Strength TogetHER 28 - A Time I Felt Sad

A Time I Felt Sad

Lokopakar in collaboration with Nexus Institute of Research and Innovation (NIRI) conducted a  donation drive a few months ago which has allowed us to expand our program “Strength TogetHER” to 10 different public schools all over the country. Nexus Institute for Research and Innovation (NIRI) is an independent and not-for-profit-sharing institution in Nepal, registered with a vision to promote quality research and innovation across the nation and beyond. 

On July 2, we conducted “Strength TogetHER” session on the topic “My friend” at Shree Nandi Secondary School. Shree Nandi Secondary School is a public school established in 1998 and is located at Naxal. We are conducting the sessions there in English language as the girls are excited and enthusiastic to learn to speak in English. We started our session with a fun interactive game of Charades with simple words aiming to familiarize the students explaining the already known words. We plan to incorporate new vocabulary as the session progresses. 

The participants always look forward to sharing their stories in the English language so we began with a participant sharing her story on the topic. “My sister went to the village after marriage. She used to stay with us but a few months ago my sister went to the village and has been living there. I felt sad when my sister left me, `` shared our first speaker. 

Another participant shared that she had a best friend in her previous school but she had to shift her school and move to a new one while her friend studied in the same school. She said she was sad as she could not be with her best friend in the new school. 

While we always encourage the students to move forward and speak up, sometimes the participants hesitate, so we give them time to practice with her friends as well and since we are doing the session in English we also separate time where the students ask us to translate certain words and phrases in English making them more comfortable. 

A few participants shared a few similar stories where their friends had found a new best friend and didn’t talk to them. While one shared that she got sad when her friend was absent from the class and shared that she still gets sad when her friend can’t attend classes. 

Another participant shared that once on her birthday her sister could not be there as she was in training and that made her sad. 

“My parents did not allow me to go on a school picnic to Sindupalchowk. I was sad at that time as everyone in the class was going other than me”, shared another participant. 

Another participant shared that she used to study in her village and had a best friend there. When her family were planning to move to Kathmandu, her friend had asked her not to go. She remembers that she felt sad when she had to leave her friend. 

“My brother was sick and had to stay in the ICU for 8 to 9 days as he had high fever and was extremely sick. I was worried about him at that time and was extremely sad. He is well and home now. But, I remember being extremely sad at that time”, shared another participant. 

A few other participants shared a similar story where they had to leave a friend in another place when they had to shift their home and school. Similarly, there were students who shared that they felt sad when their close and dear ones went abroad, and didn’t get to meet them. 

“I always secured 1st position in my class but once I got 2nd position. I was sad then”, shared another participant. 

Listening to their attempt in sharing their stories in English made us extremely happy. The participants shared that they had always wanted to try speaking in English and learn it as a language rather than a subject. We are trying to make it possible for the participants to learn it in a fun and interactive way. And, the participants are excited for the coming session. 

With this we wrapped up the session knowing that we cannot be happy all the time, and there are times that everyone gets sad. But, these are also what adds value to the small happiness that we come across every day.