 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
| Home | About Info | Program | Program Fees | Training | Location | Application | FAQ | Newsletter | |||
 |
|||
 |
|
|
|
Nina Chapman - Norway - Dec - 2008 Sarah Looney - England - 23rd November 2008 Drac Garcia Palacios - Catalonia, Spain - 28 of June Anna Drutschinin - Australia - : February 6th 2008 Anne-Marie Parry - England - 30th June 2008 Danielle Soya - USA - 27 April 2008 Nina Chapman - Norway - Dec - 2008 Edward Macey - England - 12th May 2008
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
New Happy Home Pokhara - May and June - 2010 After running a Happy
home in Chitwan for 5 years with 23 children, we realized the need of
such home in Pokhara too. With the determination to help the children in
Pokhara and to widen the scope of our support to the needy and deserving
children, we inaugurated a Happy Home in Pokhara on 14-April 2010
(Nepali New Year) with 8 children from Happy Home in Chitwan. They were
joined by 5 more from the Street Children Project and 2 from Sauraha.
The home is situated in a place called Shanti Patan, 5 minutes walk from
the tourist area – Lakeside. We prefer calling the home as Happy Home over ‘orphanage’ as the children in this home are not necessarily orphans. They are the children deprived of quality education and basic needs of daily life. Their parents are in no situation of providing them with the proper education and proper life. Two of the children are Maoist victims and have lost their parents. Others either are not able to provide them with good education or some children have no parents at all. There are now 15 children in Happy Home, 11 of whom go to a private English school nearby and 4 of them go to government school. The youngest of them is 5 years old and the oldest is 13 years old. It is a tough job to open a home like this and it was indeed; all new things, new place, new schedule, new educational supplies, new friends and new school. The children were excited to be in a new place but also sad to leave their friends and their place behind and come to a totally new place to a new beginning. But it didn’t take them long time to get to know each other and make new friends. The children seemed to be happy to be in Happy Home and we were glad that the name of the home lived upto its expectation. The children started to go to school shortly and things were starting to straighten up step by step. Every day new challenges and new solutions, new things to learn. The children were starting to feel home. Times got better. We met the basic need of the home but there were still lots of things to be done, things to be bought, things to be organized.
Volunteers at the home
have to work in the morning and in the evening and they will have the
free time all the other times. They will have free time from 10 in the
morning to 4 in the afternoon. They can also go to Lakeside for dinner
if they want.
One day an Italian man named Richard came to the home and offered to help. It was lucky that he came at this time as we were finding it difficult to provide everything the children needed. The uniforms of the children were not ready yet so he offered to help us by paying for the uniforms. The home is still not all set and we still need more help. We live in a community that is always willing to provide help if asked for the donation to build a temple in the neighbourhood but not for the children who need much more help than the Gods, a community that offers donations to the corrupt politicians but not to the children who are the future of the country. The home is in need of volunteers and would be grateful for any sort of help as we do not get any help from the government or the community. Amber Stark, UK -
June 2010
Mein Name ist Alexandra und ich verbrachte 4 Wochen hier in Nepal. Aufgenommen wurde ich herzlich im Haus vom Assim. Die Familie war interessiert an meinem Befinden und wenn offene Fragen waren , konnt ich mich jederzeit an sie wenden. Meine erste Woche bekam ich einen Eindruck von Kathmandu und erhielt einen groben Ueberblick ueber die Sprache der Einwohner. Die Nachmittage wurden mir Sehenswuerdigkeiten gezeigt. Besonders genossen habe ich allerdings auch die Zeit , mit anderen Volunteeren die Stadt zu erkunden und die morgendlichen Spaziergaenge in den Tempel. Mein Projekt fand in Pokahara statt, im Waisenhaus mit 16 Kindern. Ein sehr interessantes Projekt in einer angenehmen , ruhigeren Stadt als Kathmandu. Mein Eindruck nach 3 Wochen Arbeit dort ist durchwachsen. Fuer die Kinder ist es eine gute Moeglichkeit dem harten Leben auf der Strasse zu entkommen. Sie haben ein Bett , etwas zum Essen und koennen zur Schule gehen. Ausserdem ist es ein noch sehr junges Projekt , erst 3 Monate gibt es das Heim und wir sind hier in Nepal, ein anderes Land andere Sitten.Es muss noch wachsen. Die Arbeit im Heim umfasst die Hilfe bei der Morgenhygiene , die