Women’s Day at Volunteer Society Nepal

On Wednesday March 8th, Volunteer Society Nepal celebrated the wonderful women of its community!

At the Women’s Center, we held a special program to engage everyone in a discussion about women’s rights and gender equality. Our first activity was a physical debate where the women used their bodies to answer “agree” or “disagree” to a series of thought-provoking statements: “Women are already equal to men”, “Girls’ lives are not harder than boys’ lives”, “Education is necessary for every girl”, to name but a few.

Our second activity consisted in brainstorming ideas for the creation of a Women’s Day Poster. The women were divided into groups and discussed what they thought would be important to highlight or display in the poster. At the end, all the ideas were discussed, voted on and merged together to create the final poster. The poster illustrated all the things that women can do, from building a house to flying a plane to tending a garden and family.

Our third activity consisted in asking the women to complete the sentence “One day I will…” or “One day my daughter will…”, sharing their dreams for an empowered future. We collected all their wishes on post-its that created another colourful and ambitious poster.

The last activity had the women drawing their role-models, which we suggested could be themselves, and writing how that role-model inspired them. Many women drew Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Nepal’s current and first female president, while many others drew their mothers.

The afternoon was empowering, creative and filled with laughter and good fun.

As fun always involves momos, we continued the celebration into the evening, joining with the children at New Life Children’s Home and other volunteers, wrapping up our favorite veggie and buffalo fillings into dumplings, listening to music and cheerfully exchanging experiences, and of course eating our body weight in momos!