It has been a busy 3 months in Rupakot. TEJ “The Education Journey” is running smoothly. Dr. Prerana Gauchan came to Rupakot to spend a day mentoring the girls in September. She reported that she had a wonderful time interacting with the girls and the mentors. There are 47 girls enrolled in TEJ. The curriculum has been developed by Dr. Anju Ranjit and our goal is to encourage the girls to stay in school.
In Nepal there are many reasons why a young girl leaves school once they are in secondary school. One of the main reasons is that the girls often marry very young, and they move away to live with their husband’s family. Once they are married and pregnant their lives revolve around the day to day struggle to survive. Another reason for missing days of school after puberty is the lack of privacy when using the toilet facilities. Girls do not have the luxury of using sanitary pads or tampons and rely on rags to collect the menstrual secretions. Since the rags need to be changed and washed it is much easier to stay at home during this time. One of the main complaints of women that we heard at the Health Camp was of dysmenorrhea or painful periods. Often it is just too much work to stay in school after missing a week every month and girls decide to stay at home and work with their mothers until the time when they are married.
Many studies have shown that the longer a girl stays in school the longer they will delay pregnancy. Our goal is to give these girls an outlet, a mentor who they can turn to with questions. Dr. Ranjit has outlined her plans to introduce topics to the girls such as the issues with human trafficking and STDs and teen pregnancy. These are delicate topics, but ones that need to be addressed.