Vishwo Shrestha, Author at Blind Youth Association Nepal

Blind Youth Association Nepal(BYAN) was given the permit to monitor the polling stations in 10 districts all over Nepal in the House of Representative and provincial level election on November 20, 2022. One member each from BYAN was present in 10 polling stations, mainly to assist the people with disabilities to cast a vote and to observe the accessibility as well as the behavior of the authorities towards them. We provided this oppurtunity to the people with disabilities which included people with physical disability, hearing and visual impairments, parents of intellectual disability, to help them realize that despite their challenges, they can work in any field that they want to and achieve everything that they desire. We were very pleased and proud to see them hard at work and also, very satisfied when they expressed their gratitude towards BYAN to provide them this opportunity.

Furthermore, we prepared two sets of questionnaires for each monitor to fill. One of them contained the questions related to the accessibility of the polling stations as well as the IC materials provided by the Election Commission for the people with disability. And the other one was for the civilians, who were interviewed by our monitors. The main objective of the two questionnaires was to attain the shortcomings of the polling stations so that they can be overcome in the future.

An interaction program was organized by Blind Youth Association Nepal(BYAN) on December 28, Wednesday, with the members of parliament, elected in the recent House of Representatives and provincial level election, the program was organized with the aim to put forward our request, on behalf of all the people with disabilities, to make disability friendly laws and to aware the members of the parliament about the significance of the political participation of the people with disabilities. We also, complained about not being able to cast a vote in the last election ourselves and demanded that the systems for the voting rights should be changed. Mr. Kaladhar Bhandari, President of BYAN, while addressing the program, asked the MPs to play a significant role to make accessible laws for the people with disabilities. We are very grateful to the parliamentarians as they took our request into consideration and pledged to take initiatives to make disability friendly laws and to make the political participation mandatory as much as possible for the people with disabilities, in the election act to be submitted to the parliament. They ensured that they will play a role to make our participation easy, not only in politics, but also, in education, health and various other sectors.

Including the OPDs and CSOs, there were altogether 110 participants and 26 members of parliament.

A news coverage on the program was also done by the Karobar Daily News:

‘निर्वाचन ऐनमा अपांगता भएका व्यक्तिहरूलाई विशेष प्राथमिकता दिन पहल गर्छौं’

Blind Youth Association Nepal in collaboration with Family Welfare Division made disability friendly Sexual and Reproductive health Guideline and have done dissemination program of the guideline on 26th December 2022, in Himalayan hotel, Kathmandu. This guideline will help all the health service providers for providing the sexual and reproductive health services in disability friendly manner. The program was very successful with the involvement of 100 participants from various background i.e. government agencies, bilateral organizations, Civil society organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities. Various valuable feedbacks and suggestions were gathered in this program which will be incorporated in the future.

Job Description

BYAN is currently recruiting a qualified and experienced candidate for the position of Program Officer for its project regarding Comprehensive Sexuality education. .

A Master's degree in Public Health or a related field in Social Science, with at least one year of relevant work experience is required. Alternatively, a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field with at least two years of experience may also be considered.
A minimum of two years of experience working on CSE and SRHR projects and possessing a technical understanding of CSE and SRHR components is mandatory.
Good knowledge of National and International laws relating to disability, such as UNCRPD, SDG, Disability Rights Act, Inclusive Education Policy, and the Constitution of Nepal.
Proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, is necessary.
The ideal candidate should be energetic, proactive, and willing to take risks with a desire to continuously learn. Effective communication and collaboration skills with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Fluency in English and Nepali is required. Knowledge of sign language is preferred.
Prior experience working with diverse groups, including Youth and individuals with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ community is an added advantage.

The Program Officer for this project will be responsible for coordinating and implementing the project in Kathmandu. The successful candidate will work closely with project partners and stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organizations, and community groups to ensure that the project is implemented on time, within budget, and to the highest standards.

Key Responsibilities:

Coordinate the implementation of the project, including the development of work plans, budgets, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
Manage project partners and stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, and community groups.
Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including government officials, donors, and other bilateral/multilateral partners.
Develop and maintain project documentation, including work plans, budgets, and reports. Ensure project activities align with the organization's mission and values.
Lead the project and coordinate with the government, particularly with the Curriculum Development Center, Center for education and Human development center, government agencies and Civil Society Organizations. Ensure activities align with the organization's CSE priorities.
Ensure the design and dissemination of CSE related IEC materials in accessible formats for awareness and advocacy.
Design and conduct CSE related training and orientation sessions and ensure the quality of training and counseling for individuals with disabilities and teachers of the government sector.
Work closely with the media to bring positive change on disability issues related to CSE and SRHR.
Ensure proper documentation and timely reporting.

