KATHMANDU, DEC 23: Her Turn Girls Support Community hosted a national conference on ‘Gender Based Violence- Urban Voice for Rural Issues’ at Thames International College, Old Baneshwar on Friday. The conference had a presentation session by 17 young female fellows, who were selected for five months’ fellowship in September 2017. 

The event was a reflective session of the activities conducted by the fellows during their fellowship period. The conference aimed at bringing the fellows together in one platform to share their insights with a wider audience. It focused on issues of human trafficking, child marriage and techniques of evidence based advocacy. 

Opening with a brief introduction of Girls Support Committee Mentorship Program, the conference proceeded with fellows sharing their experiences through presentations, pictures and videos. As  many as 12 of the fellows designed presentations based on the research they conducted in various VDCs of Sindhupalchowk, including Bhote Namlang and Lisankhupakhar, among others.
Program Manager at CCWB, Namuna Bhusal presented a research overview on the impact of women and children after the 2015 earthquakes. “As youths are the future leaders of any country, it is an effective measure to fight community related issues by involving youths, giving them responsibility and making them active advocators,” said Bhusal. At the end of each presentation, a Q&A session was conducted with the audiences’ involvement. 

A short documentary followed the presentations along with a musical performance by Sarangi artist Barta Gandarba. The event also held an interactive session with Founder of Shakti Samuha, Chari Maya Tamang, where she shared her experience and answered queries from the audiences.

“This was my first experience of interacting with the rural community of Sindhupalchok. Reflecting back as a fellow gives me a greater sense of satisfaction for getting to serve the community,” expressed 20-year-old fellow Oshin Shrestha. Another 22-year-old fellow Archana Pokharel, who is a BASW student at KNK College, said, “Since awareness plays a huge role to end violent and discriminatory practices, I believe these kinds of programs are highly effective to make people aware about the problems facing rural population,” said Pokharel.