INFO Nepal - Monthly Newsletter
February -
March 2008
February was a very busy month with a lot of work done in
Chitwan. The main work has been done in Chitwan, Happy Home. Now our Happy home
is a completed home for the children.
Our children have hot water, washing
machine and security fence around the home. The new Library is fantastic and
thanks to Sheena who has worked hard on the design. Our community children are
very happy to have Library back in their village. We would like to thank Donald
Munro who donated money for the Happy Home in Chitwan. With the help of his
friend Nadia Happy Home now has a new fence, windows and hot water which is very
much appreciated. The Happy home did not have roof on the top floor and now we
have a roof so that the kitchen and dinning room will be safe from the rain. Our
children are very happy to have windows in the dining hall.
We celebrated at the Happy Home Bastu Puja too (Blessing of the house) to protect
the children.
Thanks also to Nadia's work colleagues and her sister Karen who have donated
money for the new mattresses, clothes and bicycles for the children. Nadia’s
involvement with our organization is a great contribution and has shown us how
to work with donors.
After bringing our children to the Happy Home we stopped the village children
coming to our Library because we wanted to give our children a feeling that this
Happy Home is their home. Now we have reopened a separate library and need to
work on integrating our children and the village children in the same ground and
library so that the relationship will be good and our children and Volunteers
can get good respect from the villagers.
Our village children are very happy to have Library back which has been
renovated and stocked with new books. “After our Library became Happy Home we
were thinking that we never get chance to access the library and learn from
Volunteers, but what Uncle (Asim) has promised, now it is being done “ Said
Kanchan Ghimire- 12 years old from the next door of Happy home. Chitiz 12 years
old in front of happy home is very happy to have a big ground where he can play
cricket and table tennis and meet all of his friends at the new Library, said
“Thanks a lot for Donald for his great contribution for our bright future”. We would like to give thanks to our volunteers Anne and Dan who raised money for
our new project “ Child Day Care center in Sitamai." The work is going on
rapidly and we are hoping to open it from April. This is the Village where we
built 22 toilets in 2005.
The villagers are very happy with this day care center. In a our research we
found that among 32 children who are aged from 5 to 8 , only 15 children are
going to school. So our target will be those children who are the right age to
go to School but because of their younger brother and sister they could
not attend school because they were child minding. Also some of the parents who
are landless in these areas can’t go to work both because of the small child at
home. If we can take care of their child at the daycare center then both can
go to work and earn some money. “Now my wife also can go to work “said Gan
Bahdur Gurung."
This center is just starting to bring more awareness about Education, Health
and Sanitation in these areas. We need to do a lot after the center has
stabilized for the Environment and Education. There will be around 40 children
every day at the center for the Education. So in April months our three projects
are going to serve around 150 children every day in Chitwan.
Current News from the Placement:
Ganganagar library re
-opened its doors on 17th Feb after a couple of busy weeks painting,
cleaning, laying carpets and putting up plastic ceilings (all new skills to
be added to the c.v.!) Eleven 11-13 yr attend the
morning session and fourteen 4-9 yr olds attend the evening session. The
library provides them with the opportunity to develop their English through
grammars activates, word games, picture competitions and craft. Friday is
sports day when the kids play table tennis, basketball, football and
skipping. They are fantastic children
and are really eager to participate. The older children have excellent
English and have been known to stump me with their complex questions on
verbs!!
The library had been closed
for approx a year so they are all really pleased to be back interacting with
volunteers, developing their English and having fun.
I have been staying in the
Happy Home beside the library so when Im not working on lesson plans or
making posters, I have been helping the other volunteer with the children.
Ganganagar is really beautiful, the people are friendly, there are bikes to
explore the area, good books in the library and the local shop sells
Cadburys chocolate - all in all its been a fantastic experience!
Daba Raj Ghimire - Local Coordinator -
Chitwan - Childcare Center - Update on 10th March 2008
Hi Asim and INFO crew, The building of Childcare
center is going well.
