Youth Conference in Nuwakot

Two days of marking the 30th Youth Conference in Nepal Red Cross Society is over and we hope the Juniors, Youths and Teacher Sponsors are satisfied and ready to continue their important work for this coming year!

The pictures show Nuwakot city; Red Cross Rally to mark the opening of the conference, candle lights for each year and district participating at the conference and Emil and me holding a presentation on Norwegian Red Cross Youth.

Spending the day with Nilan and Suman

Women are walking to and from the temple near by the office with small plates of sacrificing gifts and candle lights. We meet at the office, Nilan, Suman and I. The time is 6.25 am, and we pack our bags and start our journey Taiwa to have an IHL dissemination. It's a bandha (political strike), only a few bikes and motor cycles are on the road, so we start walking.




30 minuets - tops!
Are you sure it only takes 30 minuets?, I ask when we have walked for 15 min and are hardly out of the city center. Nilan and Suman have insured me that it is not so far ever since we started walking, but I have my doubts. Eh, actually, we have never walked here before, so we don't know, Nilan says, as we pace along the quiet streets of Kathmandu's outskirts. The hour and 40 min we use to come there gives us though very good time to prepare mentally for the task and gives a good energy in our threesome of IHL dissemination first-timers.




Autonomy + Youth = can it work?
We arrive Taiwa Youth Circle only 30 min late and of course not everyone from their groupe have arrived, so it gives us 10 min to make the last preparations. As this is a Red Cross Youth Circle, we start with a round of feares and expectations. I find this method a good one to make everyone comfortable talking in a group and for us it is very important to inform the participants of what they can expect from our presentation and maybe we need to do some changes in the presentation. There were a lot of expectations on learning about Norwegian Red Cross Youth, so we included this under the part about National Societies. For me this was perfect, as I love to talk about how Red Cross Youth in Norway governs themselves and that they choose their own focus and activities.






Rules of war in peace time - why?
Nepal Red Cross teaches about international humanitarian law (IHL) in peace time to prevent major violations in war time. We as Youth in Nepal Red Cross Society are, as I understand, the most important parts of the Red Cross puzzle to spread information and knowledge about the rules of war - both for international wars and armed conflicts and for civil wars. The issue of civil war in Nepal is a part of the youths recent past, and they are curious about what rules actually applies at what point. An interesting discussion in the group of 26 youths between 14 and 23 years is on the difference between Human Rights and IHL. Nilan, Suman and I does our best to facilitate the discussion.






The value of a walk
Due to the bandha, we dad to walk back again to town. Nilan and Suman had just finished their first IHL dissemination ever and I mine first in Nepal. We were bobbling over with enthusiasm the frst half hour, and our walk towards Kathmandu continued, we used the time to evaluate and reorganize a bit of the program for next time. It was a very useful time to both give positive feedback and to get into details that they were confused about. So thanks to the bandha (the pro-monarchy party demanded a referendum on constitutional monarchy, a Hundu nation and federalism, before the new constitution is promulgated by May 28th 2010), I think we made great progress in our dissemination package.


Tea, eggs and dhal baat tarkari
We started the day at 6am an around 1pm we was almort back in town, when Suman invites us for a combined breakfast and lunch in his home. So we went there, had tea and biscuits in his room before his mother and sister invited us up to the kitchen for what Nepalis eat every day several times a day: A lovely plate of rice, bean sauce and vegetables.

So, who want to put on a condom?

20 youth at one of the public schools in Patan paid more than expected attention at this days HIV orientation.

Emil, my co-delegate, has the main responsibility for the orientations related to HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted diseases and he did a great job making the youths understand both how it transmitts and how to protect yourself. In Nepal, about 1,600 cases of AIDS are documented and 10,546 persons with HIV infections. UNAIDS estimates that approximately 75,000 people in Nepal are HIV-positive, but due to stigma and discrimination and lack of knowledge, they either do not seek counseling or go to a doctor to check out their symptoms. One of the important jobs Nepal Red Cross does, and what we as Youth Delegates can assist them with, is spreading information and focusing on protection in everyday life.

