantage Nepal has.
The afternoon raised a lot of interesting questions for me about the purpose of IP and its relevance to developing countries – is it a tool which is really only relevant to developed economies or could a country like Nepal have valuable IP which it could use in its battle to develop its economy?
As a result of this afternoon, I have been consulting pro bono to the Nepal Pashmina Industry Association as to how they can protect the pashmina name and brand.
We are now in discussions with the NTPEC and WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organisation which has been working with Nepal to help automate its IP systems, about running another series of workshops for different industries as well as preparing some training materials for the Department of Industries to use in its awareness raising activities.
We hope to continue to help Nepal protect its traditional knowledge and other valuable IP in future.
Bec
08 February 2008
Busy April Looming!
Happy New Year and Happy Chinese New Year to you all!
Bec and I have spent the first month of 2008 furiously planning for the exciting, challenging and hopefully life-changing projects that we are going to be working on with the Foundation this year. I have mentioned details of some of these previously, particularly with regard to the group of students, parents and teachers from MLC in Sydney who will be working with us in Nepal in April. Details of that trip can be found at http://mitrataa.blogspot.com/2007/07/exciting-plans-for-2008.html.
Dates and the itinerary for that trip have now been finalized and we are working with our various partners in Nepal to work out the final details. The group now consists of 35 people (!) which is enormous and is going to make for an awesome experience for all involved. Watch out for blog entries once the trip unfolds in April as I will be posting regular updates as well as loads of photos.
I will be spending about 7 weeks in Nepal starting from the 15th March and carrying right through until the beginning of May. Bec will be there with me for most of April too. During that time we have organised a formal training program for women journalists as a result of the fantastic forum we ran with Janet O’Connor in Kathmandu last year (http://mitrataa.blogspot.com/2007/11/women-journalists-forum.html). Janet will be returning to run the course which promises to provide loads of useful tools and ideas as well as continuing to establish a network for women in journalism in Nepal. We are proud to be working with the Nepal Working Women Journalists Association on this project.
Another of our friends, Libby Hathorn, an award winning Australian author, will also be visiting Kathmandu in April to establish the first 100 Views program in Nepal. The program is a teaching project focused around students doing creative works based on places/things of significance in their school’s area (more information can be found at http://www.100views.com.au). We will initially be running the course in the model school we have recently started working with in Maijubahal, Kathmandu. Once Libby has trained the teachers in how to implement the program, we will then be following this up with the MLC group who will start to implement the program with the students. It promises to be an amazing creative alternative to the standard teaching methods so often favoured in Nepal. The results of the students’ work will be shared with other schools who have participated in the project through the 100 Views website.
So as you can see April is looking pretty busy for us, but all of the programs will be so much fun as well as providing great opportunities and experiences for all those involved. In addition to this, we have started discussions with one of our partners in Nepal for the establishment of a massive initiative that could potentially affect the lives of around 500 Nepali women!!! Stay tuned for more information on this project in the coming months.
All of these projects are the result of inspiration from people saying to us, “I want to get involved in the Mitrataa Foundation – what can I do?”. Everyone has something to offer the people of Nepal. So if you would like to spend some time there – whether it be a few days, a few weeks or a few months – let us know and we can tailor a program for you.
We hope 2008 has been fruitful and fulfilling for all of you so far, and we look forward to sharing more news and details of our work as the year goes on!
Bec and I have spent the first month of 2008 furiously planning for the exciting, challenging and hopefully life-changing projects that we are going to be working on with the Foundation this year. I have mentioned details of some of these previously, particularly with regard to the group of students, parents and teachers from MLC in Sydney who will be working with us in Nepal in April. Details of that trip can be found at http://mitrataa.blogspot.com/2007/07/exciting-plans-for-2008.html.
Dates and the itinerary for that trip have now been finalized and we are working with our various partners in Nepal to work out the final details. The group now consists of 35 people (!) which is enormous and is going to make for an awesome experience for all involved. Watch out for blog entries once the trip unfolds in April as I will be posting regular updates as well as loads of photos.