(Phone enquiry will not be entertained.)

BYAN Promotes inclusion across gender, caste, ethnicity, Dalits and disability where the persons with disabilities and LGBTIQ+ are highly encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be called for further process. The organization reserves the right to reject any/all applications without assigning any reasons.

For more information and application please visit this link: https://merojob.com/program-officer-162/

Job Description

BYAN is currently recruiting a qualified and experienced candidate for the position of Project Coordinator based in kathmandu for its project "Actions for Change" supported by CBM Global.

The Project Coordinator for Actions for Change will be responsible for coordinating and implementing the project in Kathmandu. The successful candidate will work closely with project partners and stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organizations, and community groups, to ensure that the project is implemented on time, within budget, and to the highest standards.

Job Specification

A Master's degree in Public Health or a related field in Social Science, with at least one year of relevant work experience is required. Alternatively, a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field with at least three years of experience may also be considered.
A minimum of three years of experience working on SRHR projects and possessing a technical understanding of SRHR and FP components is mandatory.
A sound understanding of Federal, Provincial, and Local laws and policies related to health is essential, as well as a good knowledge of National and International laws relating to disability, such as UNCRPD, SDG, Disability Rights Act, Inclusive Education Policy, and the Constitution of Nepal.
Proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, is necessary.
The ideal candidate should be energetic, proactive, and willing to take risks with a desire to continuously learn. Effective communication and collaboration skills with individuals from diverse backgrounds is also crucial.
Fluency in English and Nepali is required. Knowledge of sign language is preferred.
Prior experience working with diverse groups, including Youth and individuals with disabilities, is an added advantage.

Key Responsibilities:

Project Coordination: Coordinate the implementation of the Actions for Change project, including the development of work plans, budgets, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
Partnership Management: Manage project partners and stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, and community groups.
Stakeholder Relations: Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including government officials, donors, and other bilateral/multilateral partners.
Documentation: Develop and maintain project documentation, including work plans, budgets, and reports. Ensure project activities align with the organization's mission and values.
MEAL: Properly monitor project activities in both project districts and provide technical assistance as needed to field assistants, project partners, and stakeholders. Track down the Evaluation and learning from the project.
Possess the flexibility to work with all 10 types of disabilities and possess the skills for proper communication.
Government Coordination: Lead the project and coordinate with the government, particularly with the Family Health Division, Rural/Municipalities RMCs, Health Units, and Civil Society Organizations. Ensure activities align with the organization's SRHR priorities and Nepal's commitment to FP 2030.
IEC Materials: Ensure the design and dissemination of SRHR and FP related IEC materials in accessible formats for awareness and advocacy.
Training and Orientation: Design and conduct SRHR and FP related training and orientation sessions and ensure the quality of training and counseling for individuals with disabilities and service providers from the health sector.
Disability Inclusiveness: Coordinate with the government, SRH, and FP service providers to ensure IEC materials and services are disability-inclusive.
Media Engagement: Work closely with the media to bring positive change on disability issues related to SRHR.
Reporting: Ensure proper documentation and timely reporting.

(Phone enquiry will not be entertained.)

BYAN Promotes inclusion across gender, caste, ethnicity, Dalits and disability where the persons with disabilities and LGBTIQ+ are highly encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be called for further process. The organization reserves the right to reject any/all applications without assigning any reasons.

Please visit this site for more information and for the application: https://merojob.com/project-coordinator-259/

Blind Youth Association is an organization establish by the Blind and Partially Sighted Youth of Nepal. With the vision of ‘BPS people of Nepal enjoying dignified life in an inclusive society’. BYAN is currently working in the area of policy advocacy, education, employment disaster risk reduction, political participation and promotion of SRHR of persons with disabilities in general and BPS in particular. Blind Youth Association Nepal (BYAN) is a right based organization established to advocate and promote the rights of blind and partially sighted youth that are scattered across the country of Nepal. Since its establishment, this organization has expanded its organizational network in different parts of the country and has been conducting different programs such as capacity building, leadership development, personality development and skill development related training to the blind and partially sighted youth. Till the date, the organization has been able to expand its district level branches in Jhapa and Morang in province 1, Bara in Province 2, Kathmandu valley and Chitwan in province 3, Kaski in Gandaki province, Rupandehi and Banke in Province 5, Surkhet in province 6 and kailali in far west province. Inclusive of all these branches, more than 500+ blind and partially sighted youth are the members of this organization with equal numbers of men and women.

