Prayatna Nepal is a nonprofit, non-religious and non-political women led organization established for the empowerment and rights promotion of women and girls with visual impairment. Since its establishment in 2015, Prayatna Nepal has been implementing various activities targeting to the visually impaired girls and women. Since Prayatna Nepal is the part of overall national and global disability rights movement, it has adopted the social and rights-based model of disability and the key motto of global disability rights movement “Nothing about us without us”. The organization is established by the composition of both women with and without visually impairments. Among the seven board members, five of them (71%) are with visually impairments where the organization is led by the totally blind woman as the Chairperson. This idea of inclusion in the organizational structure is to ensure equal efforts from every individual with better understanding in improving social, cultural, economic and political aspects of lives of women with disabilities.
Prayatna Nepal conducted one day workshop on menstruation hygiene management for visually impaired women. The overall goal of the workshop was to enable visually impaired girls to manage their menstruation in an effective and hygienic manner through improved knowledge, attitude, and practices on menstrual hygiene management. The workshop was started by Ms. Sarita Lamichhane, where she welcomed everyone and highlighted the objective of the training. She then asked all the attendees to introduce themselves, where the participant girls also mentioned their respective ages and shared their stories or feelings associated with their first-time menstruating experience. After introduction session, the floor was handed over to Ms. Sabita Lamichhane, facilitator of the workshop, who started by explaining about anatomy of female reproductive system. Further, she described menstruation and its cycles. She also mentioned the importance of healthy eating habits and do/s and don’t/s during menstruation. During the theoretical session, she tried to engage the participants in discussion as much as possible by asking them questions. She also encouraged the participants to follow proper disposal of used sanitary pads/ items. After the theoretical aspect of the training, she proceeded further with practical demonstration on uses of sanitary items like sanitary pads, tampons, and menstrual cups. As the participants were blind or visually impaired, the facilitator helped the participants in learning methods of using different sanitary items and its features through tactile methods. Since majority of the participant girls used sanitary pads, they were also made to show their usual ways of using sanitary pads through practical demonstration where the facilitator supported and corrected their methods for better and convenient practice in future. After the practical session, the floor was open to the participants to ask questions and share their feelings and learning. Then, Ms. Sarita formally concluded the session by thanking them for actively participating in the session.
