Project ‘I Can Lead’, is a youth-led initiative which aims to strengthen the leadership and decision making capacity of young girls of age group 14-22 years in sectors of Civic Engagement and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Challenging the deeply rooted patriarchal psychology which considers female as an incapable leader, our project worked directly with a total of 30 young girls, 20 girls from Kathmandu Valley and 10 young girls of the same age group from Kailali district. These 30 young girls were the primary beneficiaries of our project ‘I Can Lead’. Through the following phase activities: Leaders Mentorship Program, Girl’s Leadership Development Program, Menstrual Rights Advocacy Training (ToT) and Reusable Pad-making Workshop, these girls will be made aware, engaged, educated and empowered about female representation in politics, enhancing leadership and decision making capacity in SRHR, enabling them to make policy level changes and carry out community intervention activities to solve major girls related problems.

1. Leaders Mentorship Program

In Kathmandu, 12 young girls from our previous cohorts were equipped with mentorship skills through various sessions from experts and these young girls empowered 8 new girls of the new cohort in the topics such as menstruation, safe abortion, HIV/AIDS, WASH, and civic engagement. After the program, the girl fellows were divided into four (4) teams: Team SWAG (Special Women Advocacy Group), Team Elements, Team Abhaya, and Team Fearless. These teams delivered Community Intervention Programs on topics related to menstruation, safe abortion, HIV/AIDS, WASH, and civic engagement to 550+ school going students (girls and boys) in five different remote schools of Kathmandu Valley through a variety of classroom activities such as awareness classes, interactive sessions, games, and story sharing. Teams also distributed informative books, sanitary pads, and soap to the school participants to encourage good hand washing practices and knowledge sharing.

2. Girl Leadership Development Program 

After the completion of the Leaders Mentorship Program, Girl’s Leadership Development Program was organized in Kathmandu where all the girl fellows strengthened their knowledge on organizational development and strategy, management theories and practices. This program was essential to provide a safe space for girl leaders to experiment and lead their ideas into action on their own in a professional and systematic setting. The activities of this component will focus on: strategy building, effective communication, personal productivity, techniques to work and empower the team, proposal writings, pitching and demonstrating, effective meetings, objective setting and developing a culture which supports high performance teams. 

1. Menstrual Rights Advocacy Training

Five-day Menstrual Rights Advocacy Training was held with 10 girls from Kailali district. The young leaders attended two-days Reusable Pad-making Training that helped them become more knowledgeable about menstrual hygiene and self-dependent in using chemical-free reusable pads. A public speaking workshop was held to teach young girls about presentation skills, audience awareness, gestures, public speaking and confidence so that they can freely advocate about SRHR and teach pad-making to their local community. Debates were also held which further prepared them to express their ideas and thoughts in a group setting and engage in a healthy discussion.

2. Reusable Pad-Making workshop 

The 20 young girl leaders trained 10 other girls from local care homes on reusable pad-making process and gave brief sessions on SRHR and menstruation. The 10 young female leaders were formally certified as Reusable Pad-Making Trainers after the completion of the training. The girl leaders were really motivated to provide the training to people living near them.