Strength TogetHER 16 (MBS)

January 8, 2022 Unless and until our society recognizes cyberbullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue. - Anna Maria Chavez With the increase in the use of the internet and social media platforms, there has always been a fear of online abuse. With this in mind, we conducted a session at Mahendra Bhawan School on the topic of, “Online Abuse” moderated by Rusha Adhikari.  Our moderator Rusha Adhikari started the session with her introduction. She is a development professional who has experience working with different national and international organizations in the areas of child rights, child protection, quality education, and access to justice.  All the participants introduced themselves mentioning their favorite social media platforms. Youtube, Snapchat, Instagram, and messenger were the most mentioned ones. They also listed and discussed all the social media platforms they were aware of, and what they use the specific ones for. The main purpos

18th December 2021. "The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand, we listen to replies." Lokopakar is a youth-based organization currently running four projects among which Strength togetHER is one of its projects where a group of girls from different backgrounds meet and share their stories, insecurities, ideas, and perspective and help each other grow. In each session, a moderator is provided who listens, appreciates, and guides the participants. As we have started running our sessions in physical presence, the sessions are being more lively and effective for the participants. On 18th December, we conducted our fifth session on the premises of Mahendra Bhawan School on the topic" Understanding Each Other." Our participants were 6 to 8 graders girls.  We started the session by asking the participants if a misunderstanding has occurred with them, if yes what. First hilarious stories of misunderstanding with strangers came, they shared how the

  December 11, 2021 Coming to the fourth session “Learning To Deal With My Problems” we knew much more about each other.  We were comfortable with each other and we had already started finding comfort among each other. Our physical session in Mahendra Bhawan was moderated virtually by Miss. Rosy Karna. Ms. Rosy Karna is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology at the PGSP Stanford Psy. D. Consortium Program. It was such a delight to have her presence with us.  We started the session with a simple question - How many of us have problems in life? Everyone answered they all have problems in their lives. We started by sharing what were the problems we faced. Some of the problems which we faced were small as well as big. But we all faced problems in life. “Being criticized by others hurts a lot” our participant mentioned with teary eyes and a shaky voice.  Our participant mentioned how her school dress does not dry up and she irons and wears it. But it feels wet and wh

27th November 2021. Strength togetHER facilitated by Lokopakar provides a safe platform for girls to share their personal stories, ideas, and feelings. Our third session of Strength TogetHER in Mahendra Bhawan School, Sano Gaucharan with the collaboration of Ward no. 5 was on the topic “My first-period story”. Girls were asked to recall their memories of their first period and how they felt during that time. We started our session with full enthusiasm and a room filled with good energy. With the hand raised to tell the story first our first participant started her first-period story. She mentioned that she was in her house wearing makeup-clicking pictures. Then she suddenly felt the urge to go to the toilet and she found out she was on her period. She really felt shy when she found out she was having her period. Another participant raised her hand tall, to share her story. It was the time of Dashain and she was in her maternal uncle's home for the festive. She suddenly saw blood an

20 November 2021. Strength togetHER facilitated by Lokopakar provides a safe platform for girls to share their personal stories, ideas, and feelings. The first physical session of Strength TogetHER after 2 years of running virtually was conducted in Mahendra Bhawan School, Sano Gaucharan with the collaboration of Ward no. 5. With the excitement of physical sessions and girls from Grade 7-10 at  Mahendra Bhawan School, we started our session with silence among girls. There were 20+ girls participants of different ages.  We started with an introductory session. With awkward smiles, small voices, shyness in their eyes our girls gave their introduction. We not only gave an introduction but also mentioned our favorite color and why it has been our favorite. “Blue is my favorite color because the sky is really beautiful, Green is my favorite because I like nature, I have always loved black as it makes me feel really comfortable, Purple is my favorite color and there is no specific reason to