Community Mobilisers

Namaste

Community Mobiliser – “What is one of those?” you may well ask. 

In the ‘Sisters for Sisters Education in Nepal Project’ the Community Mobilisers are a very important component.  Community Mobilisers are the young Nepali women who liaise with the village communities and especially the Big Sisters in each of the project areas. They also look after us 'biddeshi' volunteers, frequently travelling with us, making sure we are safe and looked after, can do the work we need and even ensuring at times that we have something to eat and a bed to sleep in.

Sarita, after a farewell ceremony at one school
that she has worked with for the past 2 years.

At Global Action Nepal in Lamjung, the NGO partner for my work, for the past two years there have been five Nepali Community Mobilisers working on the 'Sisters for Sisters Project'; Anju, Manzu, Muna, Samjhana and Sarita, (and one VSO volunteer Community Mobiliser, Judith).   All of these young women have grown up in rural villages in the local area and so understand the situation of the Little Sisters, the young girls who are the focus of our project.  Sadly, two of the original Community Mobilisers have recently left our team, Muna to join her new husband in Kathmandu and Manzu to take up responsibility at another GAN office.  

At a training event for organising sports and games, Muna and Manzu ....

..... and laughter from Anju and Samjhana

I feel very privileged to work with such inspiring young women.  They each work with two or three schools and communities, organising and attending meetings, helping with training of the Big Sisters, visiting the schools to check on attendance and progress, visiting Little Sisters homes, making sure that everything is going well with the Big Sisters and their Little Sisters and, most importantly, reporting back on any issues or developments in these communities. The schools and their communities are often far from Besisahar, with some being several hours walk through farmland and forest, so the job involves much walking. 

Making resources for games and activities to use in schools.

Samjhana showing off the finger puppets she has made.

It has been fabulous to see these young women develop and increase their confidence during my time here. They now speak with authority at meetings with the community or teachers, and gain respect from all they work with. Also, though not so important, they can all speak much more English than when I arrived to work with them.

Since the earthquakes we have also been working on the Emergency Education projects, and so GAN Lamjung has taken on 5 more temporary C.M.s to manage the extra work.  The three 'old' Community Mobilisers now have the responsibility of helping to train and equip the new ones for the demanding and important role they play in these projects.

Training for all on organising games events, with Judith.

It has been so good to have worked and developed friendships with such a delightful group of young women - even if one of them refers to us volunteers as her "old biddeshi mums!"
Thank you for your help and friendship!