In a partnership with IFES, BYAN is conducting election access monitoring to find out the actual situation and facts of persons with disability on an access to the election in Nepal. The access monitoring will be done on 100 polling stations during the election day i.e., 20 November 2022 and IEC materials (Video/Audio/Print/Social network) developed and used by ECN and other organizations at 10 working districts of BYAN during pre-election. So, BYAN announces the call for Expression of Interest (EOI) from the experienced and qualified experts to prepare a report on election access monitoring. Interested and Eligible individual or organization are invited to submit EOI in the following address mentioning “Expression of Interest for preparing election access monitoring report” in the subject line in the following Address: [email protected]/ [email protected]

Eligibility to submit the EOI ;

EOI can be submitted by a company or person having the potential eligibility.
Interested consultants must provide information with their personal Bio data indicating their qualification to perform the services.
Individual consultant shall provide at least 1 details of similar assignment experience, their location in the previous 3 years.
BYAN will select the consultant based on their experience and amount proposed for the task.
Working experience and knowledge in disability will be an advantage.

Documents to submit along with EOI :

Cover letter on the official letter head of the company or individual consultant duly signed by authorized signatory.
Include at least 3 years’ experience in the field of election monitoring and disability.
Budget for the completion of the final Report.
Updated curriculum vitae demonstrating the mentioned knowledge, skill and expertise required, availability in the proposed service period, a brief plan for how to carry out the services.
Plan of action, expected services, availability within the expected time and duration to carry out the tasks as per the TOR attached.
Consultancy fees to carry out the overall task

Date of call for the EOI: 18th Sep, 2022

Extension of Deadline for the Submission of EOI: 5 pm, 10th Oct, 2022. (Nepali Standard Time)

BYAN reserves the right to select or not to select any of the application. BYAN keeps safeguarding as a top priority so, any data or information collected during the task shall be kept confidential and shall not be disseminated without BYAN’s prior consent.

The Scope of Work to carry out the election access monitoring report:

Plan and make an outline of the election access monitoring report by finalizing with BYAN & IFES team.
Desk review of national and international practices of disability and election access.
Conduct the validation workshop of monitoring draft questions and checklist among stakeholders.
Audit data the compile data
Monitoring reporting must include the subject and findings of polling station situation, disability voter experience of voting and IEC materials used during per election by ECN and other organization.
In the report data must be analyzed and interpreted using infographic tools and descriptive methodology and mentioning the finding and recommendation of monitoring.
Prepare a brief presentation of a report to share in a meeting with ECN, IFES and BYAN.
The draft report, included attached assessment sheet, along with an Executive Summary will be e-mailed by the Consultant to the organization, to get their feedback before finalization of the report on election access monitoring.
Consultant should submit the final report by 15^th March 2023 in digital and hard copies. Language of the reports shall be English.

TERMS OF REFERENCE (ToR)

TO THE CONSULTANT/AGENCY TO DEVELOP PROPOSAL ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS AND CAPACITY BUILDING

Background :

Blind Youth Association is an organisation establish by the Blind and Partially Sighted Youth of Nepal. With the vision of ‘BPS people of Nepal enjoying dignified life in an inclusive society’ BYAN is currently working in the area of policy advocacy, education, employment disaster risk reduction, political participation and SRHR of persons with disabilities in general and BPS in particular. Blind Youth Association Nepal (BYAN) is a right based organisation established to advocate and promote the rights of blind and partially sighted youth that are scattered across the country of Nepal. Since its establishment, this organisaiton has expanded its organisational network in different parts of the country and has been conducting different programs such as capacity building, leadership development, personality development and skill development related training to the blind and partially sighted youth. Till the date, the organisation has been able to expand its district level branches in Jhapa and Morgang in provience 1, Bara in Provience 2, Kathmandu valley and Chitwan in provience 3, Kaski in Gandaki province, Rupandehi and Banke in Provience 5, Surkhet in provience 6 and kailali in far west provience. Inclusive of all these branches more than 500+ blind and partially sighted youth are the members of this organisation with equal numbers of men and women. In this regards, BYAN is developing a project with CBM-Global and the consultant will technically lead the project design and development process.

Rationale:

Traditionally, although premarital and extra marital sex have been discouraged in Nepal and most of the Asian societies6, studies conducted in different geographical settings have shown that unmarried adolescents in Nepal are becoming more sexually active and are also increasingly vulnerable to STIs and HIV infection due to changing values, norms and independence.

In the context and societies where the ‘person’s disability’ is accounted as a problem, the social perspective promoted by WHO is of high importance whereby the person or their impairment is not viewed as ‘the problem’, but rather understand disability as a result of the barriers they face in society. Therefore, the challenges are not necessarily due to having an impairment in itself, but rather reflect a lack of social attention, legal protection, accessibility, understanding and support. The ignorance and negative attitude of society and individuals, including health-care providers, raise most of these barriers – not the disabilities itself. In fact, existing services usually can be adapted easily to accommodate people with disabilities. Increasing awareness is the first and foremost step. Beyond that, much can be accomplished by involving people with disabilities in programme design and monitoring.1 This is all about understanding and adopting the ‘social model’ of disability in SRHR.

