Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

“Respect Among People is a Big Marker of Humanity," says Sumana Dawadi

By Navaraj Kharel

Photo Courtesy: Kiran Darnal Photography “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ― Barack Obama Let’s face it, change is hard. It really is. Because of that, most of us (myself certainly included) tend to shy away from it. If we’re honest about it, “run” from it might be more accurate…Today’s people, we find them concerned solely with their interest and life. “Selfish” would be an appropriate word rather. But there are always people who stand out in the crowd and raise their voice for the betterment of society. “My schooling started in my village Shree Tara Chandra Secondary School, Kusunde, Gorkha. I completed my SLC from Manasalu Public High School. When I completed my higher secondary level from Xaviers International, I realised that I wanted to help and care for people and decided to be a nurse and completed my Nursing from Kits College of Nursing...” shares Sumana Dawadi, woman activist, founder of Women Nepal in her interview with DWIT News team. Women Nepal is an organization that works for the betterment of status of women in Nepal and making them powerful enough to raise their voice against any kind of violence. Her courage to raise voice against the sexual harassment that women in Nepal are facing everyday made her a real fighter. Sumana is very saddened by the fact that despite of the awareness in people, they are acting ignorant. The majority cases of harassment take place in Kathmandu valley, the capital city of the country where majority of people are educated. These all made Sumana apply to the program ‘Village to Raise a Child’; a program of Harvard University. Sumana was up in this competition with her campaign called ” Essence To Flower”. It is a campaign against sexual harassment. “I do not have any kind of bad feelings for not winning the competition. There were lots of great ideas in the competition. I am happy that I have won many Nepali hearts. I started as a one-woman army, but now I have an army of supporters around me”. A recent event for self-defence technique conducted by Women Nepal was a huge success. Melissa Soalt, women's self defense expert and a former psychotherapist taught the participants of the event how to fight back and be fierce. Sumana wants all women to realise their own potential and believe they are strong enough to fight against the disease of society. She wants to uproot the tree of harassment against any gender. She says, “My own hardship and affliction which I faced many times in my life made me give birth to this campaign.” She added, “I am very much thankful and blessed to have such family and friends by my side in every step”. The youth support her for the good deed. She is happy about the system of reserved female seats in public vehicles, which was not in implementation till now. “It was all possible due to cooperation of the vehicle drivers and police personnel and I want to put an orange sheet in every reserved sheet of public vehicle so that it gets noticed easily” says Sumana. “We are also planning for a big event soon, we are working on it and hope it will be a huge success”, she added. She really understood the essence of the quote mentioned in the first paragraph. We all should change ourselves first if we want to see the change in the society. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ―Mahatma Gandhi Entire DWIT News team would like to wish her a huge success in her fight against the evil culture of society. We also thank her whole-heartedly for making some time out for the interactive session with DWIT News team.