Womens Empowerment & Emotional Resilience. OKHALDHUNGA, Nepal

I have always wanted to travel to Nepal, but I didn't want to just be a tourist, I wanted to give back to local communities, learn from them and to have a truly in-country experience. So I decided to volunteer at VIN (Volunteers Initiative Nepal) in the womens empowerment program and facilitate stress management and emotional resilience, because this was most aligned with my work, skills and passions in psychotherapy and empathy culture back in Australia. Memorable moments that will stay with me include hearing the women sharing about their feelings, needs and learning the joy and value of listening better to eachother, standing in circle passing around a wombat, whilst the women listened to eachother, as well as when we passed around a handclap in our circle, sharing that this symbolises how we pass love around in the community and it letting it come back to us and seeing the women laughing and smile at this and get it. I can honestly say that everyone in the VIN team was super supportive, accessible and available to answer all my questions whether online before arriving in Nepal, in person or on whatsapp during my stay. I felt like I'd been welcomed into a supportive community of big hearted people. The biggest thing I learned was how to make my work more practical, accessible, fun and engaging for rural women in a language I do not speak and to be inclusive with women who can or cannot read in Nepali. I would definitely recommend volunteering with VIN, they are super adaptable to your skills and passion and work broadly with women, youth, children, conservation, animals, medical, education, environment and disaster resilience. You may be suprised how your skills and passions might be useful for the Nepali community members either in Kathmandu or rurally. If you are going rural I recommend volunteering for at least 3 weeks as the induction, travel and breaks take about 1week off your volunteering time. So be sure to make sufficient time to enjoy the cultural exchange.