Girls: Better after quake

On March 2017, Visible Impact’s Girls: Better after quake program completed its one year of mentoring earthquake affected adolescent girls of Nepal.

With an aim to unleash the social leadership, enhance skills and build confidence of 15 adolescent girls, Visible Impact conducted eight skills building workshops, several safe space meetings, transect walk in the community, community meetings with community leaders, etc. in Kharanitar, Nuwakot in the past one year, in partnership with Accountability Lab, Helping Hands Kharanitar, and donations raised through GlobalGiving.

Two weeks back, the team also conducted participatory evaluation of the program with the office staff, benefirciary girls, and social mobilizer. This report highlights on what the evalution entailed.

The girls appreciated all the sessions and they particularly appreciated the girls-friendly model of workshops i.e. in a safe space using games and fun methodologies. The teaching methods were said to be interactive and friendly which built a friendly environment throughout the sessions. The games in the sessions were rated to be good. The story writing part of the program was also highly liked by the girls. The content of the sessions on Gender based violence, Menstrual Health Management and girls trafficking were highly appreciated as it helped them learn things that were not taught in school and provided them with contents that they could share with their teachers as well. The sessions also provided an opportunity to the girls to share their learning with the non-participants in the schools.

With regards to the venue, the girls felt that the current venue was feasible. However, they also proposed the Primary Health Care Center Meeting Hall as the venue for the program for the future. The girls showed mild satisfaction towards the lunch being provided and showed a preference towards changing it in the future.

The programs met with the expectations of the girls and helped them build their public speaking abilities. It also helped them gain confidence. Girls were seen participating in the community meetings and speaking for what they think is right or wrong which is the major achievement and a point of encouragement to Visible Impact team as well.

Adding to all these, the program was also viewed negatively by the community people because of the expectations they had developed being a part of other programs conducted by other many organizations, especially in regards to the meeting allowance they receive.

The areas of improvement were said to be time management as the programs were not conducted in a punctual manner whereas the duration of the workshops was completely fine to them. Increase in the number of community meeting was also put forward as the areas of improvement.

The girls aspired to provide peer education to others and practice public speaking actively in the future.