Ginette was invited by Maggie Doyne (blinknow.org), founder of Kopila Womenâs Center, to deliver our Life Skills workshops for Nepali women enrolled in their vocational training programme in Surkhet. Although the women were learning new skills that could eventually generate an income, Maggie sought more support for them. She wanted them to become more confident, to learn how to take care of themselves and their families better and more importantly to have a bigger vision, bigger dreams for their future.
Once Ginette arrived in Surkhet, she quickly realise that these women come from very difficult situations. Unfortunately, many are victims of domestic violence, single mothers and live below the poverty line often in destitute conditions. Aged between 12 and 50 years old, all of them have heart breaking stories to share. Kopila provides a safe environment, a place where the women come to learn new skills but also develop a support system. The women spend two hours every day at the centre. Here, they feel valued and are treated with respect. PurpleLilyâs Life Skills Programme was the perfect fit to support their progress and promote their self-development.
Most of the women are illiterate, which meant Ginette made many adaptations and created new activities to our workshops to suit the participantsâ needs and abilities. Nevertheless, she was focused on finding a way for the women to become more confident, feel special and empowered!
Ginette was blessed to be partnered with two amazing young women as Nepali facilitators: Man Kumari and Susmita. They were both teachers at the school, very enthusiastic not only to learn the content and activities of the workshops, but as well, determined to facilitate our PurpleLily workshops authentically.
It was a tight schedule, they delivered 7 workshops in 10 days. Ginette was doing most of the adaptations at night, in the morning she would train Man Kumari & Susmita, and they would deliver the workshops in the afternoon. Man Kumari & Susmita facilitated all the workshops in Nepali, while Ginette was by their side for support, but they were both superb!
The participants loved our workshops and delivery style. We had paid special attention to include many activities to help the women grasp these new concepts and gave them practical tools that can easily be included in their daily life.
Ginettesâ short stay at Kopila was truly an amazing and inspiring experience. The women benefited from the workshops and, more importantly, they loved attending and participating in all the activities. Ginette also realised that the PurpleLily style of active learning / participant engagement workshops can be easily adapted and very effective in different settings, circumstances, level of literacy, languages and cultures. We plan to work with other International NGOs in the future.
