As we’ve been running and supporting charitable initiatives in Nepal for the last 4 years, since Sophie experienced the earthquake first hand, we’ve learnt SO much and been through countless trials and tribulations.
The thing that comes up again and again is that the positive changes and outcomes that we want to see only happen when people come together.
Each of us can make a difference, but together we can make a change.
Collaboration is so powerful!
To literally illustrate that, and to raise awareness about what women and girls experience around menstruation, we started to ask people to illustrate a Nepalese school girl. People from all around the world from different walks of life, who in turn asked friends to contribute too.
The intention was to combine them into one piece of art and therefore demonstrate the power of coming together; how the crowd of girls has much more impact than one on her own.
It was an absolute joy to compile the crowd, as we fondly call it. Each illustration is stunning on its own and I have been overwhelmed to see the variety of interpretations, but to see them come together is something else.
For me it represents a TFL worker from London standing alongside a Nepalese schoolgirl, an illustrator from Seville shoulder to shoulder with a yoga teacher from Austria. Standing for something. Outside of societies constraints and expectations.
And that represents what we can achieve within local communities if we can help them to feel that they’re part of something bigger. Empowering the decision to come from within the local community, empowering women to have a choice.
Together we are stronger. Together we can create change.