NESPEC (Nepal Social Development and People’s Empowerment Center) is a human rights organization at the

I had an amazing opportunity to join my friends from NESPEC as they traveled for

In the middle of the fall festival season comes the biggest of Nepali festivals. During

[I couldn’t think of topical images to accompany this blog. So instead I’ve inserted random

I’ve repeatedly heard a similar line of rhetoric in speeches given by members of marginalized

Fall is festival season in Nepal, and things have definitely begun to kick into high

Since moving to Kathmandu I’ve spent most of my time helping the Madheshi Women’s Advocacy

There are two kinds of voting currently consuming the thoughts and energy of the Nepali

I just left Gaighat and after a relatively uneventful bus-ride I arrived back in Kathmandu

These past few months in Nepal have been and on going process of having my

During our trip to Harriya I was able to learn more about the work of

I have been blessed with an adopted mother in Nepal (which everyone at NESPEC loves

This gigantic spider (maybe crab is a better description) suddenly appeared on my wall –

With a great proposal about voter awareness in hand (written as the product of our

Frequently my conversations in Nepal involve a lot of gesturing from both sides. The less

Our efforts to bring the 4 members of COCAP’s Eastern Region together had repeatedly failed.

Occasionally in the late afternoon a few friends from work and I will go get

I had this great idea. I was going to go to Kathmandu to meet with

I was asked an excellent question based on my last blog, “Why do the people

The Nepalese people are nothing if not politically active. In my first 3 weeks in

We arrived in Gaighat in the middle of a rainstorm. Of course, I couldn’t distinguish

It took a couple of tries to actually get on the bus to head out

Link to COCAP’s site Before I left many people asked about the organization I’d be

My days in Kathmandu have been a mix of finding my bearings in the city,

The countdown has begun. I’m leaving for Nepal in a few days. I’ve been doing

** All photos in this blog from Ajaya Shah** You may, or may not know,

Chaot is a festival that is particularly important within Nepal’s Madheshi community who originated from

At some point during the Dashain Festival in Gaighat, a friend said to me, “you

We arrived in Siddipur to conduct the project kick-off meeting after a 3 hour motorcycle

Coincidently, the “great festival” of Dashain was held shortly after the election tragedy. On one

1. We are Madheshi women. We are Dalit, Tharu, Rajvarrshi, Meche, Hindu, and Muslim. We

Through the helpful web of foreigners in Nepal I became acquainted with a temporary Kathmandu

Before launching into the conference, here’s a little background to explain what “Madheshi” is, as

As I’ve jostled along on various bus rides I’ve seen Nepali’s sleeping and tried to

As I had meetings scheduled with International NGOs (for the second time since I never

1. I have been really overwhelmed by all the responses to my last blog –

I sat down with my male colleagues (yes, again, all men) to negotiate our communication

My communication with COCAP about plans for my arrival hadn’t been great, though I had