Strength TogetHER 6 - Session 3

17th October,2020

Strength TogetHER is a virtual program facilitated by 'LOKOPAKAR', a youth organization that has achieved to provide a space and platform for individuals (especially girls and young women) to share their views, opinions, perspectives, experiences, their issues and find solutions to them.

Strength TogetHER cohort 6 successfully conducted it's third session.Our moderator for the session was Mrs. Ashmita Sharma who is currently a Marketing Manager of Fightback. She is an organized, creative and enthusiastic person working to expand the market of the company that works to reduce the risk of sexual violence against women and girls. Taking the field of expertise of our moderator in mind, we had selected the topic "Catcalling is not normal."

We had four speakers sharing their stories where they felt unsafe. All the stories showed how difficult they felt during those times.

•  Our first speaker shared how she was chased by a man. This incident made her feel weak and brought tears in her eyes. She felt unsafe which crushed her from inside.

• Our second speaker shared her experience during lockdown. She was going to her sister’s home in a public vehicle. It was already dark and she made sure there were female passengers just to be safe. When she was on her stop she figured out that she was only left with the driver and passenger. She panicked for a bit and started thinking about how to escape and whom to call. Nothing happened but she felt really frightened being in the minivan.

• Our third speaker spoke about her experience of being catcalled and chased. She was catcalled by a bunch of guys early in the morning while going for the college. The cat-callers not only catcalled her but started chasing her on the bus also. They even stopped in her stop. This made her really anxious and she started running towards her college. When she was inside the college she felt relieved and secured. This incident made her think why she was chased and catcalled after all?

•  Our fourth speaker also shared her stories of being verbally abused by a group of boys in her school days. She felt uncomfortable but was unable to talk back to them. Following she shared her story which took place in the public vehicle- Nepal Yatayat. Nepal Yatyat being the busiest public transportation in Kathmandu she faced the horrible experience. She recalls the memories with tears in her eyes, it was packed as usual. She got a seat for ladies at the first time, but she offered it to the old person. Then she got the seat after the old person. She sat in the seat and she felt a man coming towards her. Gradually he started penetrating. She FROZED. She couldn’t say anything and asked the conductor to stop at a place where it was not her stop. After stepping outside she found herself guilty for not being able to take actions.

It was one of the most interactive sessions we had. Here are a few tips our moderator gave us:

• Stranger- Danger. But sometimes known people are dangerous. Be aware

• Be VOCAL

• Yell and Tell

• Prevention is better than cure. Make sure to be aware and take preventive measures ahead.

• Share with your parents.

• Don't share personal details with strangers

• Be vocal for others.

Our participants also shared their stories on how they were chased and how they rescued themselves from the situation. This session was full of learning from each other and most importantly from our moderator Mrs. Ashmita Sharma.We ended on a grateful note by sharing thankyous. It was a great session indeed. Looking forward to more sessions.

Written by- Barsha Tamang (LOKOPAKAR)

Edited by - Aastha Shrestha (LOKOPAKAR)