Blog 2 #AMR_Gender: Heading home early

Sadly, our PhD student Nichola had to be flown home from Nepal a couple of weeks ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Here she shares reflections (and some great photos!) from her first week of field work, settling into Nepali culture and working with our partner team at HERD International. 

Field season cut short due to COVID-19

My first few days in Kathmandu were mainly spent getting past jet-lag and seeing some sights. I was fortunate enough (a happy accident) to time my arrival with Holi festival- a colourful Hindu festival where celebrating involves throwing paint, dancing and singing. The streets of the cultural site Durbar Square were filled with songs and colour – and residents throwing water from rooftops!

The following day I arrived at the HERDi office a little paint stained and ready to get into my fieldwork prep. We drew up a timeline for my three-month visit and scheduled meetings to discuss logistics and my thesis work. The first activity planned was to be a meeting with the HERDi team to discuss my review of the existing CARAN project manual. This manual describes the background and implementation for the CARAN project and acts as a guide for future research. My role was to revise this first manual, giving proposed changes in line with my own area of focus (gender) as well as placing One Health at the centre of the language. This meeting was scheduled to take place on the Thursday, however, when emergency COVID-19 meetings began to take place most of the arranged schedules for all staff were instead replaced with emergency preparations to aid the Nepal Ministry of Health.

On the Wednesday I received the news that UoL was suspending all future travel for fieldwork due to the spread of COVID-19. This news, along with further developments the following day, massively impacted the plans that we had made. The HERDi team were aware that large-scale changes were expected soon from the Nepali government that would include limits on travel and social gatherings that would make working in Kapilvastu District impossible. We discussed the situation and I came up with a few scenarios that might be possible moving forwards: changing the timeline, changing the location, postponing workshops, running workshops without me present. Each of these scenarios was then discussed via a skype meeting between us and the Leeds team. Though disappointing and frustrating, it was decided that it would be best if I suspended fieldwork for the time being and returned home to the UK. While this research is extremely important to me, it is of course paramount that we keep ourselves and our participants as safe as possible during this pandemic.  

For my final day in the office, we met to discuss my proposed manual changes – focussing on the workshop activities. I presented suggestions around splitting activities by gender and amendments to facilitator expectations regarding notetaking. We discussed the appropriateness of these changes and decided that splitting by gender may not be appropriate in the context, but that facilitators would instead make specific notes around the gendered elements of behaviours as well as responses. As experts in the field, the HERDi team’s insights are invaluable to the process of this research, therefore any amendments to my fieldwork activities will be based around their suggestions to better both the process and outcomes of the research. 

For the time-being I am working on these manual changes from home in West Yorkshire, in social isolation due to my recent international travel. For my research, I am very much hoping that a version of this fieldwork can be completed as soon as is safe in order that I might complete my PhD without extension – Fingers crossed!

Footnote: Whilst it's disappointing to be home so soon Nichola and the HERDi teams’ safety is our top priority and considering both the UK and Nepal have now moved into near lockdown modes, we’re glad to have her back.  Nichola will be supported to continue her PhD through these very challenging times and we hope to update you on her progress very soon.