SRH demand in Nepal is still underserved (45% of total demand 72%) by the SRH and FP service providers. Disability along with gender and geographical differences multiplies the discrimination further. Moreover, studies suggest that people with disabilities are twice as likely to be on the receiving end of inadequately skilled healthcare providers at improper facilities, and are three times more likely to be denied health care and four times more likely to be treated badly by health care systems. People with disabilities are three times more likely to become a victim of sexual, emotional and physical violence where people with mental and intellectual disabilities are the most vulnerable ones. Between 40- 60 per cent of young women with disabilities and 16-30 per cent of young men with disabilities experience sexual violence before the age of eighteen Women and girls with disabilities have up to three times more chances of forced sterilization14 and exposed to the risk of HIV.

In the context, BYAN has been working to promote sexual and reproductive health of persons with disabilities since 2016 and it is most to capacitate the members and the chapter members on the SRH and leadership development. So, to insure the inclusive sexual and reproductive health for persons with disabilities we are seeking for a competent expert who would discuss with our members in the chapters as well as center and stakeholders to drag out the core issues and challenges and pave them in consolidated report .

Objectives

- To identify the core issues of SRHR of youths with disabilities

- To develop a report of the consultations at the local and national level.

Provide sufficient information about the major issues and challenges that are prevailing in the target group.
To technically lead the project design and development process of a project of BYAN with CBM-Global.

Duration of Assignment : 12 working days within 1 months within the date of signing of the agreement

Submission of proposals:

Interested candidates or organisations are hereby invited to submit a proposal for the assignment.

Eligibility to submit the EOI ;

EOI can be submitted by a company or person having the potential eligibility.
Interested consultants must provide information with their personal CV indicating their qualification to perform the services.
This expression of interest is open to all eligible Consulting Firm and individual consultants. Renewed Company documents should be submitted in case of the companies.
Individual consultant shall provide at least 1 details of similar assignment experience, their location in the previous 3 years.
BYAN will select the consultant based on their experience and amount proposed for the task.
Working experience and knowledge in disability will be an advantage.

Documents to submit along with EOI :

Cover letter on the official letter head of company or individual consultant duly signed by authorized signatory.
Include at least 3 years’ experience in the field of SRH and disability in the related topics.
Budget for the completion of the task.
Updated curriculum vitae demonstrating the mentioned knowledge, skill and expertise required, availability in the proposed service period, a brief plan for how to carry out the services.
Consultancy fees to carry out the overall task

Date of call for the EOI: 16th Sept, 2022

Deadline for the Submission of EOI: 5 pm, 21st Sept, 2022, 2022. (Nepali Standard Time)

Opportunity for Blind and Partially sighted Youths : Interpretation and Translation trainingBlind Youth Association Nepal(BYAN) has been conducting the Job preparedness training for past 5 years and working in the creation of employment opportunities for blind and partially sighted youths. This year BYAN is going to organise the one month long translation and interpretation training for Blind and partially sighted. The main motive to develop strong translators and interpreters is to create the professional opportunity to capacitate and make them ready translation works. Interested candidate with sound computer , english language and willing to work professionally as a translator / Interpreter may apply for the trianing. "Note this is not a english language training

"https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSebCv0TbCF.../viewform...

On the occasion of international youth day 2022 Blind Youth Association organized all over Nepal inter college competition on 12th August 2022 in Nepal Academy Hall (Parijat Hall), Kamaladi, Kathmandu. For the audition round BYAN call for application through its FB page and sending invitation letters to college. To apply for audition participants had to send a 3 minute speech video in Nepali language by choosing 1 topic among three topics. In the audition round total 93 youths from various district colleges had applied for the competition. Out of 93 applicants 15 applicants were selected by jury members for the final round. Among 15 final contestant were 8 female including 1 pwd female and 7 were male including 3 pwd male). There were 8 contestants from districts of Kathmandu valley and 7 contestants were from outside the valley. The first prize winner of the competition was Miss Kirpa Karuna Pokhrel class 12 student from Kantipur international college Birtanagar. 2nd prize winner was Mr. Sandip Thapa from Kathmandu university school of Law Bachelor level student who is visually impaired. 3rd prize winner was Mr. Sugyani BK class 12 student form Jaya Multiple college Kathmandu respectively consolation winners were Mr. Saugat Mall from National college Kathmandu who is visually impaired and Miss. Binita Mauli Satar from Mahendra Morang Adarsha campus Dharan who is visually impaired.We would like to thank all the young enthusiastic participants for taking part in this speech competitions, colleges and IFES for the support.