Happy Belated Tihar

Our observant blog readers will note that it isn’t  long ago that we celebrated another festival. We are coming to the end of a very festivalled season. We had barely recovered from Dashain when Tihar was upon us.Tihar is spread over several days during which crows, dogs, cows, oxen and finally brothers are celebrated. All but the crows (for obvious reasons) are garlanded with marigolds. Sisters give brothers small gifts and do a special puja for them. In return, brothers give gifts to sisters and the protective bond between them is cemented.The other big puja during Tihar is Laxmi puja when homes are decorated with marigold garlands and tea lights or strings of electric lights to attract the goddess Laxmi, and her attendant wealth, into people’s homes. It is beautiful to walk the streets at this time which has coincided with beautiful clear, cool weather.Each week brings new women to Samunnat and we are grateful that so many are hearing about us. Because competent, honest and free legal advice is available, many women are coming even if they have started down other channels. More and more of Kopila’s time is spent helping women through the minefield of the legal system here. Our flexibility is important to us too.Recently, a woman wanted to pay in some way even though she could not afford it and it wasn’t required. It turned out she had some training we needed so we decided that in return for Samunnat’s legal support, she would come to the office when she could to help Sharmila with some computer aspects and to help some other ladies develop their Photoshop skills. A dignified arrangement that she was very happy with!We’re having more regular meetings to give the ladies more and more control over what is happening. They are learning about agendas and keeping records and enjoying having more input. Ours is a very transparent organisation! They are learning how to use our orders and review stock to work out their program without having to wait to be told what to do next. They have great ideas which we will put into place as we can.We will have monthly “design” days where, free from the pressure of meeting a specific order, we will explore a new technique or experiment with our own ideas. Training in these design aspects is so important. We have some books and we hope next year will bring input from various polymer clay and textile artists.We’d planned that 2-3 times a year, if we could afford it, one of the ladies would accompany Kopila to Kathmandu to meet with ACP, our suppliers, some women’s support organisations and others so that they became more actively involved in the whole process. Independently, the ladies decided that for the price of one airfare, three of them could travel by bus (a crowded, sometimes arduous 15 hour bus trip) and that this would be better. Their plan is happening, we hope, in December. We will let you know how it goes!