I will be spending about 7 weeks in Nepal starting from the 15th March and carrying right through until the beginning of May. Bec will be there with me for most of April too. During that time we have organised a formal training program for women journalists as a result of the fantastic forum we ran with Janet O’Connor in Kathmandu last year (http://mitrataa.blogspot.com/2007/11/women-journalists-forum.html). Janet will be returning to run the course which promises to provide loads of useful tools and ideas as well as continuing to establish a network for women in journalism in Nepal. We are proud to be working with the Nepal Working Women Journalists Association on this project.
Another of our friends, Libby Hathorn, an award winning Australian author, will also be visiting Kathmandu in April to establish the first 100 Views program in Nepal. The program is a teaching project focused around students doing creative works based on places/things of significance in their school’s area (more information can be found at http://www.100views.com.au). We will initially be running the course in the model school we have recently started working with in Maijubahal, Kathmandu. Once Libby has trained the teachers in how to implement the program, we will then be following this up with the MLC group who will start to implement the program with the students. It promises to be an amazing creative alternative to the standard teaching methods so often favoured in Nepal. The results of the students’ work will be shared with other schools who have participated in the project through the 100 Views website.
So as you can see April is looking pretty busy for us, but all of the programs will be so much fun as well as providing great opportunities and experiences for all those involved. In addition to this, we have started discussions with one of our partners in Nepal for the establishment of a massive initiative that could potentially affect the lives of around 500 Nepali women!!! Stay tuned for more information on this project in the coming months.
All of these projects are the result of inspiration from people saying to us, “I want to get involved in the Mitrataa Foundation – what can I do?”. Everyone has something to offer the people of Nepal. So if you would like to spend some time there – whether it be a few days, a few weeks or a few months – let us know and we can tailor a program for you.
We hope 2008 has been fruitful and fulfilling for all of you so far, and we look forward to sharing more news and details of our work as the year goes on!
05 November 2007
Unexpected Weekend Events
Well it’s Sunday evening here in Kathmandu and we are just catching our breaths after what turned out to be an unexpectedly eventful weekend. As is often the case in Nepal, things have the ability to surprise you in the most unexpected ways, sometimes good and sometimes not so good.
On Friday evening we went to Bhaktapur to spend the evening with our friend, Rabindra. He has a beautifully restored Newari house in Bhaktapur and we always look forward to the chance of spending an evening there relaxing away from the hustle and bustle of Thamel. This time was no different and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Rabindra followed by a fantastic quiet night’s sleep and a lovely breakfast the following morning.
We then met some other friends in Bhaktapur’s main square later on Saturday morning. These friends are 2 students who we have been sponsoring since the Mitrataa Foundation started 7½ years ago. As you can imagine, they have grown so much in that time and it was wonderful to see them now developing into young adults.
On Saturday afternoon we returned to Kathmandu and were greeted with quite a shock. There is a woman who works on the streets of Thamel running a small cigarette cart and selling stitched bags to tourists. We have known her for many years and have suported her and her family in various ways. This time she seemed quite agitated about something and although her English is quite good she could not immediately communicate her problem to us. After a lot of gesticulating and questions we finally worked out that she was telling us her 16 year old daughter was being sexually abused by the caretaker of the hostel where she was living. Absolute shock and horror does not begin to describe how we felt once we were sure this was what we were being told. Although we were aware this was a common problem in Kathmandu we had never encountered it personally.
It turns out that this has been going on for many years but the girl was too afraid to tell her mother and did not want to worry her. However, the problem has become worse recently and she has become too afraid to go back to the hostel when school resumes next week. The problem was made worse by the fact that her education is being paid for by a foreigner who stipulated that she would only support the girl if she attended this school and lived in this hostel. Naturally the girl and her mother were concerned that if they told anyone of the problem this educational support would be lost. Mess does not begin to describe things!
We have had no experience of how best to handle this type of issue in Nepal so we spent the rest of Saturday evening and Sunday morning on the phone with various friends and contacts trying to work out what could be done. Fortunately, thanks to one of our partner organisations that works with, among other things, abused women and children, CWISH, we have been able to help. A counsellor from CWISH has been very helpful in gathering information and details from us today and has explained exactly how these types of things should be dealt with in Nepal. We will take the girl tomorrow to CWISH to meet with the counsellor and help her understand what has happened. We will also be helping the girl to find another school so that she will be able to start there when school resumes next Sunday after the Tihar festival.
