Super proud daddy moment…

Super proud daddy moment…

This beautiful young lady returns home today after spending nearly five weeks away in Nepal.

No doubt it has been a life changing moment and one that will live long in her memories, inspiring her God-given passions going well in to the future.

Nepal left an indelible mark on my heart and will undoubtedly leave one on hers.

I look forward to hearing of her exploits and the plans that she’ll have to further her connection with her Nepalese family and friends.

She has thoroughly enjoyed her time as a volunteer teacher at Gokarneshwor Light Academy and taking in some of the sights of Kathmandu.

She has developed a desire to assist in the resourcing and supporting of schools in Nepal and has committed to being an advocate / ambassador for Child Nepal here in New Zealand.

Child Nepal (CN) is a non-political, non-religion, non-government organisation (NGO) working on child rights in general, child protection and development in particular. It was established in 2003 by a group of social activists with an aim to initiate a child friendly culture in Nepal.

Their objectives are to:

• Ensure child friendly environment in families, schools, communities and at government levels.
• Strengthen civil society monitoring and constructive engagement to fulfill state accountability on rights of the child.
• Demonstrate effective mechanism to realize rights of the child on protection, development and participation.
• Open successful dialogue in mainstreaming effective strategy demonstrated by Child Nepal.

At times it hasn’t been easy but these experiences have stretched and matured her in ways that could only have happened if she immersed herself in the day-to-day lives of those in Nepal, soaking in its culture and all it has to offer.

 

Although teaching may not be something that she pursues in the future, it is certainly something that she has come to appreciate.

And she would encourage anyone looking to complete a mission trip or any kind of voluntary service to act upon it.

A special thanks and appreciation to Mohan Dangal and Sujeeta Aryal for taking her into your family and treating her as one of your own.

Your loving kindness is greatly appreciated and we are truly thankful and forever grateful.

Dhan’yavāda

Watch this space as ideas are birthed into action and dreams are realised 🙂

Read Full Post »

Nepal Revisited – Day 29

The countdown is on and the work continues…

Today we started the morning off by packing 285 Hygiene Kit supplies into buckets in preparation for a distribution tomorrow morning in Thakre, Dhading.

Nirmal was able to source all the products locally through market contacts he has and has done a fantastic job to keep within budget. Nirmal – you are a legend and a great asset to the team – Thanks heaps for going the extra mile. Due to t he amount of items in the bucket they will be pretty much be full and they contain a wide range of products as can be seen in the picture.

Late morning Richard & I headed to the Shelter Cluster in Jawalakhel so that he is aware of where the meetings are being held and also so I could introduce him to a couple of contacts that we have. This mornings meeting went on longer than usual as they had a lot to cover, including an update on the slower than expected distribution schedules due to the on-going fuel shortage and unofficial blockage at the border.

After the meeting we headed back to the house to finish off the Hygiene Kits and stack them into the room which only a couple of days ago was full of quilts. This will be the last distribution that I am a part of – we only really have CGI distributions now left to coordinate, which hopefully tomorrow I will be able to confirm with a partner organisation so that two projects can be signed off and completed. As it stands we still have about 8 projects to finalise.

After a late lunch I shot off to International Office of Migration (I.O.M.) to drop off some paperwork and get a clear understanding of what they require in the Memorandum of Understanding that has been sitting in the to do pile for the past couple of weeks. Tomorrow morning I’ll be able to get this completed fully and signed off and sent in for approval. Finally!

In the evening over dinner it was great to catch up with Basanta from Runchet, Gorkha, to get an update on the CGI requirements for the school, where they are at with the CGI for the village and receive letters of thanks and appreciation for all the work that The Salvation Army has done for their village. I’m hoping that we can continue the bond that we have forged over the past few months well into the future, and that it would be great to catch-up in a few years time in person and see how the village has moved on from the devastation of the earthquake.

All in all a full on day with another one fast approaching tomorrow…

Read Full Post »

Nepal Revisited – Day 28

While Richard went to the Logistics Cluster and Heather went to Sister’s, I headed to Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN) to drop off the 1st installment of quilts. We are providing the last of our quilts to a couple of local orphanages and a boarding school that VIN has had some involvement with since the earthquake. This 1st installment will go to a couple of small orphanages that are close to the VIN officies in Balaju.

In the afternoon Nirmal & I, along with Dinesh from VIN, went to Ngagyur Memorial School to drop off the remaining 110 quilts to a school that has only been in operation for the past four months.

They have been looking after children from Gorkha, Dolokha, Dhading, Sindhupalchok and Rasuwa who have lost one or both parents during the earthquake and have been relocated to Kathmandu.

Some of these children have never been out of their respective villages and many have not had any form of formal education.

So they are having to learn not only basic lifestyle skills, but in some cases Nepali as well as English, let alone other subjects as they get a basic education.

I was introduced to a 16yr old boy who had relocated from upper Gorkha and he didn’t speak Nepali and had never been to school before, yet he was very bright and you could see the potential to get on and succeed in life.

Initially set up as a monastery after the earthquake it was decided that the need was to care for children in need. At present they have 330 children from as young as 5yrs right through to 16yrs. They have 15 (paid) teachers and about 10 volunteers / workers that help look after the children day and night.

I was impressed with the work to date to get the complex suitable for the children to be on site and also the commitment shown by all those that were caring for the children. Especially Geshe Jigme who has taken on the role of Principal.

