YESS Girls Newsletter 2021 - (May edition)

SATURDAY

...A journey of a life time...

12 JUNE

YESS GIRLS MOVEMENT NEWS LETTER

May 2021

YESS 2021 National Task Force Nepal Scouts

CONTENTS Foreword YESS Girls Movement is one of the leading projects of Nepal Scouts since 2018, with the support of WAGGGS and NOREC.

Acknowledgement YESS Girls Movement is one of the major leading projects in Nepal Scouts.

YESS Alumnae Summit is the gathering of all the YESS Alumnae from 2015 to till now and it is a program exclusively for the YESS Alumnae. During the YESS Alumnae Summit, you get the opportunity of reuniting with the YESS Alumnae whom you haven’t seen from a long period of time from 2015 to till date.

Progress on Membership The second wave of covid is hitting brutally in Nepal , but we have done our project through virtual platform

Due to rapid increase in Covid Cases we were not able to do program physically. Even in this tough situation we were able to collaborate with team advocacy and covid-19 response team through out the ‘MHM WEEK CELEBRATION”.

Progress on Advocacy Exploring Rosie’s World, MHM Week Celebration and Red Pride week was conducted virtually due to lockdown.

Progress on Girl Led COVID-19

Progress on Girl led COVID-19 RESPONE, CAPACITY building and communication General Activities.

WAGGGS Initiatives and Progress

WAGGGS INITIATIVES AND PROGRESS ON THE ALUMNAE SUMMIT PREPARATIONS

Press and Social Media Lot of covid cases was increased and government released lockdown in Nepal so due to lockdown there were no press meet this month.

YESS Girls movement- Nepal Scouts actively participated in the Red Pride week challenge through social media.

FOREWORDS

YESS Girls Movement is one of the leading projects of Nepal Scouts since 2018, with the support of WAGGGS and NOREC. Nepal Scouts is delighted to welcome passionate young girls leaders as the National Task Force Members for the 2021 Youth Exchange South to South

(YESS) movement in Nepal. In past, the YESS project has enhanced the ability of our young leaders by developing their skills in leadership ,communication ,reporting and ability to manage their day-to-day activities including special events.

The YESS projects has also assisted Nepal Scouts in interacting with other participants and the young women leaders will be strengthen and empower other young girls and leaders of Nepal Scouts. They are working as a role model which inspires and encourages other youths to be the members of Nepal Scouts.

This year, due to covid-19 International Exchange has not been planned for 2020/2021. YESS Girls Movement-Nepal has recruited 20 young girls along with 5 alumnae as team leader who will guide the Task Force Members .They have already been engaged in different activities and commitment in the mission to help girls reach their highest potential through campaign, activities delivering WAGGGS initiatives like World Thinking Day ,Free Being Me / Action on Body Confidence , Stop the violence etc. followed with daily office administrative support and other assigned tasks.

Nepal Scouts is eager to continue working with the girls to achieve the targeted YESS project along with the girls to achieve the targeted YESS project along with others WAGGGS initiatives. Nepal Scouts is also committed to ensure that the YESS Girls Movements program that will support in delivering the outstanding results in Nepal for a whole year. The movement will be the opportunity to have experience of lifetime not just for the girls but for all scouts in Nepal.

Lok Bahadur Bhandari Chief Commissioner Nepal Scouts

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Currently, due to the second wave of global pandemic Corona virus (COVID-19) all activities are halted and we all are staying in the house. Even in the lockdown situation girls are completing the challenges by the WAGGGS and of the project as well and stood noticeable in social medias spreading the message of scouting to the world.

All the teams worked hard and ran different virtual programs for the young girls and leaders. Different informative messages regarding Covid-19 was spread by Covid-19 Response Team. All the teams are doing the activities virtually due to the present situation. The Membership Team and Covid-19 Response Team also completed the tasks assigned by WAGGGS in a proper and effective way.

Likewise, the girls also celebrated MHM Week which was led by Team Advocacy. Different resources persons were invited for the session. They talked about managing periods and also shared their ideas on making reusable pads. The session also focused on Period Poverty, stigma and the myths of the menstruation. Mental Health Awareness were also focused during the session. Effective and active participation was there and the session was very fruitful though it was virtual.

At last, I am very thankful for having very passionate and hardworking YESS National Task Force Members. I am impressed with their creativity and during the hard time also they are performing very well. I am proud of them. Hence, I personally recommend all to stay home and stay safe, let’s hope the next day shall bring the ray of new hope and better world.