And then it was my turn. This was my first condom demonstration ever, and I was quite nervous. But I think the participants in the orientation was even more nervous then me in the beginning, and after a while, we all relaxed. They were between 17 and 21 years old and right in the middle of our target group as the biggest group in risk of being affected by the HIV-virus. And after some giggling, they were very eager to try for themselves.

Training for Teacher Sponsors

In Nepal Red Cross, Teacher Sponsors are one of the most important puzzles in the school based work. This week is a five days refreshing training for them in Lalitpur District, focusing on School Based Disaster Risk Reduction.




What is a Teacher Sponsor?
There is one teacher at many of the schools that have a special responsibility who coordinates with the teachers, the students and Nepal Red Cross Sub Chapter and District Chapter. They initiate activities and coordinate happenings. The students are active in their Junior Circles and some months ago, Emil and I participated in one of their street drama and demonstrations.



International cooperation
Finnish Red Cross and EU is funding the project to prepare the children for disaster. This can be earth quake, landslides and flooding. A round around the table gave an interesting view of what the project has done for both the Red Cross at their schools and for their disaster preparedness in the society in general. One of the women told that they need to learn more about first aid, another told a story that they had a big fire at their school while they had a training, and what they had learned by the Red Cross in this project was absolutely crucial for them being rescued out. As a Red Cross volunteer, it is very good to hear that these kinds of international cooperation also seem to inspire students at grass root level to participate in both Red Cross and their own future.



Can we come visit you?
One of our goals while we stay in Nepal as Youth Delegates, is to disseminate about Red Cross and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and give orientation on Human Trafficking and Sexual Health. This was a perfect occasion to meet the Teacher Sponsors of 11 of 30 schools in our district. We spent some hours with them and had a good talk, inviting us to their schools.

Selling and buying people

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon that is driven by demand and fuelled by poverty and unemployment (UNFPA 2006). According to the UNFPA, four million women, children and men are trafficked globally in a year. South East Asian and South Asian countries are the homes of the largest number of internationally trafficked persons.

Photo: Umita form Lalitpur District in Nepal Red Cross posing for a Anti Human Trafficking Campaign in Norway when she was a Youth Delegate in Norway 2 years ago.

The situation in Nepal
It has been estimated that every year around 12,000 Nepalese girls and women are trafficked to India from Nepal. According to a report of Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, around 40,000 girls are working in cabin and dance restaurants in Kathmandu. Out of them, half are victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. Nepalese girls and women are highly demanded in the sex industry in India.



Nepal Red Cross' work
Norwegian Red Cross is funding six districts in their work to enable youth to combat HIV, trafficking and social discrimination. A special project for me as a Youth Delegate in this setting is the project in Dhading district, just north of Kathmandu, which is supported by the Norwegian Red Cross Youth. In Dhading the focus is on early warning, giving knowledge to the poor people living there on how they can get information on their employer and anti stigma. The project is mainly focused on youth age 12-25, as they are the people in the risk zone of being trafficked in this area.


Early intervention
In Dhading, Red Cross is responsible for selling of the application form for passport as an income generating activity. While people come at Red Cross to ask for application form for passport, an information package consisting of anti trafficking,
HIV prevention, tips for safer migration messages will be provided to them. This prior information may help to the applicant to assess risk of migration, nature of job and reliability of the sending company which eventually may help to take appropriate decision for migration.

“Røde Kors Ungdom” in Nepal
Norwegian Red Cross Youth supports the project in Dhading. This year’s project is mainly funded with the help from two schools in Norway’s fund raising campaign, namely Børstad and Sarpsborg Ungdomsskole. The project was started by the first Youth Delegates in Nepal, and all the delegates have been following the project at some point or another.

Our work so far
We have been so lucky to visit a anti human trafficking project in Palpa, the annual review and planning meeting for these projects last week and this weekend we had a workshop at our own district in Lalitpur, to get started with focusing on the problem in our own district. This is new work for both us and them, but we had a very good workshop where we did both a small baseline survey and introduced a few low budget activities to the 18 youth participating. We have already scheduled a second meeting to plan the implementation of their ideas in their Youth Circles, and I have to say is both inspiring and motivating. I'll update you as soon as I can! :)

Photo: The participants at the workshop interviewed people in the streets of Patan to get an overview of what people knew about the problem. They also asked if they thought this could be something that might affect their family and what should be done to stop the problem. The answers were used when we worked on the individual project proposal for each Youth Circle.

