JWAS Completes Round 2 of Share the Learning: Scale the Impact

Adolescent activists, journalists and civil society leaders creating posters based on key issues.

In April 2022, Janaki Women Awareness Society received funding from Rockflower to launch the second cohort of their project, Share the Learning: Scale the Impact. Throughout this project, they partnered eight adolescent girls with eight journalists and six civil society leaders to share knowledge, gain perspective and create solutions to large problems facing their communities. The purpose of this project is to identify young activists, give them the opportunity to work with professionals to solve issues facing their communities and provide a platform for them to practice advocating and impact those around them. The focus of this second iteration is to reflect on and determine ways to scale the projects identified by the first group. Some of the issues discussed included COVID-19, sexual and reproductive health, childhood marriage and gender based violence.

JWAS believes that given the opportunity and resources, young girls are uniquely positioned to shift societal norms and inspire those around them to advocate for themselves and their communities. At first, the girls, journalists and CSO leaders shared their experiences and the challenges they faced personally around sexual and reproductive health, gender based violence and throughout COVID-19. It was a time for everyone to get to know one another and understand each other’s experiences. Almost all of the participants spoke about the impact of child marriage on their communities and the need to stop them. They also spoke about the lack of education on sexual and reproductive health and gender based violence provided to girls outside of the school system. Girls who haven’t attended school, often have no way of accessing this information. 

One of the girls explained how receiving education on the negative effects of childhood marriage has broken the cycle in her family. She said, “I believe my parents won’t force me into an early marriage. I understand the harmful aspects of early marriage and have shared it with my parents. Now my parents and I are aware that early marriage does not only affect my health, it will also affect the health of my children.”

Throughout the project, the groups created posters and graphics to explain their responses to the key issues. Then, through collaboration with journalists and civil society leaders, they decided on a few projects to implement and continue working on. One of these projects is a long term advocacy campaign to end child marriage. They would also like to begin establishing child marriage free communities where there will be a no tolerance policy in place. They are excited to grow this initiative and are hopeful that one day there will no longer be child marriages in Nepal. 

Reflections on JWAS' COVID-19 Education Project

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly shifted the needs of our partner organizations and the communities they serve. Organizations, like Janaki Women Awareness Society (JWAS), whose main focus is to intervene and educate women and children in Nepal who are victims of child marriage, domestice violence and the caste system, have found themselves pivoting their work to protect and educate women and their families about the threats posed by COVID-19. In September of 2020, JWAS received funding to launch their project titled “Enhancing the knowledge of girls, women and their family's on COVID-19 and its secondary impact,” and has since completed their project and provided an update.

In the wake of the pandemic, this recent project was created to strengthen the ability of Nepalese women and their families to cope with the threat of COVID-19, continue education on sexual and reproductive health, gender based violence, and provide information about accessing health services during the pandemic. In total, 182 women and girls were able to benefit from community education sessions, while the approximately 625 family members of these women indirectly benefited from their increased knowledge around COVID-19 and preventative measures.

The team at JWAS was able to mobilize quickly and publish an informational, illustration-focused book on the effects of COVID-19 and preventative measures to increase public health. They also developed a six part radio program that was aired on their local radio station in their dialect of Maithili. The main component of this project was to reach marginalized women and girls in the community, and JWAS was able to accomplish this through community education sessions. The team created ten groups of twenty women and girls, and held ten sessions for each group. Throughout the duration of this project, an astounding 100 group sessions were held to educate women on COVID-19, sexual and reproductive health, and gender based violence. The group also listened to the girls and heard their concerns around these issues as well as the caste system, which still segregates and causes vast disadvantages for families in Nepal.

The results of the project were truly transformative, and the community sessions wrapped up right before the onset of the second wave of COVID-19, which JWAS believes left community members much more prepared to protect themselves and their families’ health. The women involved in the group sessions noted that the meetings helped them to understand the importance of wearing masks, using sanitizers and maintaining physical distance in order to stop the spread of the virus. Additionally, in learning about the devastating effects that childhood marriage has on young women’s physical and mental health, the group decided to continue educating women around them to save other women and girls in their community from this fate. In learning more about gender-based violence, the group members requested that JWAS provide training on the subject for their brothers and fathers so that the entire community can work together to put a stop to domestic violence and lack of rights for women. Overall, this project was hugely effective in both educating on COVID-19 prevention, and issues of sexual health and gender-based violence. The women involved now have greater knowledge to protect themselves, and are motivated to continue sharing this knowledge to create a healthier and more equitable community.

Prevention, Protection and Preparedness for COVID-19 for 200 Rural Girls and Women in Nepal

Sunday, the 11th of October is International Day of the Girl and Rockflower is pleased to announce a new partnership with Janaki Women Awareness Society (JWAS) in Nepal. 

JWAS, a community-based organization established in 1993 by a group of women social workers, is undertaking a project to educate and protect the most marginalized of women and girls through a virtual and listening program on the threat of COVID-19. 

By utilizing the power of radio, picture books, and small community listening groups, JWAS is creating effective channels of communication to inspire and protect those most at risk. Information about COVID-19 prevention, preparedness and protection, and how best to access health services during this pandemic are of paramount importance in these communities. Read more about these girls and young women who are at high risk for child marriage and gender-based violence and how through this simple but effective means of communication JWAS will be stemming the tide of an inevitable surge in COVID-19 cases.