Vorbereitung auf den Schulalltag.Gegen 10 werden die Schueler zur Schule begleitet. Die anschliessende wichtige Aufgabe liegt in der Unterstuezung der Samila , die junge Frau ist verantwortlich fuer den gesamten Ablauf im Heim.. Eine oft zu grosse Aufgabe fuer die 18 jaehrige Frau. Kochen , Saubermachen, Waschen und ein offenes Ohr fuer die Kids haben , da ist Unterstuezung dringend notwendig. Ein kleiner Plan der anliegenden Taetigkeiten hilft sich einzufinden. Die Reinigungsarbeiten habe ich 1-2 Stunden taeglich ausgefuehrt und natuerlich geguckt wo die Arbeit liegt. Ich glaube es ist wichtig die Augen aufzumachen und die anliegende Arbeit zu sehen .Zur Entspannung fuer mich habe ich mir oft eine der wunderbaren Massage im Salon Seeing Haends gegoennt ..einfach ein Genuss. Nachmittags wurden die Schulaufgaben erledigt , eine Hilfe beim Englisch oder Mathe ist zum Teil notwendig.Im Ganzen sind die Kids jedoch sehr selbstaendig, achten aufeinander und Leben in guten Einklang. Zur Entspannung und als Freizeit sind wir fast taeglich in den naheliegenden Park zum Fussball gegangen, ein Hoehepunkt fuer alle. Das Leben mit den Kids war spassig und interessant. Sie sind sehr offen und suchen die Naehe der Volunteere. Sie moegen Massagen , Singen und koennen teilweise sehr gut Zeichnen.Malbuecher und einfache Gruppenspiele finden schnell Interesse.Das gemeinsame Kochen mit den Kids hat mir persoenlich sehr gefallen. ....Spagetti mit Tomatensosse...hat uns gut geschmeckt . Grenzen sollten sie noch lernen. Der haefige Abschied von den Volunteeren praegt natuerlich die Kinder. Ein sehr positiver Punkt ist fuer mich, dass ich meine Kritikpunkte auch offen mit Assim besprechen konnte und ich auch Veraenderungen gesehen habe. Hoehepunkte fuer mich waren , ein Bootstour oder das Paragliging . Einfach zu buchen und ein Erlebnis. das ich mit nach Deutschland nehme. Im Ganzen bin ich zufrieden mit dem Projekt und besonders mit der Stadt Pokhara , eine einfach angenehme stadt mit vielen grossen und kleinen Sehenswuerdigkeiten. Meinen letzten Abens heute werden wir in einem schoenen Restaurante verbringen, das Essen ist sehr gut und preiswert. Mit freundlichen Gruessen Alexandra
A new Children's resource Center in Damdame , Pokhara - Feb 2010 On my last trip to
Pokhara to meet volunteers, I went up to the place called Dumdume. It’s
a beautiful village on the top of a hill.
There were already 3 volunteers, David, his wife Laura and his mother Dominique who were already onto the task a week before I reached there. After having a short chat of Hellos and How are yous, I went up to the place where the work was going on and was actually amazed by the work of the volunteers. They had done very fine work in such a little time. But they said the work would have been finished four days earlier if there had been no any problems. The problems were, the
school gave the volunteers a room which was occupied by the students and
used to be a classroom. So the volunteers started to paint the room and
the windows. When I was on the way up to the village, I actually was following the electrical poles which lead the way into the village. But on my arrival, I was told that the electric poles were not working and had been there for a year. But they seemed to be convinced that there will be electricity one or two years later. And it was more surprising when I was told that there were 2 computers in the school! Volunteers
painted the wall, windows and doors. I took some pictures of the
library(to be) and the village.
David said,
“We were very welcomed in the family and the school. School organized a
speech. The principal said ‘We are very glad to welcome the volunteer to
our village and the school. ……..We hope that you will not forget us like
one volunteer who came to our village 18 years ago, stayed here for 2
years like our own family member, made a deep impression in hearts of us
all and then left and never wrote or came back.’ I looked for the
volunteer and found out that he is a big man now. We’ve sent an email to
him and hope he has time to reply.” Everybody in the village seemed
eager to help for the library. As David and Laura were going through the
things in the store room, they found a cupboard which was donated by
UNICEF 6 years ago.
Laura came up with an idea to form a Library Committee so they could take care of the library in absence of the volunteers. Volunteers would be perfect but its not all the time that we have volunteers. Something is better than nothing. I was thinking of signing a contract with the school about the library. Contract made school responsible for the library and any of its loss in absence of volunteers. I was thinking of talking to the principal but when Laura expressed her view about the committee, I thought I should wait and see if the committee works out. The next day, I said my goodbyes to the host family and the volunteers and started the descend.
