Final Evaluation: “SAAHAS (Courage) for Justice: Sharing and Amplifying Her Allegorical Stories for Justice” (Nepal)

Author(s)/editor(s)

Renchin Yonjan

Grantee: The Story Kitchen

Country: Nepal

Period: January 2015 to December 2017

Grant amount: $80,910

Description: The Story Kitchen aimed to empower, encourage and enable women survivors of conflict to share their stories in order to break the culture of silence about human rights violations during the armed conflict (1996-2006). Engaging these women and their families, the SAHAS for Justice project was an innovative approach to ensure that women and girl survivors in the five most conflict-affected districts of Nepal were empowered and felt safer to speak out about violence against women.

Main findings of the evaluation:

· as a result of the project, 500 women and girl survivors participated in the justice process by describing the violence they faced during the conflict;

· story workshops created safe spaces for women and girls to break their silence, move past feelings of guilt and shame, and contribute to the justice-seeking process;

· the project trained 10 women survivors to become agents of change — these “justice reporters” learned how to operate a recorder and set their own agenda on how to participate in the peace process to seek justice.

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