The other thought that came to mind as I was being shown the kitchen and dining facilities was that at times like this – we need to set aside our political, religious and societal differences and work together for the benefit of the children.

With all of the hassles that the fuel shortage and ongoing unofficial blockade at the border has caused, it is places like these that feel the brunt of other peoples demands. Due to a lack of LPG they are having to cook meals using firewood that has been gathered from the local forest just so that they can feed the children.

Imagine what that would be like – then compound the issue, as they have limited food resource and funds to buy what is available locally, which is already very limited.

The school is also needing stationery and other resources so it was a privilege to provide them with some quilts that will help keep the children warm as winter approaches.

Read Full Post »

Nepal Revisited – Day 27

This morning was an early start again as we needed to be at the airport by 6:00am.

Mohan Dangal from Child Nepal met us there, so that we could do a couple of official handovers of two Temporary Learning Centres (TLCs) to schools in Listikot & Ghumthang, in the Sindhupalchok District.

It also gave Heather, Richard and I an opportunity to see firsthand the work that Child Nepal had done with the local communities to get the schools up and functioning as soon as practical after the earthquake devastated the schools.

At each school Mohan had organised a formal programme, as we had Mr. Rudra Hari Bhandari from the District Education Office also along for the ride. This was so that he could see what was being done by local NGO’s and International Organisations within Nepal to help those most affected by the earthquake.

The first school we visited was Shree Ugrachandi Secondary School in Listikot. As can be seen from the photo the main school building has been badly damaged by the earthquake and hangs precariously on the edge of the hill.

Many of the local villagers turned out to thank us for the funding that we had provided to construct the TLC and showed their appreciation by giving us heaps of Khada’s and garlands of flowers.

The views of the surrounding hills and valleys were spectacular and show how remote the schools we have been assisting along with our partner agencies are. This trip was originally scheduled to take approximately 5 days by foot, due to landslides in the area and the wash out of the bridge and main road in and out of the area.

After the official programme which also incorporated speeches from the District Education Officer, Principal, Heather and Mohan we headed across the valley to Shree Balkalyan Lower Secondary School in Ghumthang.

Again we were overwhelmed by the show of appreciation from the local villagers receiving more than 20 Khada’s each and being welcomed by a high pitched trumpet sound as a local villager blew a traditional Narsingha.

It almost seemed like every child at the school greeted us with either a Khada or garland of flowers and we were presented with so many that both Heather & I had to leave quite a few behind on the table.

During the formalities we got to hear the Nepali National Anthem and a traditional song performed by some of the students which was quite moving.

At both schools we also presented a sample of school bags and stationery items which was greatly received with much applause by those gathered.

However, the young boy that I gave a bag to seemed to be a bit timid of me 😦

The remainder of the bags and stationery will be delivered to the school by Child Nepal once the roads are open.

After the formalities were over we headed back to Kathmandu and had lunch with Mohan – Before heading to a meeting with Bhupi @ Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN) to discuss the progress to date with their Sanitation Project. It also gave us the opportunity to introduce Richard to the team and discuss another part of a project that needs to be completed as soon as possible. We also got to discuss where the remaining quilts that we have in stock could go.

All in all today was a full on day and a huge encouragement to see the work that is being accomplished in Nepal even with all the frustrations and hold-ups due to the ongoing fuel shortage.

Read Full Post »

Nepal Revisited – Day 26

Today was an administration and planning day so that we could ensure that in my last week some of the rats and mice can get sorted out. Although many of the projects are going to continue until the end of the year and into next year, aspects of them can be organised so that when things get back on an even keel after the unofficial blockade, (which at this stage shows no signs of ending) the projects will recommence effectively.

Thanks to Nirmal we have got a really good price for the Hygiene Kits through his market contacts and we should be able to distribute them prior to my departure on Thursday in Thakre, Dhading to the most vulnerable families in that area.

Basanta has also been able to confirm with the local supplier in Arkhet Bazaar, that the CGI sheets for his village will be available for pick up this coming week. The villagers have also bandied together to raise the funds needed to get the bundles transported to the village by helicopter, rather than everyone having to do a strenuous two day trek carrying bundles of CGI over the hills.

We hope to be able to supply further CGI sheets to Runchet as funds allow so that they have the materials to reconstruct part of the school. But we are waiting on confirmation of other aspects of a couple of projects so that we can make a bulk order to a major supplier.

The formatting of all the Draft IES Final Reports has been done, now for the remainder of the week I need to put in some explanations of where we are at with each area of the report – fun times! What’s more we now have a pretty full week lined up…

Read Full Post »

Nepal Revisited – Day 25

Today was a a literal day of rest! For once we took a complete day off, not doing any office work related tasks at all, no reports or administration, not a thing!

Heather & I had got up really early this morning to watch the 3rd/4th place final in the Rugby World Cup featuring South Africa and Argentina. During the half-time break we decided that we needed to take a complete day off. Which was just as well as by the time the game finished it was nearly 4am, so we needed time to recover. Well done to South Africa for the win!

Tonight was going to be a late one due to the final between the New Zealand All Black’s and the Australian Wallabies.

So much of the morning was spent sleeping or watching movies and in the afternoon we chilled out taking it easy. And before some of you get all high and mighty about the fact that we had a day off while on assignment – you need to realise that this is the first “full” day off that we have had since we got back in to Nepal…

With so much work to be done and always some administration that needs to be completed or reports to be written, it is usually very hard to stop and do nothing at all… Especially when you work and sleep in the same place.

But today we did!

Read Full Post »