Write to Read

Nepal is full of people who have gained some literacy, but never had the opportunity to express their voices and be recognized for their hard-won skills. Deshko Awaj (Country's Voice) is a magazine of creative writing and information published by Books in Every Home from districts with Readers' Circles.

The community's writing - which could be about anything from poems to memoirs to thoughts about how to improve crops - is printed alongside stories and poems by recognized writers. Rural people are introduced to the pleasure of professional storytelling, while at the same time expressing their own voices in a public way. Write to Read participants gain a sense of ownership in the written word, while their neighbors gain locally relevant reading material and a reason to say with deserved pride, "Our village is a village that reads."

The pieces below are translated from Deshko Awaj.

Sad Song Of The Heart

Punaram Parajuli runs a tea stall under a thatched roof. In 2002, because of a false tip, he was arrested on suspicion of being a Maoist and beaten badly before the mistake was discovered and he was released. After this poem appeared, villagers said, "We never knew a simple tea- and samosa-maker could write such good poetry!"

I am a person who gives water to the people
I am a person who feeds porridge and samosa to the hungry
I am a person who provides tea to the passerby

But then I found out
that the porridge I made from peas
actually contained the bullets of a rifle,
my jeri had become an ambush,
and my samosas had turned into socket bombs and bucket bombs.

I didn't know they had turned into bombs.
I only learned it when I was arrested,
and thrown in the van of the Security Forces.

Safe Motherhood Awareness-Raising Song

Shakuntala Poudel loved school, but had to drop out at 13 for an arranged marriage. Her first child died of cholera. Now she does what she can to educate other villagers about health and women's issues. In Nepali, her song rhymes and is metered in a traditional way that indicates the tune.

O sisters, brothers, fathers and mothers,
we welcome you!
In the field is a long line of people--
please listen to the song of safe motherhood.

Even from the womb,
the custom of denigrating girls
forces us to lose our lives too soon.
Let's bear our children only after 20,
and let's all learn about safe motherhood.

Whether it's a boy or whether it's a girl,
please treat your children as equals.
Space the time between their births,
and remember condoms and birth control.

Let's feed pregnant women a nutritious diet
And go at least four times for checkups.
O mother, father, younger and older brothers,
we must take care of expectant mothers
who can die for lack of nutrition and care.

Is it healthy children we want?
Let's think from the start, when they're in the womb!
Complete our babies' inoculations,
and inoculate ourselves as well.
Let's eat iron tablets and lots of greens,
and give our children vitamins, polio drops, and iodized salt.

These are the things we ask you to understand.
Please don't tangle yourself in old superstitions,
or sorrow may come to mothers and fathers.

Let's make our small families happy
by sending both girls and boys to school.
And gentlemen, women's work is hard
so please help with the household chores!

Now we've met a lot of people who understand about safe motherhood,
and so it is that the song concludes.