Monitoring mission

I am back from a monitoring mission, just a few days in a district in mid-west of the country. I mostly went to see the activities of my project: training for community psychosocial workers and data collection of a baseline survey for this end violence against women project.

Even though I do not follow the training content, since it is done in a local language, participants are so happy to have me there, which is nice. They are also curious about me, and asking all kind of questions, where I am from, how long I have been in the country, if I have any siblings etc. They couldn't just get over when they asked about my age! They also asked if I am married, whether I plan to get married, if yes if I have a tentative date or not!! In Canada or in Japan, people will never ask such direct (and would be taken as rude and nosy) questions, but here it is no problem and just makes me laugh.

I was avoiding field missions the past some months due to international travels, but I hope to resume it and do a bit more until the end of the year.

The photo is taken with the participants of the workshop and trainers. There is so much need for mental health and psychosocial support in the community, and I hope they will be able to address the issue even on a small scale.