With almost 750 parenting support sessions offered to 500 parents of young Nepalese children over the past year in the Dhading district, we are preparing to carry out the final study in May, which will enable us to measure the effects of this support on parents and children (impact study piloted by Université Paris-Dauphine in partnership with INSER-N, the Institute for Social and Environmental Research in Nepal).
While we await the first lessons to be learned, we've collected a few testimonials from parents who attended the sessions.
"Namaskar. My name is Sujita. I'm 29 years old and the mother of 2 boys, aged 3 and 7. Today's session on child protection really touched me. I realize that I can be violent with my children: sometimes I speak badly to them or ignore them, I shake them, I hit them... I wasn't aware before of these acts of violence that have an effect on the way they grow up. I don't want that to happen again, or for others to hurt them."
"My husband has left to work abroad. I live alone in Gajuri with my son Simson, he's 5. He's not always easy: he spends a lot of time on my cell phone, he only wants to eat junk food from the market, he doesn't have many friends and I find it hard to get him to obey me. It's come to the point where I often get angry and hit him. At first, I didn't want to take part in the sessions I was offered, because I didn't have the time. But a friend convinced me. I had no choice but to take Simson with me. There were other children there. He started playing with them. He also listened to what was said during the sessions. He started to change and so did I. I prepare more meals at home, with his help. And he agrees to eat them. I've stopped using my phone too much in front of him. Now we play games together and I tell him stories. We're both doing better", Sita.
"By spending time with other parents, mingling with others, I learn a lot. These meetings are different from others. What we talk about is applicable to everyday life. It's changing my family life", Shobha.
"If you want to change your home, your village, your society, you have to start by changing yourself. And I've started to change", says Kamala.