Lost in translation?

“I copied and pasted all your blog posts into Google Translator,” says Nirajan. I can take a hint and will from now on write more in English. But I have to admit that, as all the participants at our trainings and workshops tells us; it is not as easy to express thoughts, feelings and reflections in English, but as they take the challenge, so will I!

So much has happened since last my last blog post, and it is time for a short sum up. I also take Nirajan, next year’s Youth Delegate to Norway from Nepal, wish seriously and will try to communicate in a language people that are important in my everyday life in Nepal also can understand.

Our biggest festival

24^th December 2009: Happy to Christmas! is written on the cake our co-workers at head quarter has ordered to mark our biggest festival and celebrate with eating oranges and handing out presents. We talk a bit about what traditions are important in our families, I tell them that every year my family goes and has dinner at each other almost every day for one week, we eat and eat and eat. They compare it with Dashain, their biggest festival that we celebrated in October, where main focus is on food and family.

4 in the morning – the end of December

31^st December 2009: Linn Synnøve and I are safe asleep in a bed in Tikkabairab. We wanted to do a new year trek from Kathmandu to Nagarkot the southern end of the Valley was the plan initially, but that suddenly changed when we found out that the map has no walking tours and what was “just a few minutes” turned out to be two hours, and that was particularly frustrating when it turned out that we missed a turning point and walked two hours in the wrong direction.

We met nice people all the way, helpful or not, we have some great memories from the trek :)

Here we're trying to find the way...

Oh no! Wrong way! But are we sad? Not at all! Lynn Synnøve even takes a few extra knee bending to show how much fun it it to walk just for fun!

The women in Tikkabairab

First night we had nowhere to stay and decided to try our luck in a nearby restaurant. Three lovely women were working there and they rented a room. They offered us one of their beds, and after eating dal bhat tarkari and drinking hot Tomba, we squeezed together five persons in a small room in about 10m2 with walls covered by stunning beautiful Bollywood actresses and one big white house with fence by the lake. That night it rained for the first time in two months in Kathmandu Valley, and I woke up several times during the night to put on warmer and warmer clothes and thanking these three hospital women in my heart for taking us into their rented home and sharing a small part of their life with us. The next morning we went to the local photographer to document our stay in Tikkabairab.

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Enabling Youth – enabling us

In our bi-monthly reports, the first part we as Youth Delegates are to answer is: “Describe your main activities during this period (including preparation, your participation & major achievements). – Any challenges?” Next report will focus on giving training in IHL, arranging Human Trafficking workshop and participating on Red Cross meetings organised by Nepal Red Cross. A common challenge is communication with spoken words. Body language goes only so far, but spending three days with two women and one of their sons at our field trip to Myadhi last week did wonders for both understanding and trying to communicate in Nepali. At this annual review and planning meeting for all the Norwegian supported Youth projects to Enable Youth to combat HIV, human trafficking and social discrimination, it was nice to see that the number of participants were equally men and women. As a women, I was immediately included in the women activities; going to temple in the morning as a big group, eating at their table, going to bed when the child in our room was tired. I wish my Nepali was better, I wonder how it is to be a women in Red Cross in Nepal – the woman with a son had no choice but bring him and the other women told me that she had never married, she did not want to. I was in a position to talk to them and try to understand their world, their way of living, their hopes and dreams in life. But I was not able to communicate what I wanted to know and some of what they told me, I was not able to understand. Some because of language, some because my world and way of living is so very different from theirs, some because I don’t dare to ask – am I frightened by the cultural differences, of stepping wrong, of making a fool out of me or out of them? This is for me to find out. This I think is one of my biggest challenges at the moment. What is lost in translation?

Participants at the Annual planning and review meeting

International Humanitarian Law in Lalitpur

Last weekends Red Cross and International Humanitarian Law training was a big success. With 18 participants and 20 intense hours, we trained trainers and planned for starting IHL dissemination already next week! Oh, it feels so good to be a Youth Delegate :)