May 23rd: Week #3 in photos

Here we are hanging out in front of Jatan's office in Railmagra. We are sitting with Jatan staff member, Om (far left), our driver, Azad (second from right) and our translator, Chirag (far right).

On Tuesday night, we watched a Bollywood movie with a group of school kids that attend programs run by Jatan.

 The foundation of the women's washroom is coming along quickly!

Time for a chai break!

The construction crew in front of our complete wall on Wednesday.

 Mango break!

 Hanging around at the work site and enjoying the shade.

We were interviewed for the local paper!

Vienna poses with a giant bag of Parle G cookies, our new favourite to eat while drinkin chai.

 Visiting a temple.

Vita Sackville-Hii

DWC U30 Team Leader
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 16th: Women's help line & police station in Rajsamand

Today we had a day off work to visit the Jatan office in a different village called Rajsamand. We learned about a women's help line that Jatan runs for all of India. Women can call at any time of day for anything, whether they need help or have questions or want resources.

The team sitting in on a women's meeting in Rajsamand.

We visited the Rajsamand police station and got a tour. In the police station, there are two women counsellors trained to specifically deal with family conflict in cases of dowry arguments, and they were brought there because of Jatan.

In some rural village,s a women's family must give a dowry in the form of money, animals and possessions to the man she is marrying. If the woman is from a poor family, it is difficult for them to find a husband who is willing to accept a small dowry, and so there is conflict around this issue.

Later in the afternoon we visited the beautiful Rajsamand lake. It was the perfect end to a day off work.

Vita Sackville-Hii
DWC U30 Team Leader
Rajsamand, India: May 2014

May 9th: Women's empowerment meeting

Today, we sat in on a women's empowerment meeting in a rural village in Rajasthan. Women here are under the ownership of men for their whole lives. When they're young they report to their father, when they're married they report to their husband and when their husband dies they report to their sons. In the village, married women are not allowed to show their faces in public or when there is a presence of a male so they cover themselves in sarees. The violence women experience here is economical, social and emotional. We compared this violence against women to ways in which women are discriminated around the world and living in Canada does not protect us from this. As a protest, we joined the NGO Jatan in writing slogans on the walls of buildings around the village. There is still so much to be done to give for women's rights all over the world.

Vienna Lam
DWC Volunteer Participant
Dhaneriyagadh, India: May 2014