Under Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition project, ENPHO with the support of Oxfam conducted Gender and Care Work training for Mum’s Magic Hand (MMH) Champions on 17 to 18 December, 2020 at Indreni Food Banquet, Imadol, Lalitpur. The purpose of this training was to familiarize participants with the gender socialization, gender roles and care work.

Training was led by Ms. Srijana Karki, Senior WASH Officer and Gender Focal Person, and co-led by Ms. Srijana Shakya, Senior WASH Officer and Ms. Ritu Sharma, Assistant PHP Officer, ENPHO.

After the training, Mr. Ajay Bhandari, an active participant highlighted, “this training made me analyze the gender role of men and women at household and community level. I also realized how women are involved in many unpaid care work. Thus, from now onwards, I will always try to reduce the work burden for women at my home and in the community too”.

Likewise, Ms. Milu Shrestha, next participant expressed, “although I am graduate student, I wasn’t aware about gender neutral words which I learned and found very interesting and pragmatic.”
Altogether 10 individuals including 7 female and 3 male MMH champions participated in the training.

ENPHO with the support of Oxfam has been promoting hand hygiene behavior integrating gender and care work at Mahalaxmi Municipality to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 disease. This kind of training can create awareness and support to minimize the work burden of women at household level and also in the community during the pandemic situation.