Every day there are 7 youth from the village are
working on the contraction site. There was a bit delay last week because of
lack of Cements. All the villagers are very excited to see the center complited. The youth are very happy to get a job every day on the center and
thinking that if there will be more projects in the village, they should
stop thinking to go to Saudi Arab or Malesiya to work.
All the mothers of the
village are very excited to see their children being lookafter at the center
so that they can go to work. The more happy are the big brother and Sister
of the each family, thinking that now they can go to school after the center
running. There are 9 older brother and sister who have never been to the
school when they are age 9 to 11 years old. Rita Bika (Thuli Kanchi) who is
11 years old and has naver been to school is very happy to go to
School after
learning at this center for few months so that she can cope in her class
with younger one. So this center is going to serve up to 60 children of this
village.
Gadgai, Children's
Resource Center
This resource center is
also going very fast. All the youth are very excited and donating their free
time to build this center. Yes, the work last week was a bit slow because
lack of the Cements, but now it is going fast. The roof of the building has
made with trust with Iron pipe and all the walls plastering and door and
windows are already fixed. Now we are waiting for you (Asim ) to come and
buy the Tin for the roof. The youth already started to work on the flower
garden in front of the center. We need to place two volunteers in this
placement because there are so many children in this village and as the
center is middle of the village there will be many children coming to the
Library to learn . The Host family is just 1 minute walkable distance from
the center with Toilet and bathroom. We are hopping to start it from April
first week. We would like to give a lot of thanks to Anne and Dan from
Ireland who have helped for this center to complete. Daba Raj Ghimire -
Local Co-ordinator - Chitwan
Donation to
the Health post and School
In February 2008 INFO
Nepal has donated a DVD to Patihani Health post." Now we can show in a
village any health related documentary to the people" said Ram Hari the in
charge of the health post. With out DVD there was a big problem for the
health awareness program in the village. Now a lot of mother from the
village goes to the health center to know more about how to take care of a
child and how to keep hygienic their house. We would like to thanks to Room
to Read who has contributed a Library in Rastria Prathamik school in
Dhanauji. We INFO Nepal has decorated it with painting on the building, door
and windows. We are very happy to help the Disabled center in Dhanauji
providing Lunch, Educational materials and any row materials that can be use
of incoming source for the disabled children of the village.
Paola Lillo - Chilli -
My experience in Nepal - March 2008
Try to explain how I
feel about my experience in Nepal in so few words is practically
impossible. But, if you asked me for one expression to describe it, I
would just say LIFECHANGING.
All the friends, my
host family, the work, they all contributed to make my stay there a
short new life. You meet so many people of all over the world, and
everyone is so open to meet you as well that it results really easy to
make friends immediately. Though I must admit that most of my friends
ended up being Nepali. As for the work, it was
really fulfilling, to do something useful with my time. From all my
summer vacations this is going to be, by far, the best.
Whenever I start
thinking about Nepal, and how far I am now from it tears come out. I
cannot wait to get back, but this time for a longer period."
I would wake up early, usually at 7, went down to
say good morning and spend some time with my family, had tea and after
some time, at 9 AM, had dhal-bat. Then I went to the “Baratpur’s
government hospital”
walking and worked there, in the dental section from 10 AM to 1 PM. My
work there consisted in helping in anything they needed, and sometimes
do the extractions myself. Then I went to “Step by Step boarding school” to
teach. It was mainly English but it depended on what teacher was
missing, and the principal usually sent me where the children where
requesting for me. After classes, at 4:30 PM I would go shopping, or to
de cyber or anything I needed to do, then got back home, had some tea
with bread, spent time with my host family, went to my room to check
homework or to read something and at 8 PM approximately went down for
dinner. In the hospital I would help in anything they
needed, which wasn’t much. And some times I was allowed to do the
extraction of the tooth.
At school I was requested to go to the classes that
had no teacher at the moment. We usually had English classes, I was
given a book to guide me, and we could also go to play outside. But with
every class I was requested that when Ï met them, I should talk about my
country and culture and let them talk to me about their county and
culture.
