Celebrating the Journeys of the Civic Leaders from Madhesh & Lumbini: Strengthening Civic Threads 2.0 in Bhairahawa!
By Rachana Khatri and Rashi Maharjan
This September, Impact Hub Kathmandu is thrilled to share our exciting journey to Bhairahawa where we hosted the culmination event Strengthening Civic Threads: Lumbini, Madhesh, and Kathmandu Nexus 2.0 of the USAID Civil Society and Media (CSM) Capacity building and leadership program!
USAID Civil Society and Media (CSM), funded by USAID/Nepal through the CSM-STAND LWA, is implemented by The Asia Foundation in Nepal to support independent civil society and media led by and for women, youth, and marginalized (WYM) communities to advance public interest, fundamental freedoms, and accountability.
Impact Hub Kathmandu, the local partner for the USAID Civil Society and Media Program organized the Strengthening Civic Threads: Lumbini, Madhesh, and Kathmandu Nexus 2.0 on from 10th to 13th September 2024 in Bhairahawa, Lumbini. During the nexus, we invited 30 civic actors and 6 mentors from both Lumbini and Madhesh provinces in Bhairahawa to share their journeys, experiences, and knowledge with us. We invited the civic actors from Lumbini and Madhesh from the year 1 cohort to join us for the culmination program as well.
After the successful completion of the 12 capacity-building workshops, strengthening civic threads: the Lumbini, Madhesh, and Kathmandu nexus 2.0 event was organized in Bhairahawa to celebrate the journey of the civic actors. The nexus event was hosted in September from 10th to 13th September 2024 in Bhairahawa, Lumbini.
Exposure visits to CSOs in Lumbini and Networking
On the second day, the civic actors engaged in exposure visits with CSOs/organizations in Lumbini. We first visited the Lumbini World Heritage Site where participants observed the community resources and heritage site management at the local level. Then, we visited the Rupandehi Apangata Punarsthapana Kendra in Sainamaina-6, Rupandehi and Baal Bahira Madhyamic Vidhyalaya in Meudihawa. During the visit, our civic actors got to interact with the representatives from Punarsthapana Kendra and understand the context of people with disabilities in the Rupandehi and Kapilbastu districts. This was a further validation of the context in Banke and Bardiya as well. Similarly, we were welcomed by the Principal of Baal Bahira Madhyamic Vidhyalaya in Meudihawa who briefed us about the school for the children with hearing disabilities (deaf) and the journey to building this education system for children with hearing impairments.
QUOTE
Another participant quoted, “I do not want to leave the school, I think I will come back again, but with more knowledge of sign language.”
The Demo Day
On the third day of the program, we organized the Strengthening Civic Threads: Lumbini, Madhesh, and Kathmandu Nexus 2.0 Demo day in Mourya Hotel, Bhairahawa!
This engaging day featured networking sessions, panel discussions, and activism by arts including poems around child marriage, women’s education rights, and equality. The interactive sessions centered around various activism themes with the USAID CSM civic actors in Year II. On this day, we also invited the Year I participants Lumbini (Rupandehi and Kapilvastu), and some key external stakeholders and organizations working in similar sectors and partners IHK invited the Janakpur civic actors from Year I so that they do not miss out on this grand exchange opportunity. This grand culmination event engaged 47 civic actors who joined us in the program from Year 1 and Year 2. Out of this, 33 joined from the Year 2 cohort, and 14 joined us from the Year 1 cohort including Bhairahawa and Janakpur. The event comprised more than 50% of women where 38 were women, 26 (39.1%) men, 5 (7.2%) others, and in total, 17 (24.6%) were people with disabilities out of which 12 were women.
The event witnessed cross-provincial interaction between the civic actors and mentors. The discussions led by the civic actors anchored towards themes such as gender justice, equal rights and opportunities for marginalized communities, citizenship issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ communities, and national identity cards for persons with disabilities. Representatives and members from various organizations operating in Lumbini Province participated by raising important questions about where the civic actors feel stuck in their journey. The discussions centered around the key challenges they faced in their activism journey, but also on possible solutions to bring about good governance and positive transformations in society. We were joined by Sabitra Ghimire, Member of the National Federation of the Disabled-Nepal, Lumbini Office, and Kalpana Dhakal, Chairperson of the Federation of Women with Disability-Nepal, Rupandehi Branch in the event.
The nexus event provided the space and opportunity for civic actors to reconnect with other like-minded people from and beyond the provinces. Now we are excited to see how these interactions and alliances will unfold for the civic networks in the country over time!
