On 5 June 2019, a team of representatives from Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, UNESCO Kathmandu, UNESCO Paris, KOICA Nepal, UNFPA and UNWOMEN made a visit to Municipality Office of Laalbandi and were graciously welcomed by the Mayor Maan Singh Khadka. The visit was made to discuss and interact with the representatives of local government especially the Mayor to outline the impacts of their joint program on "Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Women through the provision of Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Safe Learning Environment in Nepal".
Balaram Timalsina, chief of Education Unit, UNESCO Kathmandu underscored the major components of their ongoing joint program and support in this Municipality. He further thanked Mayor for his positive cooperation to meet the priorities of this program.
JinHwa Kim, Deputy Country Director of KOICA Nepal also interacted with the Mayor on the major outcomes of the ongoing programs and the initiatives of the Municipality to sustain those impacts.
"It is very important to work directly with the schools, only then the reforms could be ensured and such efforts could be made more sustainable" said Man Singh Khadka, the Mayor of Lalbandi Municipality.
In the end, Mayor handed over the Letters of Appreciations to each of the representatives to thank them for their ongoing works in Lalbandi Municipality. Such supports to adolescent girls and women for their better access to education and safe learning environment is very vital, he concluded.
The team also participated in an ongoing Ward-level Gender Focal Point Training organized by Videh Foundation for the women elected representatives of Lalbandi Municipality. The training highlighted the components that is in line with this joint program and oriented these women on Gender Based Violence, Gender Responsive Budget, Roles of Women Ward members in creating safe learning environment for women and girls etc.
During the program, Raghav Pratap Thakur, Executive Director of Videh Foundation (VF) explained about the upcoming initiatives of VF in collaboration with UNESCO Kathmandu to promote Municipal as well as Ward-level Platforms for ensuring Safe Learning Environment and Quality Education for all.
"A series of events are planned in this Lalbandi Municipality where we shall work very closely with the local government to achieve our targets. We shall together create synergies". He added.