WAWCAS had a workshop under the theme “Sharing and Learning”. 44 experienced and new WAWCAS women and the whole WAWCAS team of 13 members of under one roof from 13-15 June 2015 at Dhulikhel Village Resort.
Many of those had to travel for many hours and take the courage to leave their village even though earthquakes are still going on everyday.
They were all very focused on moving forward in WAWCAS themselves and with their group despite the very tough situation they are in.
Objectives of the Workshop
- To document insights from the different communities hid by earth quakes, their feelings and their wishes and need for improvement of their life.
- To share experience and lessons learned from WAWCAS program in general
- To identify issues/challenges personally, in the business and in the groups and develop way forward.
- To get feedback from the women for improvement of the WAWCAS program
- To take the women away from the situation created by the earthquake; to re-energize them and support their hope and courage.
Informally, the arrangement of seating was ‘U’ shape. The participants were divided into 9 groups and the WAWCAS Local program Leaders (LPLs) and teamleaders (TLs) were each responsible for one group. The LPLs/TLs were facilitators to support/guide their respective groups. Lamjung LPLs/ were responsible for the Kathmandu groups and Kathmandu LPLs were responsible for the Lamjung groups so that each LPLs got a chance to meet other women from different areas.
Members from older groups shared their experiences about their life and business, which could be a motivation for the members of the newer groups. There were many emotional moments when members shared moments of their life where they saw no hope; but what were more interesting and motivational was the efforts they took to overcome their challenges. As s result they have a far better present now and are hopeful about better future.
Whole of the workshop was conducted with different approaches. All the experiences were put forward in the form of paintings, songs, acts and stories. Though it was a workshop, it was more of a free and fun environment throughout.
All WAWCAS women went home strongly committed to go home and restart their businesses and to inspire the women in their group to do the same despite the ongoing earthquakes and the results of these. And the whole WAWCAS team went home strongly committed to support the women with regular training and business- and homevisits.