Thank you!!

Saru Gosai

YESS Country Coordinator Nepal Scouts

PROGRESS ON MEMBERSHIP

Due to rapid increase in covid case, we were not able to do program physically. Even in this tough situation, we were able to collaborate with team advocacy and covid-19 response team throughout “MHM Week CELEBRATION” by supporting them by making banners, publicity, reporting and content writing. Team also collaborated with communication team to do success story task, which we completed successfully.

Moreover, we are planning to collaborate with Innovative Open Crew to start E-Troop, in which the student’s age group of 11-16 years can join from all over the Nepal. Due to lockdown, we were not able to do much program. Hoping the situation get in control so that we can do our program physically.

PROGRESS ON ADVOCACY

EXPLORING ROSIE’S WORLD On May 7 , we successfully conducted a virtual session on Exploring Rosie’s World where we trained about 60 girl scouts on Menstrual Hygiene Management-Rosie’s World. The session was very interactive and fruitful. After the session most of them shared the knowledge they learnt during the session to their family and relatives.

health. The program was started on 23rd May 2021 along with the chairmanship and opening speech of Mr. Lok Bahadur Bhandari, National Coordinator of Nepal Scouts and officially lasted up to MH Day i.e.

28th May 2021 which was ended with the closing speech by Mr. Ram Prasad Bhattarai, Director of Nepal Scouts with active participation of around 100 participants on each day.

MH Day is a global movement to catalyze awareness, advocacy and action on Menstrual Health and Hygiene and to break silent against period poverty and period stigma. By keeping it on a focal point, Mr.

MHM WEEK CELEBRATION As Nepal is in lockdown, every individual is locked inside the home and can’t perform field activities.

Then YESS Girls Movement-Nepal Scouts came with the plan to do some more webinars. So as a result conducted the 6 day long webinar successfully in order to celebrate MH Day 2021 by providing the adequate knowledge on Menstruation and Menstrual Hygiene Management, to break silent and speak out against period stigma and period poverty along with raising awareness on how to tackle the effect of COVID 19 pandemic on menstruation and mental

Lok Bahadur Bahandari highlighted the importance of the education and awareness on menstruation and no one should be left behind just because of menstruation. Many invited guest speakers ,from different fields ,delivered the session on different topics related to menstruation and mental health on different days. Dr. Bidit Bhattarai kicked off the first day of MHM week celebration with his impressive and informative presentation on “ Menstruation and its issues”. Followed by Ms. Ackissah Thandiwe Baluti from Malawi on the topic of “Period Poverty” on the second day of webinar by connecting Africa region and Asia region and the whole world in

her presentation. The third day, we focused on the very deeply rooted issue on menstruation i.e. menstruation stigma or period stigma by Ms. Anita Shahi. And on fourth and fifth day we discussed “COVID 19 effects on Menstruation” along with management of menstruation in school by Mr. Chij Kumar Gurung and on “Mental Health Awareness”

by Mr. Anjan Dhakal.

The last day and celebration day of MH Day 2021 and our webinar was celebrated by experience sharing

of

the

representatives

from

various

countries and different parts of our country who have been working on MHM and COVID 19 pandemic as a front liner. The overall program was very fruitful, informative and impressive along with the shower of questions and queries and interest related to MHM by our participants. The impressive session by our guest speakers, active participation of our participants and the day to day hard work, dedication and support of the organizer team led this webinar to achieve huge success.

WAGGGS INITIATIVE AND PROGRESS ON YESS ALUMNAE SUMMIT YESS Alumnae Summit is the gathering of all the YESS Alumnae from 2015 to till now and it is a program exclusively for the YESS Alumnae. During the YESS Alumnae Summit, you get the opportunity of reuniting with the YESS Alumnae whom you haven’t seen from a long period of time from 2015 to till date. It is the platform to relive some of the old memories while you were in your exchange program. Not only that YESS Alumnae Summit is the conference or seminar where we discussed our initiatives, how they have been carried out and whether they create and bring positive changes or not , is it effective or not. We do all the evaluation of our work from the start of YESS Girls Movement to till date. It is the place where we discussed, planned and prepared to bring the changes and input some of the new ideas in our work plan to make our YESS Girls Movement program more effective.

RED PRIDE WEEK CHALLENGE YESS Girls movement- Nepal Scouts actively participated in the Red Pride week challenge through social media.

