Written by Raju Tirwa, Non-discrimination & Behaviour Change Specialist
16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign from 25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10, the day of International Human Rights, is conducted to galvanize action for eliminating violence against women and girls around the world. The international campaign was originated from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The campaign is celebrated also in Nepal.
16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign is being conducted this year including Nepal with the international theme UNITE! ACTIVISM TO END VIOLENCE AGAINIST WOMEN & GIRLS ! The slogan of Nepal is “सभ्य समाजको पहिचानः लैङ्गिक हिंसा विरुद्धको अभियान”.
SUSWA is a human rights progressive bilateral project working in Karnali province, supporting local government to promote sustainable WASH services strengthening their institutional capacity. Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion are cross cutting values of the project reflected in all policies, strategies and activities of the project. Gender-based restrictions, especially connected to access to WASH services including menstruation management, are key areas for interventions by SUSWA. SUSWA promotes access to WASH services for women and girls, at all times of their lives.
As a part of SUSWA’s and SUSWA municipalities’ in Karnali, action to eliminate all kind of restrictions to ensure the accessibility of women and girls to WASH services, 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign could be used as one way to create awareness through different activities in the communities. With this in mind, the campaign was kicked off at SUSWA main office in Birendranagar, Surkhet with a short event. The event was moderated by Arti Sakya, Chief Administrative and Finance Office. Raju Tirwa, Non-discrimination and Behavior Change Specialist highlighted the objective of the campaign emphasizing SUSWA’s efforts related to the campaign. He also shared some agreed activities for the SUSWA municipalities. Similarly, Hari Upadhyay, WASH advisor for the municipalities in the Humla district, also made short speech during the occasion. He highlighted the importance of the campaign in the context of SUSWA’s focus. Finally, Mario Milanesi, Team Leader of SUSWA connected the campaign to the global context with an example that it is also celebrated in his home country, Italy, and then closed the kick-off event, thus opening the celebrations of the 16 days to come.
See the Campaign folm below:
Global 16 Days Campaign