Whilst in this instance it appears that everything is going to work out, the whole experience reminded us of some of the disturbing things that can happen here. It became apparent that the hostel caretaker singled out this girl because he knew she came from a poor family and so wouldn’t be able to do anything (supposedly) to stop him. He also prevented her from making phone calls or emailing even though these are standard facilities available to children living in this hostel. He also threatened her that if she told anyone she would lose her sponsorship to go to school and she would “end up on the streets like her mother”.
Without wanting to draw out the unpleasantness of the whole thing further I will just add that this situation really reminds us of how important education is for people in developing countries. With education people learn about their basic rights, where they can turn for help if they need it, and also hopefully people learn that such behaviour is never acceptable. I know this girl is one of the lucky ones, and the ordeal is by no means over for her yet, but tonight she is safe. We will be working with her from now on and closely monitoring her progress. We are very grateful to CWISH for their support and for the wonderful work they do in this area to protect women and girls.
Lastly, if anyone would like to contribute to supporting this girl we are urgently looking for sponsorship. We are not sure of the exact cost as yet (it will depend on which school and hostel she attends) but any expressions of interest would be appreciated. You can email me at adam@mitrataa.org.
On Friday evening we went to Bhaktapur to spend the evening with our friend, Rabindra. He has a beautifully restored Newari house in Bhaktapur and we always look forward to the chance of spending an evening there relaxing away from the hustle and bustle of Thamel. This time was no different and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Rabindra followed by a fantastic quiet night’s sleep and a lovely breakfast the following morning.
We then met some other friends in Bhaktapur’s main square later on Saturday morning. These friends are 2 students who we have been sponsoring since the Mitrataa Foundation started 7½ years ago. As you can imagine, they have grown so much in that time and it was wonderful to see them now developing into young adults.
On Saturday afternoon we returned to Kathmandu and were greeted with quite a shock. There is a woman who works on the streets of Thamel running a small cigarette cart and selling stitched bags to tourists. We have known her for many years and have suported her and her family in various ways. This time she seemed quite agitated about something and although her English is quite good she could not immediately communicate her problem to us. After a lot of gesticulating and questions we finally worked out that she was telling us her 16 year old daughter was being sexually abused by the caretaker of the hostel where she was living. Absolute shock and horror does not begin to describe how we felt once we were sure this was what we were being told. Although we were aware this was a common problem in Kathmandu we had never encountered it personally.
It turns out that this has been going on for many years but the girl was too afraid to tell her mother and did not want to worry her. However, the problem has become worse recently and she has become too afraid to go back to the hostel when school resumes next week. The problem was made worse by the fact that her education is being paid for by a foreigner who stipulated that she would only support the girl if she attended this school and lived in this hostel. Naturally the girl and her mother were concerned that if they told anyone of the problem this educational support would be lost. Mess does not begin to describe things!
We have had no experience of how best to handle this type of issue in Nepal so we spent the rest of Saturday evening and Sunday morning on the phone with various friends and contacts trying to work out what could be done. Fortunately, thanks to one of our partner organisations that works with, among other things, abused women and children, CWISH, we have been able to help. A counsellor from CWISH has been very helpful in gathering information and details from us today and has explained exactly how these types of things should be dealt with in Nepal. We will take the girl tomorrow to CWISH to meet with the counsellor and help her understand what has happened. We will also be helping the girl to find another school so that she will be able to start there when school resumes next Sunday after the Tihar festival.
Whilst in this instance it appears that everything is going to work out, the whole experience reminded us of some of the disturbing things that can happen here. It became apparent that the hostel caretaker singled out this girl because he knew she came from a poor family and so wouldn’t be able to do anything (supposedly) to stop him. He also prevented her from making phone calls or emailing even though these are standard facilities available to children living in this hostel. He also threatened her that if she told anyone she would lose her sponsorship to go to school and she would “end up on the streets like her mother”.
Without wanting to draw out the unpleasantness of the whole thing further I will just add that this situation really reminds us of how important education is for people in developing countries. With education people learn about their basic rights, where they can turn for help if they need it, and also hopefully people learn that such behaviour is never acceptable. I know this girl is one of the lucky ones, and the ordeal is by no means over for her yet, but tonight she is safe. We will be working with her from now on and closely monitoring her progress. We are very grateful to CWISH for their support and for the wonderful work they do in this area to protect women and girls.
