Our story, our language

Collecting data sounds like a pretty dry topic for a blog post! This story isn’t about the data, though, it’s about what happens to it and the events that flow from it.

Part of our recent visit to Samunnat Nepal was spent working with the women to decide which data would be useful to collect – and how it would be used. Kopila knew that having good data would help them to understand what they were already doing and to think about the future. And to give some more grunt to their lobbying!

Samunnat has multiple log books that record attendances, legal cases and data about the women who come. So, we set up some Excel spreadsheets so that it was easy to count cases, look at seasonal changes and figure out why people came. Within days, a group of polymer artists from Australia and New Zealand had arranged a Zoom meeting and asked about those exact issues. So timely – and reinforcing!

Then, a key moment: ‘let’s put the numbers into a short narrative in Nepali so that the women can read it!’ Suddenly, there were new conversations, discussions and ideas as people talked around their worktables and over tea and snacks. Now, a cascade of ideas came. What about Samunnat’s Vision and Mission and its list of aspirations for the women who come? What about translating some of the blog posts from the Australian website, including ‘Where does the money go’? What about our safety instruction sheet? Simple, obvious, powerful.

So, we worked on a process using Google Translate to help piece together a (surprisingly useful) draft that could be corrected and polished by the experts. Then, off to the printers, Darshan Offset Press, a few minutes away by bike.

I had hoped to see the printing before we left Birtamod. It arrived that evening and looked great!

Now, Samunnat has its statements hanging proudly on the walls of the office, workroom and meeting room. A process that started with counting numbers led to discussions about sharing information with the whole Samunnat family and about being part of the process of planning and change.