INFO Nepal - Newsletter 2010 - Jan
The next few days were busy in Language Orientation where the volunteers
were given the insight of the Nepali language and the culture. The
culture was quiet new to them but they were curious to experience it.
They went to different places for sightseeing like Monkey Temple
(Swayambhunath), Boudhanath, Pashupatinath and Durbar Square. After 3
days of orientation the volunteers went off to Pokhara. The group stayed
in Grand Holiday Hotel overnight. The group was divided into 2 groups of
8 and 7 which were further divided into 3 and 4 sub-groups. One of the
group stayed in the city doing orphanage and teaching placement while
the other group went into the villages where
the construction project was scheduled. The construction project
consisted of 2 basketball courts in two schools of two villages..
The volunteers in city were placed in 3 different orphanages: Street
Children Home(3 volunteers), Destitute Children Home(2 volunteers) and
Innocent Children Home(2 volunteers). They were placed in 3 different
host families near the main city. The job of the volunteers was to teach
the children English and help them learn new things. They would play
with the kids. Everyone has their own way of approach to the children.
At the same time in the village, the volunteers were feeling happy and
were excited about the construction of the basketball court in a school
in Thulakhet. The culture of Nepal being
completely different than the culture in the western countries, the
volunteers needed sometime to cope with the new culture but they were
fast to learn and adapt to the new culture and dissolve in it. They
enjoyed the new culture and traditions. They were in the host families
who introduced them to the experience which they found rewarding. “Its
completely new experience and I would love to learn more about it. It’s
amazing how different the way of living can be!” - one of the volunteers
remarked. They started off with the
construction with limited tools and a German volunteer who is an
engineer. The construction included levelling of the ground, digging,
peaking and shovelling. Volunteers had fun doing what they did. It was
hard work with no machineries available. We had to get on with our hand
as the modern machines were almost an impossibility in the village away
from the facilities of the city. They had some
problems about the tools as they are not used to Nepali way of
construction. No wheel barrow, no machines and limited tools. But that
was some experience to be had at least once in a lifetime. The way of
working was completely different! But nevertheless the project went
smooth. Volunteers laughed over the problems.The
first week was spent on levelling the ground which was 28m long and 15m
wide. At the weekend, we went to the city and got together with the
other volunteers from the city.
The next week in the village, we put on some gravel on the ground to
make it ready to lay the concrete on top of it. Everything went smooth
except for the problem about the tools. There were not enough tools. But
we bought some new tools from the city and everything was alright again.
The next week, when the swapping of placement was to be done, the
volunteers in the village showed a keen desire to stay in the village as
they feared the construction would not be finished in time with the lack
in manpower. So it was at the end that the two villages had to
accommodate 16 volunteers between them - 10 in Thulakhet and 6 in Pame.
There was only less than a week for the another construction project to
finish which was another basketball court (less than half the size of
the other) in Pame village in Sunrise Preparatory School. The work was
not much there as the court would not be of concrete and there was only
one pole to be erected. So 4 of the volunteers in Thulakhet decided to
go to the city to experience the orphanage placement. We bought the
school two portable football posts in addition to the court. The ground
was levelled so all we had to do was pick out the small stones.
The 4 volunteers who left for the city for some new experience in the orphanage were placed in Himalayan Child Care Home. Its a child care home run by a Tibetan Lama, and has 36 children, not necessarily orphans. They are the deprived children from the villages up in the mountains where good education and good life is an impossibility. They are brought to the orphanage in hope of finding themselves a good way of living. The children there are very disciplined and attentive. They are keen to learn new things and always listen what the volunteers or the others have to say. The volunteers there had a fabulous time with the children for which they couldn't stop thanking us. After being there for some days, they left for Kathmandu. We came back to Kathmandu on 5th January and the volunteers were given the farewell dinner.
Thanks for your time reading this. INFO Nepal
|
Tegan Burnet - Australia - 6th Dec 08
Simon Altman - German - Aug - 2009 Danielle Soya - USA - 27 April 2008 Edward Macey - England - 12th May 2008
Shweta Parmekar - USA - July 2009
Montserrat de Villasante Fuentes and Ricardo Borges Rutz - Spain / Brazil - July 2009 Rachel Reeves - USA - Nov 2009
Tami Nudel - Israel - Sept 2008 Shweta Parmekar - USA - July 2009
Sarah Looney
- England - 23rd November 2008 Nina Chapman - Norway - Dec - 2008
Kate and Llynlly Langdon - Australia Oct 2009 Tami Nudel - Israel - Sept 2008 Sarah Looney - England - 23rd November 2008 Nina Chapman - Norway - Dec - 2008
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We planned the classes the day before. The kids were very eager to learn, especially the second class. The teaching at the primary school seemed much needed, as they lacked teachers and as the kids really benefited from having English speaking people around. They were so eager to learn! I would recommend any volunteers going to Thulakhet to consider teaching at the primary school. 