Lastly, if anyone would like to contribute to supporting this girl we are urgently looking for sponsorship. We are not sure of the exact cost as yet (it will depend on which school and hostel she attends) but any expressions of interest would be appreciated. You can email me at adam@mitrataa.org.
02 November 2007
Teacher Training Workshop
We have had the most amazing time over the last 2 days conducting our frst teacher training course in the new model school we will be working with. The course was entitled “Teachers’ Workshop on Learner Centred Education” and was attended by around 20 teachers from the Rosy Garden School in Maijubahal, Kathmandu.
The first day of the course included an introduction to Howard Gardner’s model of “multiple intelligences”. The seven main intelligences in this model being linguistic, logical/maths, visual/spatial, musical, bodily/kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The teachers explored how they can use this model in their classes to help their students learn in different ways. On the second day we put this into practice and delved into the importance of lesson plans and thorough preparation to ensure the teachers use as much learner focused activity as possible. It was very practical and the teachers went away with many examples to help put what they had learned into practice in their classrooms.
We were heartened and encouraged by the enthusiasm and commitment of the teachers involved. Many of them had not had any formal training but nonetheless approached each of the tasks and activties with vigour and a can-do attitude.
At one stage Rebecca had the class standing in a circle outside and throwing a roll of toilet paper at each other whilst asking questions and shouting answers. I’m sure they have never encountered such a thing before and may well have been hoping they will never do so again!
Nepal’s education approach is based heavily on rote learning to pass exams and we hope to break open this way of thinking with more of these courses in the future. We have tentatively scheduled the next courses for March/April 2008 and beyond then we will be providing advanced training to some of the teachers with a view to them then conducting the course on a more frequent basis for teachers from other schools. We also plan to make the course available to teachers from outside the Kathmandu Valley through some form of sponsorship program for teachers from remote schools in disadvantaged areas.
The Rosy Garden School has only recently been taken over by some people that we have been working closely with through CWISH. They are extremely passionate about developing a school that is cutting edge in terms of its approach to education and it is for this reason that we have become involved. We have many great plans for the model school (including a name change!) and are so excited about the possibilities it presents for the development and growth of the Foundation through the number of people whose lives we can touch.
We will keep you posted as plans progress but it certinly seems as though 2008 is going to be a huge year for the Foundation and we can’t wait to share all of the experiences and excitement with you!
The first day of the course included an introduction to Howard Gardner’s model of “multiple intelligences”. The seven main intelligences in this model being linguistic, logical/maths, visual/spatial, musical, bodily/kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The teachers explored how they can use this model in their classes to help their students learn in different ways. On the second day we put this into practice and delved into the importance of lesson plans and thorough preparation to ensure the teachers use as much learner focused activity as possible. It was very practical and the teachers went away with many examples to help put what they had learned into practice in their classrooms.
We were heartened and encouraged by the enthusiasm and commitment of the teachers involved. Many of them had not had any formal training but nonetheless approached each of the tasks and activties with vigour and a can-do attitude.
At one stage Rebecca had the class standing in a circle outside and throwing a roll of toilet paper at each other whilst asking questions and shouting answers. I’m sure they have never encountered such a thing before and may well have been hoping they will never do so again!
Nepal’s education approach is based heavily on rote learning to pass exams and we hope to break open this way of thinking with more of these courses in the future. We have tentatively scheduled the next courses for March/April 2008 and beyond then we will be providing advanced training to some of the teachers with a view to them then conducting the course on a more frequent basis for teachers from other schools. We also plan to make the course available to teachers from outside the Kathmandu Valley through some form of sponsorship program for teachers from remote schools in disadvantaged areas.
The Rosy Garden School has only recently been taken over by some people that we have been working closely with through CWISH. They are extremely passionate about developing a school that is cutting edge in terms of its approach to education and it is for this reason that we have become involved. We have many great plans for the model school (including a name change!) and are so excited about the possibilities it presents for the development and growth of the Foundation through the number of people whose lives we can touch.
We will keep you posted as plans progress but it certinly seems as though 2008 is going to be a huge year for the Foundation and we can’t wait to share all of the experiences and excitement with you!
