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Table 1 Issue, training and impact

From: Complex factors and educational tools for social change and empowerment for severely marginalized Nepalese women working in hospitality and tourism

Identified issue

Evidence

Targeted training

Impact/outcome

Silence

Tourists were standing and waiting for instructions while women did all of the preparation for cooking a dish. Tourists were noticeably bored.

Develop and practice telling their “story” in English, explain the significance of the dishes, talk about the ingredients, ask the tourists questions.

Practised asking tourists to join in a task using phrases like “can you help me do this?”, “would you like to do this?”, “do you know how to do this?”

Women: more confident interactions with the tourists evidenced by use of humor, increased number of direct instructions given, personal conversations with tourists about daily cooking practices, increased number of invitations for tourists to ask questions.

Tourists: connection with the women, evidenced by more audible laughter, a sense of fun, increase in “chatter” and sharing between the women and tourists, tourists no longer standing around.

Cookery book: the researchers and women updated the recipe booklet to include stories of women’s cooking life as talking points.

Taking over vs. being bossy

While one cut vegetables, tourists watched passively for 10 min without active involvement or engagement.

Practised demonstration skills, then transfer ingredient and task from teacher to student.

Women: confidence in allocating and trusting tourists with tasks, outcome of having more time for the teacher to oversee kitchen operations and prepare next tasks. Completion of the cooking school in allocated timeframe.

Tourists: active management of the tourists through allocation of specific tasks, booklet able to taken back to home country.

Movement between tasks

Tourists did not know the next steps.

Practised gaining attention from the tourists “attention everyone, could you please come over here to me” and providing explicit instruction on tasks “cut the potatoes into big chunks”

Women: women now understand that they were in charge of the safety and operation of the kitchen and that it is part of their authority to instruct tourists as to the next steps.

Tourists: no longer reported on surveys that they were standing around without a task to do and understood instructions.

Giving instruction in English

Phrase used “cut potatoes”

Tourist asked “how big”

Then took over cutting because she could not explain in English what was required

Training sessions were conducted to increase knowledge of terminology for cutting vegetables over 3 days

Women: increased range of English words to describe cuts, cutting and cooking techniques. They also have a lot more confidence that the tourists are not judging their English skills but are there to learn cooking through demonstration.

Overall increase in the quality of food production and decrease in time taken to produce the dishes.

Knife skills

On several occasions, the Home Economist observed that the women used knives that would be considered dangerous by Hospitality standards—for example, carrying knives incorrectly, incorrect handling and unsafe washing techniques.

The knives were all very blunt.

It was also established that sharpening knives were not a skill that the women had. It was either; outsourced to a man with a grinder at a cost per knife, or the women used the edge of a rough sandstone mortar and pestle to sharpen their knives. The researchers inquired about this practice, and it was found to be knowledge handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter in the villages.

Four targeted training sessions were conducted by the Home Economist and the women over 18 months.

Content covered explicit instruction about knife handling and sharpening techniques:

1. Section 1.5 Kitchen Knife Drill and Safety from the HITT Manual was covered:

Types of knives

How to grip a knife

Knife safety

Safe cleaning procedures.

2. Practised cutting different types of vegetables.

3. ½ day training session on how to sharpen knives with a steel and whetstone. At this stage, specific photographs taken of women training with the knives.

4. Delivery of Knife Safety poster to display on the kitchen walls.

The research team purchased and delivered to the centre a high-quality knife sharpening steel and whetstone. This enabled the women to keep their own knives sharp for their safety and the safety of the tourists.

Photographs were taken of the women using correct knife handling and sharpening practices and a poster was delivered as a visual prompt on the walls of the kitchen.

Photographing the women doing the knife activities and presenting the poster was a strategic way of giving the women ownership and connection with their own practices and environment.

Personal hygiene

Germs and bacteria

Cross-contamination

Regular bathing

Clean clothes

Don’t work when sick

Don’t touch hair, nose, ears

Cuts and burns

Clean hands

Sneezing

½ day personal hygiene seminar with all women in the centre.

Topics covered:

Regular use of antibacterial soap

Hair tied up tightly

The concept of contagious and communal living

Cutting fingernails and keeping nails clean

Pollution and pests

All women practised washing hands with soap

Women: handwashing stations are provided to all staff and tourists as they enter the cookery school. The women emphatically direct tourists to wash and dry their hands appropriately before proceeding with touching food.

Tourists: compliance and appreciation of personal hygiene practices in the center.

Dedicated hand washing station in the new kitchen with a poster of photographs depicting correct procedure.

Researcher took photographs of one of the women washing her hands—in this way, the women are personally connected to the action and their hyper-local context.

Kitchen and food safety

Accident with a pressure cooker

Food left uncovered on benches

Not able to identity or use fire extinguisher equipment

Unaware of required temperatures to kill bacteria in food

Targeted training:

“Danger zone” training and posters visible in the kitchen

Refrigeration cleaning and food safety

Food storage

Stove and oven safety

Pressure cooker safety

Fire extinguisher training

Women: cookery school ban on the use of aged pressure cookers and found alternative ways to cook Nepali Dahl Bhat (lentils and rice). Increased use of the refrigerator to store produce and left-overs. Gained an understanding of time and temperature to kill bacteria in food to prevent illness. The women were grateful to be trained on how to use a fire extinguisher and fire blanket.

Tourists: various increased measures implemented for tourist health and safety.

  1. Situational context: Cookery School for Tourists in Kathmandu within a Nepalese/Australian Social Enterprise
  2. Observation period: May 2017–January 2019
  3. Number of observations of women interacting with tourists in the cookery school: nine (9)