Greetings everyone,
I came back from Nepal the last week of October but with the freak snow storm in Connecticut we had to deal with the disaster it left. But our lives are back to normal and I am finally able to give you an update on the conference.I have to say that overall, the conference was a successful event. The credit goes to everyone involved in putting together this conference. My special thanks to our committee members for your hard work and vision.
I had the opportunity to moderate the women’s conference, which was chaired by Ranju Thapa. Our chief guest was a current CA member Hisila Yami. She highlighted the importance of the conference as well as women’s participation in the overall national development. She updated the participants of the progress that Nepali women have made in recent history, including the 33% women representation in current parliament.
We had ten presenters from wide range of topics, which focused on subjects like the status of Nepali women and children, gender-based violence, abortion in Nepal, and post-traumatic stress. Nebin Lal Shrestha from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal set the stage with the data from the recent UNICEF research. There were also presentations from various projects such as Empower Dalit Nepal, Didi Project and Model Village. Comedian and Activist Madan Krishna Shrestha also discussed the difficulties of changing the attitude in a patriarchal society.
Our committee had set out to provide a platform for all walks of life to come together, bring women’s issues forward, and collaborate on our common causes. We did not get as much participation as expected from the various NGO and INGO. In the future, we will need to make more effort in reaching out to this particular community on a personal level.
We had stated early on that one of our conference goals was to involve men and ensure that they actively participate in the conference and in the broader movement. As evidenced from the large number of male participants, male presenters, and our own committee members, this was a great success!
Our goal of bring awareness to women’s issues was also a great success. The conference was covered by many television stations and newspapers.
We hope that the conference generated interest among the NRN National Coordinating Councils around the world to organize and mobilize for real change on women’s issues.
On the second day of the conference, Ranju Thapa conducted a meeting to discuss priorities for women where there was participation from majority of the NRN NCC countries.
During the Women’s session I presented the summary of our pre-conference and our resolution; they are as follows:
1. Create a network of the 57 NRN NCC countries, we will be able to accomplish a great deal if we are united and organized.
2. All 57 NRN NCCC women representative to come together and focus on one project for the next two years.
3. Set up a task force to bring awareness on women’s issues.
4. Increase qualified representation in the NRNA executive board.
5. Work on safe migration of women.
Usha Sharma, Samato Mahato and Radha Basnyat each contributed $500 (a total of $1500) for our pre-conference. There is an additional $300 committed by Canada NRN which Radha didi will need to follow up on. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank all the contributors to this conference.
Our women’s pre-conference was running parallel to the Open University pre-conference so we agreed to share high-tea event with them. The agreement with then President Hirachan was that he would cover the cost of the high tea since NRNA was going to cover cost of tea and snack for Open University. The cost of the high tea was approximately Rs.200,000. I will correspond with secretariat and Hirachanji regarding the account.
It will be good for our committee come together one more time. Would this Sunday, November 13th at 8 am U.S. eastern time work for you.
Thank you again for all your support; each of you played a vital role in the success of this conference.
Bidya
