Nepal
Volunteers in Nepal will work in a cluster of villages in the Surkhet region on the theme of Sexual and Reproductive Health. This will involve working with community young people to help deliver adolescent-friendly sexual health awareness-raising activities and campaigns. Volunteers will also work alongside school teachers and the public health office to maximise the impact of these activities.
Adolescent Friendly SRH Services Promotion Rally Date of rally: 18th March 2012 (Sunday)
On the 18th of March, we had our final CAD in which we decided to go out with a bang! Whilst volunteering in
Surkhet we realised the urgent need for Adolescent friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services. To help key officials realise the major importance of this issue, we organised a rally. With the support of our school students, local NGOs and INGOs, we gained around 2500 people to march at the rally.
Our day started at 10am where we walked with excitement towards our meeting point. First our placement schools turned up in the hundreds shouting their allocated chants, holding up their banners with pride. Later on NGOs and INGOs arrived on the scene, mainly consisting of women groups, as they walked with their beautiful pink and white saris joining the countless rows of 
adolescent already present. Everyone was told to wear green and were given green wrist bands. People started signing the petition which stated that “we want adolescent friendly health services”. Witnessing hundreds of students signing the petition made us realise just how immense our rally was going to be. The rally consisted of the unveiling of billboards, which we had designed ourselves! There are six billboards in total strategically located around Surkhet. During the Rally, two of these were revealed, focusing on HIV & AIDS and proper condom use. The remaining four were Adolescent Behaviour, Family Planning, Menstruation and Safe Sex.
Our route took us around Surkhet town, before reaching Jana Higher School, where a series of programmes were set up. On stage a combination of information and entertainment ensured audience enthusiasm and 
everyone was excited to watch cultural dances and SRH related dramas. Surrounding the stage, we also had a series of stalls, giving information on various NGOs and INGOs. Our stall caused much excitement, as it gave people the opportunity to see pictures of previous CADs and what our work in Surkhet involved. Other stalls where our peer educators proved an invaluable help included Menstruation, HIV & AIDS, Health Post contacts and Contraceptives. Our day ended with announcing the winning school and NGOs in our rally. This was based around those who caused the greatest impact with their chants and banners. We thanked everyone who has helped us and said a final goodbye in Surkhet. All in all it was a very successful rally with full participation from the community which made us all feel very proud to be volunteers.
Community Farewell 24/3/2012 (Saturday)
To say our goodbyes to our host families, placement supervisors and community members we organised a 
community farewell. The day started with the Nepalese volunteers helping the British volunteers to transform their apearences by wearing traditional dress. Colours of gold, red, pink and turquoise filled the room as we all prepared ourselves for the day ahead.
Our host families and placement supervisors began to arrive, complementing our dresses (so all that time getting ready proved worth it) as we began to mingle. Some of our family members made speeches, talking about their experiencing having volunteers; both the ups and the downs. Some volunteers became teary eyed at this point as we realised the moment to part was upon us and suddenly twelve weeks didn’t seem like a long time at all.
To cheer us up we made our way towards the tent where entertainment such as pass the parcel and treasure hunts took place. The day was full of fun! All volunteers and our guests got involved in the games and the Nepalese loved it- another chance for cross-cultural awarness through the medium of British party games. The day came to an end as SAC spoke of how proud they were with all the volunteers and thanked the host homes and volunteer placements for their ongoing support. They then blessed us with Tika (and lots of it!) giving us gifts including Tshirts and picture frames of Surkhet. The day endered on a high note as we all shared a nepalese dance and began to reflect our time spent in Surkhet, getting ready for our next stop, Kathmandu!
Debrief: Kathmandu, 27th-31st March
Saying our goodbyes to Surkhet was an emotional process, but after a four hour bus ride and an hour long 
flight we landed in the spectacular city of Kathmandu. The contrast was immense! From haystacks and buffalos to KFC and paved roads! We walked around the many beautiful temples and the 19th century houses, taking in the rich cultural history of the place.
Our sessions, over a three day period, included evaluating our overall project and experience. With this, we evaluated our CADs and our counterpart relationships. One of our activities was to create cards with our photograph on the front: with glue and scissors we got to work, writing down our memories of one another.
We were a team from the start to the end; we learnt about each other’s cultures and shared our experiences
with one another. We want to say a big thank you to VSO and the programme for giving us such a great opportunity.