PROGRESS ON GIRLS LEAD COVID-19 RESPONSE In Nepal there is still a lockdown due to

where virtual awareness campaigns, posts, survey

the rapid spread of the second wave of COVID-19.

questionnaires, video, and so on were created

So, physical gathering is still prohibited. We are

and posted in social media. We were able to

organized our program through virtual based.

inform and update people regarding information of

A week long virtual webinar was conducted in

COVID-19, differences in symptoms of the first and

collaboration

second wave of COVID-19 , information regarding

with

team

advocacy

regarding

Menstrual hygiene management and impact of

vaccination and other preventive measures.

COVID 19 in mental health, where national and

participated as volunteers in a vaccination program,

international speakers facilitated on various topics.

where volunteers were working to manage crowds

With participants of 130( zoom/ Facebook live),

of people coming for vaccination, registration

we were able to conduct the session successfully.

process, help desk in health centers. SMS behavior

Since it was virtual based programs via zoom

enforcement was applied in vaccination stations.

participants from various parts of the country were

able to participate in zoom as well as in Facebook

task force COVID-19 response team members

live. Within the webinar, a session was dedicated

and team leader where ideas were discussed and

to the volunteers and front line workers where

finalized the task assigned by WAGGGS to engage

they shared their work experience along with

parents about Survival in the Post COVID-19 new

the challenges they have faced. Similarly, it was

Normal and community engagement activity.

followed by the next virtual program on “Isolating

in the pandemic, it’s challenges and solutions”

of the virtual webinars, awareness campaigns and

which was successfully conducted in collaboration

volunteering work. Since lockdown is extended, in

with Rotaract Club of Baneshwor. In this program

the upcoming month we are planning to come with

we have around 70 participants from scouts and

more virtual programs.

Rotaract. Most of the programs were virtual based

We

Meeting was organized among YESS national

Hence in this month, we ended up with most

CAPACITY BUILDING

By the end of May, the team was supposed to be

a workshop on preparation of effective powerpoint

conducting a webinar on “Impacts of Surgical Mask

and graphics designing. Meeting and planning with

on the Environment”. However, the program was

facilitators is going on and preparing to conduct on

cancelled as the research and study by the team

about the first and the third week of June.

concluded that the selected topic for webinar would be less impactful as of now, as the only affordable

In addition to this, team capacity building actively

and convenient solution is surgical mask at this

participated in a week-long celebration of MHM

pandemicAt the team meeting held on the 2nd week

Week organized by YESS Team Nepal. Besides

of May, team decided to come up with ideas that

participation, members of Team Capacity Building

would benefit the capacity building of YESS Girls.

assisted during the preparation of the MHM program

As per the meeting, team is working to conduct

in creating contents, designs and emailing.

COMMUNICATION TEAM

Communication team is one of the important

program became successful. This month we were

team which is always ready to do the tasks.

able to post more than 35 contents on fb, twitter

Communication team has always collaborated and

and Instagram. We successfully have done 5 live

communicate with all the concerned teams. This

session on the occasion of MHM week. We get 735

month also we have collaborated with each team

likes on Facebook and 779 likes on Instagram posts.

for different tasks. In this ongoing pandemic we

The total views we got on Instagram videos and

are unable to go outside of our house. So, this

live session:

month we have done virtual planning meeting with

• 310 views on Instagram videos

team advocacy and team Covid – 19 for upcoming

• 930 views on MHM week celebration

programs. Communication team collaborated with

• 697 views on covid 19 pandemic and menstrual

membership team to do the success story task

hygiene management

which we completed successfully.

• 266 views on Red pride week

This month was very important for communication

• 462 views on covid 19 and mental awareness

team

• 834 views on MHM week celebration closing

because

we

collaborated

with

all

the

concerned team for the MHM week celebration program. Because of every team’s co-operation

ceremony.

PRESS AND SOCIAL MEDIA A lot of covid cases are increasing and government released lockdown in Nepal so due to lockdown there were no press meet.

SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES OF YESS GIRLS • 310 views on Instagram videos • 930 views on MHM week celebration • 697 views on covid 19 pandemic and menstrual hygiene management • 266 views on Red pride week • 462 views on covid 19 and mental awareness • 834 views on MHM week celebration closing ceremony.

www.nepalscouts.org YESS Girls Movement- Nepal Scouts @yessgirlsmovement_nepalscouts Yessgirlsmovement_nepalscouts