I arrived in Sauraha in the afternoon after a relatively uneventful bus journey – it was only about an hour late! The previous volunteer was staying with the host family till the next day so I spent the night in a 'tower' in the jungle which was great! We were woken up in the middle of the night as there was a rhino mother and baby grazing underneath the tower! 
So, yes, my wish is been fulfilled, I did have the opportunity to travel, go inside of the culture, meet a lot of people, and do something meaningful like teaching English, which I think is really important for them, because gives the opportunity to read more, discover new worlds, travel, get better education, better jobs, and hopefully better lives. So I have to give many, many thanks to Info-Nepal for the big opportunity that they gave me. They are doing a really good job. 
- I would love to go back to Nirmal Pokhari as I formed so many close relationships there and it really is a beautiful village. Now that I know what its like, I would go back more prepared so that I could make more of a difference - I feel that I spent my time there learning about the culture of Nepal and the issues it faces more than actually doing quality teaching.
We did full medical checks at the school and at the orphanage a total of one hundred children, the local doctor at a near by health post came also to prescribe any medication the children needed. We also took some of the children from the orphanage to the dentist in Narangard.
Last year I left Gatlang at the end of winter determined to return the next year. It may be a few months later than I'd hoped, but I did return this year to spend the month of May teaching at Gatlang Library and school. I had suggested last year that INFO give Tamang language training to Gatlang volunteers since they don't speak Nepali. When I arrived, I was happy to find out that Durga (the Gatlang host father) was in Kathmandu to give me just that. It was difficult, but the even the few words I remembered helped control the kids and helped me relate better to their very curious parents. 
At the library where we were given as much freedom as we wanted, we based the lessons usually around a topic such as time, weather, family etc and would then use various methods to teach it. The most popular method was drawing and some students managed to fill their books with drawings within a few weeks. Other popular methods included games such as hangman and pictionary. A methods which I tried to use only when necessary included writing on the board and they would simply copy as this is often employed at school and is not much fun or effective way of teaching for you or the students.
10th of May 2010, we got
our first volunteers. There were 3 of them, Amber, Meredith and Kari.
There were still lots of jobs to be done. The volunteers were really
helpful and contributed their time to help in any way they could. They
helped make the schedule for the children and rules. We went to the town
to get new stuff for the home and volunteers were always ready to help
us. They gave us ideas and suggestions where needed and helped where
they could. Things didn’t always go easily, times were hard on us
sometimes and we faced some problems. But determination, patience and
co-operation of the volunteers and the children made it easy to solve
the problems. Volunteers helped the children do their homework. They
helped in the kitchen, cleaned the house, served the food, helped them
prepare for school, walk them to school, wash the clothes and pick them
up from school. We were really grateful that we had the volunteers.
They took the children to park to play football, bought football for the
boys and volley ball for the girls (however the balls were flat the next
day). 
One
hour bus ride from Pokhara and an ascend of 90 minutes will lead you to
a village, Dumdume, a typical Gurung village. They have a government
school with two buildings poorly built. We had a talk with the school
administration and decided to build up a library/resource centre in the
school premises.
But the next day, they found out that the students were replaced to a
room which used to be a plantation area flooded with water and not
enough light to see what was being written on the board by their
teachers. Volunteers didn’t know that the students were to be moved in
that place. So they rejected the room and said they wouldn’t work unless
the students were provided with better place. Finding a perfect room
took about 4 days as there was no one who could actually communicate
between volunteers and the school members as even the teachers’ English
standard was too low. Then our coordinator went up to the place and then
the problem was solved. The students were relocated in their classroom
and volunteers used the store room. The room was nice and almost perfect
for the library but a little big. Some work had to be done on the doors
and windows. They also erected a wall to split the big room into two,
one of them to be used as a computer lab later.