01 November 2007
Women Journalists' Forum
It feels like a long time since my last blog but that is partly due to our being so busy here in Kathmandu! So, to bring you all up to speed, let me start with Monday this week.
As I had mentioned in previous entries, we have been joined in Kathmandu by one of our good friends, Janet. Janet has worked in journalism in Australia for many years and has been very eager to use her skills to help women journalists in Nepal. Journalism for women in Nepal is similar to many other professions in that it is much more difficult to be heard whether from a career prospective or simply just in the content of your work. The problems of access to education and family and social pressures also make journalism a challenging pursuit.
We invited a group of around 10 women who all shared a passion for making their voices heard to a round table discussion on the issues facing women in this industry. Janet, Rebecca and I met with the women in the ‘back room’ of a café in New Baneshwor and spent a lively 2 hours discussing the main issues they face, their hopes for the future and the areas in which they felt they needed the most help and support from us. Some of the recurring themes included their strong desire to hear about Janet’s experience of journalism in Australia and the prospects for women there. All of the women felt that this type of discussion was really inspiring and motivating for them. They were also keen to have an impromptu class on the basics of constructing a story and looking at some examples of the way news is reported across different publications in Australia. Janet came well prepared on this front and had even brought copies of some different newspapers from Australia to illustrate her points which the women enjoyed.
The tone of the class and the feedback afterwards was overwhelingly in favour of us working with Janet to setup a formal training course and in fact a number of the women enquired as to whether Janet would be available next week to start the training! This is testament to Janet’s demonstrated knowledge in this area as well as her presentation technique and we are immensely grateful to her for putting herself ‘out there’ and giving this a go. Of course now the real work for all of us begins as Janet is going to work on preparing a course that will give maximum benefit to the women whilst we will be working on the logistics of running the course probably some time in March next year.
Some unexpected benefits of the forum also came in the form of a number of the women meeting each other for the first time and vowing to keep in touch and perhaps even form an ongoing support group in order that they might work together on particular issues and projects. This would be a fantastic outcome as we always try to keep sustainability in mind when developing these projects – if these women can take their experience and training we provide and use them to promote their causes and help others to do the same, then who knows what the future might hold for Nepal?!
Stay tuned for updates as this project takes shape…
As I had mentioned in previous entries, we have been joined in Kathmandu by one of our good friends, Janet. Janet has worked in journalism in Australia for many years and has been very eager to use her skills to help women journalists in Nepal. Journalism for women in Nepal is similar to many other professions in that it is much more difficult to be heard whether from a career prospective or simply just in the content of your work. The problems of access to education and family and social pressures also make journalism a challenging pursuit.
We invited a group of around 10 women who all shared a passion for making their voices heard to a round table discussion on the issues facing women in this industry. Janet, Rebecca and I met with the women in the ‘back room’ of a café in New Baneshwor and spent a lively 2 hours discussing the main issues they face, their hopes for the future and the areas in which they felt they needed the most help and support from us. Some of the recurring themes included their strong desire to hear about Janet’s experience of journalism in Australia and the prospects for women there. All of the women felt that this type of discussion was really inspiring and motivating for them. They were also keen to have an impromptu class on the basics of constructing a story and looking at some examples of the way news is reported across different publications in Australia. Janet came well prepared on this front and had even brought copies of some different newspapers from Australia to illustrate her points which the women enjoyed.
The tone of the class and the feedback afterwards was overwhelingly in favour of us working with Janet to setup a formal training course and in fact a number of the women enquired as to whether Janet would be available next week to start the training! This is testament to Janet’s demonstrated knowledge in this area as well as her presentation technique and we are immensely grateful to her for putting herself ‘out there’ and giving this a go. Of course now the real work for all of us begins as Janet is going to work on preparing a course that will give maximum benefit to the women whilst we will be working on the logistics of running the course probably some time in March next year.
Some unexpected benefits of the forum also came in the form of a number of the women meeting each other for the first time and vowing to keep in touch and perhaps even form an ongoing support group in order that they might work together on particular issues and projects. This would be a fantastic outcome as we always try to keep sustainability in mind when developing these projects – if these women can take their experience and training we provide and use them to promote their causes and help others to do the same, then who knows what the future might hold for Nepal?!
Stay tuned for updates as this project takes shape…
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