Strength TogetHER 2 Session 1

 

 

 

27th June 2020.

Facilitated by Lokopakar, "Strength togetHER" is a space created for girls in order to share their stories and opinions on different topics, be it personal or related to the outside world. After the successful completion of three sessions of Strength togetHER, we decided to expand this virtual program further with a new group of girls. So, we decided to take another step and thus formed "Strength togetHER cohort 2." The core objective of this virtual session is to make an impact on a greater number of people and hear more ideas and stories. And, it gives us such an immense pleasure to say that we successfully completed the first introductory session of Strength togetHER cohort 2.

Starting with the session, I and Barsha Didi was really excited and anxious. Having her dream turn into reality made her as well as everyone realize the power of dreaming and working for it. I attended Strength TogetHER Cohort 1 as a “participant”. Now I felt really privileged to get this opportunity to co-ordinate the second cohort of such lively, young, and powerful girls. I would like to thank Lokopakar from the inner core of my heart for such a great opportunity that is teaching me to be more responsible and I am really learning a lot of things. The session started from 4.30 pm and went until 5.10 pm via the Zoom app.

Our moderator for the session was our respected and cheerful Bhawana Malla ma'am. She is currently a college representative for the chain of colleges in Australia. She is really an energetic and dynamic person who is working enthusiastically to increase the market and is promoting Fightback, a company that works to reduce the risks of sexual violence and new education to reach all across India and Nepal(mostly girls and women).

The session commenced with our respected moderator giving her introduction with a big smile. She ensured that everyone was comfortable. Then, we all gave our introductions which helped us to know each other better. To make the session more interactive and interesting, our moderator asked us all about one adventure or dream we would like to do at least once in our life. The responses were really interesting and out of the box. Some of the responses were:

• Paragliding

• Riding a hot air balloon with the family

• Solo-trip

• Bungee jumping 

• Traveling across Nepal

• Build a dog-shelter for the street dogs

• Donate blood

• Travel with friends and so on.

After hearing all the responses, Bhawana ma'am made us realize the importance of dreaming and also said why it was important to step out of the comfort zone. She also told us about her journey till now. We were fascinated to hear that she was insecure about herself as a teenager and even then, she dared to participate in multiple beauty pageants. She had even won two of those contests. We were told that she was a model and also an air hostess back then. Now, she is the manager of Fightback, Nepal and she told us that she is really happy where she is currently- making impacts on many lives. 

We didn't realize the time passing by due to the fluent and alluring speaking skills of our moderator. We felt fortunate to have her make impacts on our lives. Our happiness knew no bounds when she announced that she would happily moderate us for the rest of the sessions.

As the session drew closer to the end, she asked us to prepare a list of our dreams so that we can discuss it in the next session. It was a really captivating session. I am sure that it motivated every one of us and has rekindled the spirits inside us to dream again.

At the end of the session, we expressed our gratitude to each other and took a picture as a ritual. We all logged out of the session with a happy and motivated heart.

The most important the advice we got from the sessions were:

• Step out of your comfort zone

• Dare to dream

• Never get scared of failure.

We were extremely grateful that we had almost 15 participants even in the very first session and we are eagerly looking forward to more members for the next session. 

Written by: Aastha Shrestha

Edited by: Barsha Tamang (LOKOPAKAR)