Nepal Revisited – Day 9

This morning Heather & I needed to be up before the crack of dawn, so that we could head to the airport by 6:00am. As I noted yesterday, Mountain Child were able to organise a flight to the Upper Gorkha region via helicopter. This was so that we could do a site visit to one of the remote schools that they have been working in.

Mountain Child are partnering with The Salvation Army to provide earthquake relief assistance to 4 schools in the Upper Gorkha area and also work in 31 other remote locations.

Shree Nubri is sort of nestled in the river valley between 3 villages that are on the surrounding ridges and is not far from the main village Ghap.

It is also reasonably close to the worlds 8th highest mountain, Manaslu. In Nepal this mountain is also known as Kutang, and its summit is 8,163 metres (26,781 ft) above sea level.

Located in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in the west-central part of Nepal, its name means “mountain of the spirit” and is not far from the Tibetan border.

The Salvation Army has provided tents for the Temporary Learning Centre, so that the school (which was significantly damaged in the earthquakes) could continue educating the children of the area.

After the monsoon season however, these are showing obvious signs of deterioration, and mildew is forming on the canvases.

The staff and children stay on site 6 days a week, sleeping in dorms usually, but these were also destroyed. So up until now the tents have also been home for up to 50 students at a time. They start duties from about 8:30am, starting school at 10:00am with morning prayers and finishing at 4:00pm in the afternoon. They fill the remainder of their time playing sports, reading, studying and going for walks in the surrounding area.

The school is starting to rebuild this month as supplies have not only been hard to locate of late, but they have also taken a while to get supplies transported to this remote location. Some of the teachers are local but the majority are interns from around the world and spend 3 months on site at a time.

The founder of Mountain Child, shared with us the history of how they came to be, which is a moving and tragic story – but out of it, they are bringing hope to hundreds of children:

“It all started when a small team trekking through the Himalayas stumbled across a group of young children being escorted out of the mountains by two adult men … It didn’t take long to sense that something wasn’t right.

Our worst fears were quickly realized when the two men openly spoke of their plans to sell the children into the booming sex trade industry of south Asia.

That’s when we started crying. It wasn’t a shallow type of cry. This was deep, real deep, like a well, that frankly, we haven’t found the bottom of yet. We are still crying. But a few of us, decided to band together and to turn the tears into tactics. We started getting organized, started making plans about how a small group of people could make a big impact. That was in 2000.”

It was a quite trip back in the helicopter to Kathmandu!

In the afternoon we headed back to the office to catch up on paperwork; but my mind kept going back to the thought of – how can I help?

In part this blog is one area in which I can try to do exactly that, by raising the awareness of the issues that face the people of Nepal.

So the question is; How can you play your part? By checking out their website Mountain Child and seeing how you to, can support the work of their mission.

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International Day of Prayer for Children…

All members of The Salvation Army throughout the world have been asked to set aside the 31st July as ‘the annual day of prayer for children.’ This Sunday has been chosen because it falls closest to the significant date of the 30^th July 1880 which is when The Salvation Army first began evangelical work among children in England.

The theme for this year’s International Day of Prayer for Children is "Speak up for the people who have no voice" (refer to Proverbs 31:8). Regardless of where children are in the world they will not have the status to speak up for themselves – so we need to stand in the gap for them

“The people brought children to Jesus … the disciples shooed them off . But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very centre of life in the kingdom." … Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.”

Mark 10:13-16, The Message

If the child is blessed, the whole world will be blessed.

Please pray on Sunday 31 July 2011 – the International Day of Prayer for Children.

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