“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one” (Malcolm Forbes) reminds me how essential knowledge is for one’s growth.

On the journey of life, one stop for education was during ‘AYON School of Leadership’ from 27 January – 1 February 2018. It was my great pleasure to be a part of such an exciting program and learn about the issues of youth leadership, gender equality, disaster preparedness and management, community engagement, volunteerism, activism, and innovation.

The first day was the day of introduction when we got to meet and start a journey of friendship with the friends from eastern Biratnagar to western Mahendranagar. The organization of the program was as expected because it was participatory in terms of formation of rules, sharing of responsibilities, objective sharing, studying of participant’s expectations etc. The introductory session was led by Ms. Sarita Lamichhane, on the broad overview of Sex and Gender. The session made us capable to differentiate between ‘Sex’ which means natural differentiation and ‘Gender’ which means social differentiation. The most heartbreaking session during the whole seminar was when some of the participants shared the stories of the ground realities of discrimination against gender, LGBTIQ, disabilities etc. As Frank Smith said, they were the best teachers to enable us to learn, in the form of stories.

As a feminist, the session facilitated by Ms. Rupa Upreti on several issues like human rights and women rights, policies and laws related to women like CEDAW, civil code, criminal code etc were very important for me. Learning about the issues of LGBTIQ and relevant laws from Sujan Panta sir was also quite knowledgeable, where we, the participants got the overview of the circumstances that the LGBTIQ people are facing in the context of Nepal. Participants were also informed about the SRHR by Baburam Panta sir and Ms. Sushmita Shrestha.

All of the participants were activists so the session on’ Advocacy and Campaigning’ by Mr. Pranav Regmi and Mr. Niraj Baag and ‘Safe use of Social Media’ by Mr. Kritagya Chand, were very helpful for our upcoming campaigns in the local communities. The day was inspiring because Ms. Shristi KC led the session on motivation along with group works. She motivated us on how we should make works and workplace inclusive. The session on ‘Problem identification, issues and problem-solving’ by Mr. Saroj Kc enabled us to prepare our own action plans.

Mrs. Archana Tamang from Nepal Reconstruction Authority provided us with the practical overview of ‘Inclusion in DRR’ and ‘Gender Responsive Budget’ where we completed the group work on budgeting and making it socially inclusive. The session on ‘Community Mapping on Disaster Management’ by Ms. Binita Karki increased our knowledge on the disaster-related terminologies and related circumstances in the context of Nepal. Both the sessions were very fruitful for us to continue our efforts during the post-quake reconstruction phase.

We were very thankful for the training on ‘Self Defense’ on public vehicles by Ms. Sarita Lamichhane and about ‘First aid’ by Mr. Dipesh Shrestha and Mr. Radheshyam Kasula, which helped us to feel confident to keep ourselves safe during the times of risk.

As John Holt said “We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.” we prepared our individual ‘Action Plan’ to be implemented in our community because it was where we could implement the gained knowledge, actually in the ground.

The time during the seminar flew faster than the speed of the light because of the knowledgeable sessions from the inspiring people and the friends. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to AYON and all organizers for supporting us during the program and for all the friends to share the beautiful moments together. Together we can change the world.

Reference:

All the quotes were taken from https://managementhelp.org/blogs/training-and-development/2013/04/22/useful-quotes-for-training-and-education-part-ii/