#ej2023

[somedayourocean]

Last summer I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Anna Marie McLemore's queer trans gatsby retelling, Self Made Boys. The cover was fairly bland in comparison to the published cover so giving this baby a rebind was one of my first binderary projects!

I of course didn't want to lose the original cover with the "exclusive" sticker on it so I made a little pocket in the back to keep it in.

The only thing its missing now is the title on the spine which I will hopefully be printing once I have access to a cricut at my local library and maybe some cute corner protectors.

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Nibita Sunar

For the second day of EmpowHER Junior 2023, Apsara ji and I were chosen as the buddies for the day. To me, the experience with EJ2023 was fun and I believe it has changed my life. I might learn more things after this ends but this program is and will be very important in my life. After joining EJ I got to learn and hear words I had never heard before. 

At the beginning of the session, Aagya ji, Prachi j,i and Sadhana Ji took us all to an open ground. They asked us to bring an object that resembles us the most. We followed the instructions and spread to find the object. Everyone brought their items and some of us even explained why they thought the item was like them. We got to know ourselves more that day. After this activity, I and all my fellow changemaker friends made the core values that we would follow throughout EJ some of them were: to be disciplined, and independent, lead the works we had at hand, to introduce ourselves without fearing, let others speak as well, teach our parents and friends the learnings we had and to live freely.

On the second day we learned to say sorry and thank you, before that we didn’t say these phrases even at times when we were supposed to. We would feel shy to say thank you or sorry to others, let them be our relatives, friends or teachers. Now we know we should not shy away from saying these words and their importance.

[somedayourocean]

in bloom

(inspired by this photo)

[somedayourocean]

you know, it’s more the being unknown

something something turns out the person who you’ve known your entire existence doesn’t understand you on a base level 😭

[somedayourocean]

not me having feelings about crowley's fall from grace and turning it into an 8 hour hyperfixation

[somedayourocean]

a smol cat journal, because bitches love cats (im bitches)

[somedayourocean]

I literally designed this last night because my sticker place is having a 4th of July sale and apparently muskrat felt it and said, hold my beer, I'm gonna run my company into the ground EVEN FASTER

[somedayourocean]

best part of binding your own books is the ability to go hard on a theme 🍪

[somedayourocean]

[somedayourocean]

In my mushroom era 🍄

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Dil Kumari Pariyar

I was the buddy for Day 10 of EmpowHER Junior 2023. It was the final day of our leadership institute. The first thing we did as soon as we arrived was to prepare for the final interview with our Advisory Committee members. All 24 of us were divided into 3 groups and had an individual interview. To be selected for EmpowHER Junior, I gave an interview for the first time and from that interview, I can only remember my nervousness. However, in this interview, I was not so nervous and wanted to give my best. We also recorded our Mock Pitch presentation during which I got very excited and nervous at the same time

After the interview session, we went to the Chapakot municipality office to practice our pitching for our Service Impact Idea (SII) to present in front of a larger audience i.e. our principals, people from the municipality and guardians.The event started with a short video with photos and videos of our 10 days longs journey. Watching those images made me realize how fast time went by and how confident this experience has made me. My fellow changemaker friend, Sarina Bhujel, shared the overall experience of the EmpowHER Junior program. 

Then we presented our Service Impact Idea proposal in front of our school principals and guardians. At the end, we clicked a group photo and ate some snacks and returned home.

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Smriti Dhakal

On the 9th day we had a discussion on how to present our Service Impact Ideas (SII) in the Chapakot municipality. All of the five groups presented in front of the Ujyalo Foundation team and they received some feedback from the team and other changemakers who were listening. Each of  them presented their plans on implementing their SII. I have written in brief about all the group presentations that I saw and listened to including my own group’s presentation below. 

Group 1(Unique Juniors) whose SII theme is ‘Mental Health and Trauma among Adolescent girls’. They have planned to work with 12-16 years adolescent girls, community people and parents/guardians through a drama.

Group 2(Fab Five) has ‘Girls Access to Information’ as their SII theme. They have aimed to bring adolescent girls from 4 schools and they aim to provide access to those adolescent girls.

The SII theme for Group 3(Freedom Group) is  ‘Safety for young girls’ where they not only planned to include their own schools but also involved three other schools with 20 students and 20 guardians/parents for the program and I really liked this factor.

Group 4 (Nidaar Leaders) has the SII theme ‘Body Autonomy and Decision Making Rights’ and  they have planned to conduct a program for 12-16 years adolescent girls to raise awareness around the rights they have so that they can make their decisions and lead.

Group 5(Five Angels) the group that I was part of had the SII theme name ‘Law and Awareness regarding Girls Right’. We aim to organize a program at our own school and coordinate with Ward 4, 6, and 7 along with 5 other schools which have to be discussed and then decided. We want to conduct the program with adolescent girls on their rights and spread awareness and knowledge on the rights. We intend to consult with a lawyer for suggestions in the program.

After the presentation, we were given some advice and suggestions to improve our presentation and on that day and we not only learned about how to present but to give  feedback as well.

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Namrata Khand

With the chirping of the birds my eyes opened, when I saw the watch it was 6 ‘o clock in the morning. I slowly got up and woke my friend as well. After our daily morning routine, we did the homework that was assigned to us the day prior. Today was the fourth Saturday of the month and it was a special day for me and my friends because it was the day for our fundraising event and an immersion visit. I was thrilled.  Oh! As I was dwelling on various things it was already 8:30 a.m. so my friend and I ate some food and got ready. We reached the school premise and my group members also arrived. One of my group members had yet to arrive because she was responsible to cook and bring samosas. Then our group got divided into 3 subgroups. The first group went with Prachi ji, the second with Sadhana ji and the third group which I was a part of went with Aagya ji. Our group was meant to go to the Municipality office to meet Isha ji and ask a few questions we had. This is why we took our own notebook that contained our questions. 

