After socio economic ranking I am so happy, because I am now formally a member of the WAWCAS program. Samjhana informed us that we are having the next meeting.
I was very curious about the meeting. Before starting the meeting, she asked us how we were doing. She told us that before implementing any programs, it is important that we know about the real situation within the group members in terms of the children’s situation, the women’s situation, the health’s situation, local resources and mobilization. Doing the analysis of the situation, it should be based on four areas, i.e. preventive health and sanitation, child development and children’s rights, women empowerment and group/resource mobilization. It is also very important that all the group members know why we are doing analyses of the situation, and that they need to be informed that everything has to be recorded, and they are asked permission for recording.
Samjhana posted the newsprint on the wall where all our names were written, and we were divided into four groups. We were asked an open question such as how often we are having conflicts within our family, how many of us have a marriage certificate, how many of us have children’s birth certificate, how many members are suffering from domestic violence etc. During the group discussion, we were not comfortable enough to discuss domestic violence. If our husbands and in-laws know that we share this kind of information at the meetings, it will be difficult to face them afterwards. Samjhana informed us that these things will be kept very secret, and we need to work on more subjects. If we do not mention the real problems, the problems will remain the same, and after Samjhana had told us this, I decided to mention my problems without fear.