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Background

An A-levels graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu.

Particularly interested in space science, public speaking and writing. Enjoy movies, songs and documentaries.

It was a personal interest to get involved with this fellowship and run a project of my wish.

Grew up and living in Pokhara, Nepal.

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Problem Statement

This project aims to:

Ensure proper upbringing of a children in a healthy environment in a family by establishing a non-toxic relationship with their parents/guardians.
Clarify concepts of mental health and its significance in present society with the direct impact on the parents and their children.

Context

Parenting plays an essential role in a child’s upbringing and their mental well being. Lack of proper guidance on parenting styles can lead to :

Toxic environment around children
Low self-esteem
Vulnerable to anti-social behaviours

Rural areas with marginalised communities are more at risk.

Relevance

If the issue is not addressed, it will hamper the development of a child that leads to both personal and social consequences. It puts teenagers at risk of experiencing mental health problems and makes it difficult for them to adapt to the changing society.

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Baseline Data

The literacy rate in rural Nepal is only 63%.(Source: Data)

Adolescents with authoritarian parents are prone to behavioural changes.

Rejection parenting and negative coping styles led to 22.5% of the verbal bullying and 19.2% of the total social relationship bullying.(Source: Data)

Globally, About 36% parents reported a moderate to high disagreement in child-rearing. Few parents reported a frequent use of physical punishment of the child to control misbehavior (10%). (Source: Data)

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Approach

We are here to learn from you

No standard formal speeches to spoon feed what parenting is.

Encourage discussions among the parents to share their experiences.

Point out the problems therewith sharing the POV of children.

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Challenges

Time Constraint

Difficulty to complete everything in 3 months.

Distributed work in organised manner.

Need for a trainer

Lacked experience to talk about parenting myself.

Researched with available materials and prepared beforehand.

Closing Schools

Heavy rain and eye-flu led to closing of schools in the last month.

Arranged the sessions within a small time frame.

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July

August

Project Implementation

Reached two locations with 100+ participants in the remote villages around Pokhara valley. Held sessions for approx. 3 hours each.

September

Project wrap up and final presentation

Worked on the final presentation with the help of update forms and mentor.

Project Milestones

June

Resource Collection

Lookout for possible locations, target groups, and organisations to collaborate with. Finding a trainer and preparing session materials.

Idea Submission

Brainstorming of possible project ideas and project framework for the three months.

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2 Locations

Shree Mahendra Basic School, Rupa VDC, Kaski.
Shree Bhume Basic School, Dangsing, Kaski.

104 participants

70.2 % of the participants were women and 29.8 % were men.

Outreach

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Impact 1 - Demonstrate the change you wish to see

Parents were asked to share the problems (that they see) in their kids.

Discussions within parents and trainers unfolded that the parents were the ones responsible for this change.

Parents were the one to give mobile phones in return of some work initially and would themselves prefer TikTok over talks.

“Mobile phones have caused my child to possess several behavioural changes, and we have lost our communication with them”

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Impact 2 - Small actions, Big impact

Less than 10% of parents would leave/take their children from school and Less than 20% would arrive in the result day.

“We never cared how well they performed at the classes but would timely scold for not getting to the top. Never worried about how this would affect our child psychologically”

You all shared that you only wish for your children’s happiness but your children’s happiness lies on these very small things. So, you need to choose what type of parenting style you want to adapt to. -Trainer

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✔ 15 parents started to visit school to leave/take their children and even talked with the teachers.

✔ 100% attendees agreed to control their mobile phone usage and talk with their children instead.

✔ 8 parents spoke to have been authoritarian parents and wanted to change it.

✔ More than 80% understood the different parenting styles and changes they required.

Impact

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Glimpses and Testimonials

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What I learned?

Organisational skills

The overall way this fellowship was planned
Coordination throughout the fellowship

Different routes

Creating a impact has a million different ways

The real work

Differences between ideating and implementing.

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If I had more time, I would have

Continued reaching out to different locations for the sessions.

Revisit the schools and note other short-term changes observed.

Worked to produce useful quantitative evidences for further uses.

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But, I will continue to..

Advocate for talks of mental health in positive parenting both digitally and personally.

Share the meaningful insights of this fellowship and my project to others.

Involve in similar projects of impact and provide any assistance required.

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