We reached the Municipality office to interact with the Deputy Mayor, Isha Rana and I got a little scared but discussion went smoothly. Our questions were related to her political journey and policies of the municipality. As we asked these questions, Isha ji easily answered them. After our conversation with Isha ji, we returned to the class and Aagya ji announced the buddies for the day were Ritu ji, Chhaya ji, and me and told us our roles and works. After that, we learned to make business cards as we didn’t know how to make them. Aagya ji, Sadhana ji and Prachi ji helped us make it. Since we did not have much time left, we quickly made it and went to eat our lunch. During lunch, we discussed the questions we asked in our respective immersion visit with our friends.

Then quickly went to the location for our fundraising. We were divided into 5 groups. Some of us brought Pakoda, Panipuri, Mohito, Chatpate and Samosa. Each group had 5 members where two members were the sellers, two were responsible to bring any ingredient that would fall short(runner) and one leader. All of the groups sold well, and our Samosas were also sold out! After everyone was done with their business we returned to the school. Then, Chhaya ji, Ritu ji and I went to the classroom and wrote all the things we learned that day on a chart paper. We gave the funds we collected to ma’am and presented the day’s learning with our friends. Then, ma’am asked us who the changemakers for the day were and they were: Apsara, Subina, Gunjan and Smriti. We did the highs and lows and returned home. I was very tired but I’m sure everyone else was also tired because fundraising turns out to be difficult but I learned a lot as well. Then I reached home at 5:45 p.m. and rested till 6 and prepared for the Pitching tomorrow. Finally, I went to the living room and watched T.V. till 11 p.m. and went to sleep.

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Susmita Thapa 

On the 7th day, we went to the class where we kept our plants to see their growth and give them the necessary amount of water. After that, we sat on our respective seats with our group members to further plan for our Service Impact Idea (SII). We chose our SII project name and created a group name as well. Our SII theme was “Body Autonomy and Decision Making Rights” and our group name was “Nidaar Leaders”. When I chose the SII theme I was happy to imagine myself leading even though I was slightly scared. We chose this theme because it resembled our society's situation at present. We then practiced for our theme project presentation. 

In the second half of the day, we went hiking to Sitaltar where we had so much fun. Since the day was sunny I had a headache but as I got to share my feelings and opinions with my friends it was fun. Even during the hike we got to learn a lot of things. We learned to take permission from others before we use or do anything to them. Before this session, I didn’t know consent was this important and how careful we should be. To understand the idea of consent, we played a game where some of us became drivers and others became trucks. This game was fun and informative. Further, we planned for the fundraising we had to conduct for our SII and the location for the fundraising was also discussed. 

One of the most memorable lessons during the hike was that we were taught the importance of asking for consent and being self-confident and confidently expressing ourselves as well.

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Rajani Tiwari

The 6th day was exciting because we got to talk to our Mentors who will be helping us with our Service Impact Idea(SII) and had a session on violence and mental health. During this day, we found out about violence and the types of violence that are there. We didn’t know about economical and emotional violence and after learning, we could relate to it.  Along with that, we also learned about mental health and did an exercise related to mental health in our workbook. And as usual, we also did a plant update. 

Then, after the session, we sat in a group according to the Service Impact Idea (SII) theme. Our theme was ‘Harmful Traditional Practices that Impact Girls’. The major issue we discussed for this SII was discrimination done to adolescent girls during their menstrual cycle. We had a long discussion on the topics of the problems and the possible solutions. We are driven to solve the issue. And since we got to talk with our mentor for the first time I was really excited and happy. It was a fun experience. We also started to prepare our SII proposal the same day.

The 6th day, like every day, was a good learning experience and there was too much information and new things that we were learning.

[ujyaloinnepal]

EmpowHER Junior 2023

By Samikchya Rana

I am glad that I got a chance to participate in Ujyalo Foundation’s EmpowHER Junior 2023 where on the 5th day I was the Session Representative. This meant that I was selected to present the learnings and activities of the day at the end as a part of reflection. We learned tons of things that day like what effective communication is, its importance, what happens when we don’t communicate effectively  and how its impacts on individuals.  When we have to provide information to a person we have to clearly state it in a manner that is understood by them and be a good listener to practice effective communication. If there is a miscommunication we might have a conflict. 

To reflect on whether we communicate effectively or not, we did an activity, which helped us to understand how to effectively communicate with others. We also learned that we need to communicate effectively if we are to work in a group for our Service Impact Idea projects.

Some of the important things we learned were about gender identity, sexual orientation, and new terminologies around gender such as intersex and transgender. Before this session, I didn’t know these terminologies.  Along with this, we learned that every adolescent girl and their needs and wants are not the same, we are different in some way or another. Like: appearance, color, thoughts, etc. To make us understand the differences we may have, there was a group discussion and shared our conclusions regarding the differences we have even though we have the same gender identity.

Later, we identified the social issues according to the Service Impact Idea(SII) theme and tried to figure out the solutions. Along with above mentioned learning, one of the major takeaways was that men and women are equal and the work that men do can be done by women as well.