“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Inspired by these words from Henry Ford, I have always been eager to learn new things and meet new people in life. The SAIGE Convention has been one of the best opportunities for me. When my name was proposed to attend the convention, I asked myself a question, “Why should I attend the SAIGE Convention? What is my objective?” I immediately realised that being new to the SAIGE alliance, it would be a wonderful chance for me to learn more about SAIGE, its partners and how they have advocated for safe abortion in their contexts, and possible ways for replicating it in my country.
I was excited to meet everyone in person. My colleague Reyusha introduced me to everyone as she was already familiar with SAIGE members. During the first session, Garima from ARROW shared in-depth information about SAIGE’s background, history, and its strategies. As a young SRHR enthusiast and public health professional, I was grateful to be part of such an amazing initiative. This has further encouraged me to advocate for safe abortion. In the later part of the day, there was a discussion on the situation, challenges and opportunities for safe abortion in different regions of the world. This enabled me to understand what is going on around the globe. I have always believed that in order to advocate for safe abortion, it is not enough to only understand the context in your own country. The more we learn about other contexts, the more we learn innovative ideas for effective advocacy. It is always good to dive into what strategies have and have not worked in other countries and experiment with different interventions in your own country. The sessions helped me understand where Nepal stands on safe abortion and what else needs to be done.
The following day, I learned about reproductive justice and intersectionality through various engaging activities. These were new terms which I thoroughly enjoyed learning about. The discussions during the group work further helped me learn the country-specific legal status of abortion and the barriers to accessing these services. The session that I enjoyed the most was body mapping and the activities related to intersectionality. Later on, we also discussed how we can further strengthen our movement to align with our goal. Throughout the process, I was determined to aid in the fulfillment of the aim set by SAIGE as one of its members.
The best part of the SAIGE Convention was how it ensured youth engagement and their meaningful participation. I believe this helps in the exchange of knowledge and experience among participants of different ages and the inclusion of youth perspectives in programme planning and implementation. The different sessions were fun and engaging and I was motivated by the facilitator’s energy and enthusiasm. I was really overwhelmed by the care and support shown by the ARROW team throughout the convention. I am so grateful to be connected with a group of intellectual yet humble advocates at the convention. My overall experience at the SAIGE Convention was beyond my expectations. Special thanks to ARROW for providing me with this wonderful opportunity and my gratitude to everyone who made my stay memorable!
Shared by: Sushma Shrestha, Project Coordinator, Beyond Beijing Committee Nepal