Last Wednesday, I flew to the district of Rupandehi. As I sat in the 16-seater plane with views of the Himalayas on the horizon and hills below; I was reminded of my daily commutes into and across London. There really isn’t a comparison! We had arranged to take some senior doctors to meet staff at various primary health care posts. Part way through one of our meetings we went outside where a lady who had delivered her baby a few hours earlier was leaving to go home. Her mode of transport was a “rickshaw ambulance”. The new mum climbed onto the back and laid down, a relative carried her baby (at least initially) and the driver started pedalling. Apparently she had a two hour journey to get home – no doubt, better than having to walk.
The second afternoon, I went to a meeting in the west of the district. As we approached our destination, there were groups of people at the side of the road with banners. As we got closer, we could see a band there too. To my surprise, our vehicle stopped. This group was our welcoming party! Arriving at a hall, we were then shown to our seats on the stage. As we sat, processions of ladies came with garlands of flowers and for some reason I was treated as the guest of honour, getting way over my fair share of flowers. Approaching the time when my neck wasn’t long enough to cope with many more garlands, I began to contemplate whether one could drown in flowers. I was saved by the suggestion that the garlands were placed into my hands instead.
From that event, we went to meet another women’s group, this time a much smaller gathering. We sat together under a tree, listened to their presentations and asked questions. They had established their women’s group to discuss and share the issues which affect them and were learning together about “Safe Motherhood”. Through such groups, women are empowered and can support each other. Sadly, this is very necessary here where there is a lot of discrimination and violence against women.