It
was getting dark so we went back to the host family. The Host family,
what can I say about them! Excellent would be an understatement. They
seemed to be some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. They didn’t speak
any English but volunteers seemed to understand what they said and make
them understand. When asked if they find it very difficult to
communicate with each other, Laura says, “Oh, no English but the way we
understand each other is amazing! Hand signs, broken Nepali, and we’ve
also learned some Gurung! We can have quite a good conversation. Aama
has the best heart and baa has the best smile. We are just very grateful
to the organization for placing us here.” After staying for a while and
talking to volunteers and the neighbours, I found out that almost all
the people in that little village were friendly and nice. Everybody was
very grateful to me for sending the volunteers which made me feel odd as
its not me who they should be grateful to. It’s the volunteers and the
organization.
The
cupboard had smashed glasses. And the books inside were untouched for
the whole 6 years! Nobody opened the cupboard for 6 years. The books
seemed useful. When talking about the library, Laura expressed her worry
about the library, “After all this hard work, it will be really hurtful
if we come next time and find that the library hasn’t been used at all.
(she said to me) Please make sure the library has some volunteers to
look after.” I couldn’t assure her as we don’t have volunteers who
volunteer for a long time especially in a village without electricity
and internet.
A
group of 15 volunteers were to arrive on 1st and 2nd
of January, 2010. 15 students from Deakin University of Australia. The
groups were welcomed by Kshitiz and Asim. There was a strike on 1st of
January so the volunteers had to be transferred to Thamel (the tourist
place) in a tourist bus under the protection of Police. That was
somewhat uncomfortable but a valuable experience to have for the
volunteers. They were accommodated at Hotel Cosmic. After a brief
touring of Thamel, we went for dinner where we got to know the
volunteers better and get along with them very well. The volunteer were
young and very friendly. All of them were Australian but with different
national background. Some of them were from Turkey, India, Italian and
Ghanaian. There was a lot to learn about the different cultures and way
of living.
Our volunteers coped well with the children and were attached to them.
They were happy to be there. But in some of the orphanages, there was
not enough work to do as the examination of the children were near,
children were busy doing there preparation. Two volunteers wished to be
moved to village after 1 weeks as there was not enough work for them to
do there. And we decided to move them to the village. They moved to Pame
village to join the 4 volunteers who were already there.
We stayed in Grand Holiday Hotel, went for dinner and shared our
experiences. Volunteers placed in village seemed more happier than the
city ones. 2 of the volunteers wished to change the placement earlier
than planned which after talking to the organization was carried out the
next day. The 2 volunteers in orphanage moved to Pame village where they
taught in a local English school in the morning and help in the
construction project in the afternoon. Some volunteers went paragliding
and we also went for rafting! Sunday 17th Jan, there was a local strike
which was carried out only in the way from the city to the village. The
public bus was not allowed operate. So some volunteers took a taxi to
the village and some stayed back in the city. The same day, the
basketball pole was to be delivered to the construction site. So we took
a hike in the delivery truck to the village. That was some adventure of
its own! So there we were, 4 volunteers and myself under the poles on
the bumpy road. But nevertheless, we enjoyed the ride. "If any of my
friend back home had told me I would be travelling like this at some
point in my life, I would never have believed him!" said one of the
volunteer who shared the epic trip to the village. 
All
the volunteers got into the construction with all their efforts while
experiencing the village life at the same time. 
Take lots of things to do and read, as in the mountains there are less people to talk with, and if there is no school the days can be long. Be prepared to take the initiative and get involved. And be prepared with lots of ideas and resources at all sorts of levels as the children vary from no English to pretty good basics.
And so my placement comes to an end…
I loved the variety that volunteering in different parts of Nepal offered. It exposed us to various health conditions and circumstances which gave us a wider perspective on healthcare here. It also allowed us to practice the clinical skills we've gained thus far and allowed us to see conditions that we may not normally see in the States. 
Children who used to come to the library had many different ages, from 2 years old till 20 years old, so we had to deal with this. Montse used to be with the little one, and Ricardo with the olders. The activities consisted on:
Another
thing you should know -- the teachers' lack of motivation/organization will
likely frustrate you, but don't let it affect you. You just have to get used to
it. Though they don't seem to care about their students, you can care about the
students for them.
The Langtang
area is very impressive, and waking up every morning with the view of the
massive mountains was wonderful.
We made
posters, cards, poems, art, we did dictation, spelling and played games such as
hangman etc. They loved to colour in and also did dictation, spelling and
reading with those who were willing. The older children were great and had very
good English already to it was easy to teach them more.|
Home l About Info l Program
l Program Fees l Training l Location l Application l FAQ l Newsletter
Visitor No: |
 |