Honoring Elders: Celebrating Mother’s Day in Nepal

About a year ago, members of LitClub Nepal and Rukmini Foundation had the idea to gather together the mothers of Rukmini Scholars to participate actively in the changes their daughters were part of. This idea led to the birth of our Mom’s Club. This initiated a movement where mothers were working in their communities, learning and promoting women’s rights and education alongside their daughters.
This year, on the occasion of Mata Tirthe Aaunsi (Nepalese Mother’s Day), the Mom’s club got together to celebrate in an unique manner.

It was great to see scholars, mentors and moms working together to celebrate this day.

Traditionally, Mother’s day in Nepal is a celebration honoring the mothers of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. The difference with this program was that the Mom’s Club celebrated not only within their families, but looked out towards the community to include people who may not have the opportunity to celebrate.

Scholar, Smriti Balami serving one of the ladies of the Center.

A clear opportunity was for the Mom’s Club, Scholars and Foundation staff to celebrate this day at the local Senior Citizen Care Center. The resulting event was a day of cooking and eating together and celebrating all mothers present. There were also gifts given, songs sang and dances danced. The day started with a community breakfast prepared by the members of the foundation. For lunch the elders (4 men and 6 women) of the Senior Center joined the members of Rukmini Foundation in preparing the meal. This simple act of cooking together invoked a sense of community and familial togetherness among the elders at the center who either live away from their family or have lost all their family.

While some scholars were helping with lunch, others scholars and mentors were helping groom and care for the elderly mothers. The care shown and the company the Bahinis provided the elders gave them a sense of comfort and connection to their own children and family.

Foundation mentor and leader, Ms. Lalita cares for an elder by cutting her nails.

The Bahinis also organized a formal celebratory event after lunch for the celebration of Mother’s Day. Usha Didi opened the ceremony by welcoming everyone to this unique Mother’s Day celebration and led the Bahinis in honoring the mothers and the other seniors with flower crowns.

Crowns and gifts made the mothers feel extra special.

Lalita Didi also encouraged several scholars like Swastika Karki, Smriti Shresta, Divya KC and Sadikchya KC to read out beautiful poetry honouring mothers, their love, dedication, support and influence in the life of their children and community. These poems read by the scholars were heartwarming and honoured mothers everywhere for their undying love and support.

The scholars also presented the seniors with a care package that included various first aid items and hygiene products that will make their life at the center a little better.

Another wonderful part of the event was having Ms. Shova Gajamer, a mother of two daughters,  sharing with everyone her experiences and views on education and the influence of the caste system upon education and opportunity. Ms. Gajmer is an advocate of equal opportunities for all members of Nepali society regardless of their caste or gender. She herself was unable to continue her education beyond grade 8 due to gender and caste discrimination when she was young. However, she has passed her passion for education onto her two daughters and she is furthering her own education dreams through her daughters and by strongly advocating education for everyone in her community.

Ms. Shova Gajmer shares her powerful story with the audience, and asks everyone to fight for equal rights and opportunity for all.

After Ms. Gajmer’s powerful words, we continued our celebration by sharing sweets with the mothers of Moms Club and the elderly mothers. Scholar, Anu Shrestha made everyone smile with her beautiful dance, and even got everyone participating on the dance floor.

After the lunch, poetry recital, dances and various other programs, some of the participants took the opportunity to share their feelings about the event.

The sharing of stories, cooking and eating together not only strengthen the bonds between the mothers and the daughters, but also provided the members of the Senior Center with a sense of communal belonging. This made the mother’s day celebration a huge success in our eyes. The sense of joy and happiness shared by all present made us happy, and we look forward to other positive changes that the Mom’s Club can bring into our community.