Does the baby really look like this inside?

07/01/2010

BMS worker Cynthia Chadwell explains how a women's Bible study in Nepal has led to fascinating discussions about how their bodies work.

Over the past couple years, I have become involved in a Thursday morning women's Bible study, with the teaching mostly in Nepali.

The 25 to 30 women who attend are, for the most part, from different churches so only meet each other in this setting.

Another ex-pat, Sarah, and I generally took responsibility for organising the teaching each week but one issue has stood in the way: the Nepali study material assumes the leader has lots of Bible knowledge of their own.

It occurred to us that Nepali Sunday school material aimed at 14 to 15 year-olds might help, as those studies are clearly laid out, include answers and could be easily adapted.

We started by training two Nepali women to lead the study and gave opportunity to practise.

The results have been positive. Some women really stood out as excellent leaders and teachers and even those who were less experienced or able contributed to the study.

Basic body knowledge
We continued in this way for about six months and then a lesson on abortion came up in the book.

Many women in Nepal lack even basic knowledge of how their own bodies work and abortion is promoted here as just another method of contraception.

Therefore, although the lesson was well-written we felt we needed to extend the lesson to cover puberty, the workings of the reproductive system and pregnancy.

We felt that if they didn't understand how and why women get pregnant and what happens inside their bodies, they wouldn't understand about abortion either. So, we planned and taught a whole four sessions on these topics.

Week one covered basic sex education including text from Psalm 139. Week two was about abortion from the Sunday school book. Week three was about contraception and week four focused on faithfulness in marriage and HIV.

Tools to talk
Sarah and I were quite daunted by the enormity of the task before us. We'd never taught this in English so to try and do it simply in Nepali was scary.

However, from the first session, we were encouraged. Most of the women are married and have children (some even grandchildren) but it was evident that they were hearing these things for the first time.

One grandmother who cannot read or write pored over the pictures in a book about pregnancy and asked, "Does the baby really look like this inside?"

After explaining about menstruation, several women said that their daughters had recently reached this point but they didn't know how to speak to them about it.

Credit: David Swanson/IRIN

We had a bunch of books written in English for teenagers that the women could check out and these were quickly snatched up and used as tools for the mothers to talk to their own children.

Incredible to see

Credit: Naresh Newar/IRIN

In some cases, mothers who couldn't read English gave the books to their children who in turn shared them with their friends in boarding schools.

It was incredible to see that as soon as the mothers had the knowledge and information, they were eager to pass it on to their family members.

We were encouraged that, by having done these studies, we had broken the taboo of not discussing such things - although there were embarrassed giggles at some points! - and had provided accurate and positive information to these women.

We hope that they will continue to feel able to talk about these issues amongst themselves and to feel an openness to come and ask questions within our group.

Give thanks for the growth of the women's Bible study and the leaders that are emerging and for the opportunity to share with the women about such important issues.

Pray for women in Nepal who are often uneducated and experience difficult lives. Pray for the women in Cynthia's group who are struggling with poverty, being the only believers in their families, have been abandoned by their husbands or are struggling to raise their teenagers in a rapidly changing culture.

Utilities

Cynthia and Ian Chadwell are BMS workers in Kathmandu, Nepal. Ian is working as an advisor to BMS partner, Human Development and Community Services (HDCS) and Cynthia is doing volunteer church work. The couple have two children: Justin and Lucy. Click here for more about the Chadwells

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