A feedback from our past
volunteer - Patrick O' donnel - Ireland - March 2008
1)
What did your average day look like?
Woke up about 7am with the noise of the keta keti.
Helped prepare dahl bhat with Basanti in the kitchen. Sometimes did some
games or English with the kids if we had time. We ate with the kids then
helped them to dress & get ready for school. Karen & I traveled to the
Health Post on the kids school bus at 8:30. We finished up at about 3pm or
when all the patients were seen. Then we walked home to Happy Home,
sometimes stopping to buy fresh vegetables on the way. We had chaai before
the kids arrived home. They did their homework & we helped with some English
or maths after that. If the weather was ok we went out to play for a while.
We ate dinner and then read stories, depending on the power. We were
normally in bed by 10pm.
2)
What did you do, in as much detail as possible, at your placement?
At the clinic we started seeing patients at about 10 am
& we saw anywhere from 20 to 50 patients per day. There were a big mixture
of ailments. Much of the conditions were related to lack of sanitation and
washing facilities. Many women attended with aches & pains from many years
of hard physical work. Chest complaints were also common as many people
lived in smoky conditions. Twice we went out to the landless peoples
villages and did a day long clinic. One day we attended the district
referral hospital to see how it functioned.
3)
What are some of the issues or challenges you faced?
The language barrier, especially when communicating
with patients. At times the medical volunteer work was quite frustrating.
The system for treating & referring patients in Nepal is quite different to
practice in Ireland. The medics tend to treat symptoms instead of finding
the cause of the problems. We often had big discussions on how to manage
patients with the medic & had to convince him that some people needed
refferal.
4)
Advice to the next volunteer going to your placement? Bring lots of warm clothes. Try to do structured
teaching at a certain time every day for the kids. Bring small money with
you to the clinic for patients. Often people could not afford medications or
the price of the bus to the refferal hospital so we paid for them.
5)
Would you volunteer at this placement again? Why or why not?
Yes I would volunteer at the Happy Home, but I would
not go to the clinic. I think it is a suitable placement for people who are
not fully medically trained. (ie students)
6)
Would you volunteer with INFO again? Why or why not?
Yes I would volunteer with INFO. I found it a well
organised, well supported and doing good work on the ground.
7)
Suggestions or problems?
There needs to be some sort of background check done on
prospective volunteers. It would be very easy for someone who wanted to
abuse or interfere with children to get placed in an isolated childrens
home. You cannot be too careful in this day and age.
8)
Additional comments?
I really enjoyed my placement. The children and Basanti
at Happy Home were amazing. They were so polite and kind. The cooking at the
home was super and there is a great atmosphere in the place. Also, the other
volunteers were enthusiastic and nice.
9) Please write, journal-style, about your whole
experience with INFO Nepal. This experience will go on the website and
newsletter and it will help future volunteers see what types of things they
will do at their placement. Most volunteers write roughly one page.
Overall, my placement in Nepal was a thoroughly
enjoyable one. From the first day when we were collected at the airport to
the last day, we were well looked after extremely well. The time in
Khatmandu Happy Home allowed us to meet the Info team & the other
volunteers. Our time in Ganganagar was brilliant. We were made feel welcome
by all in the local community and at the health post. The ketaketi are so
polite and happy. They are all enthusiastic learners and we had great fun
there. Basanti looked after us so well and even though we could not always
communicate perfectly, she made us feel so welcome.
This was an amazing month, so many different things to experience and learn.
This trip has definitely surpassed my expectations, Ya'll have been so helpful
and friendly
Our children have hot water, washing
machine and security fence around the home. The new Library is fantastic and
thanks to Sheena who has worked hard on the design. Our community children are
very happy to have Library back in their village. We would like to thank Donald
Munro who donated money for the Happy Home in Chitwan. With the help of his
friend Nadia Happy Home now has a new fence, windows and hot water which is very
much appreciated. The Happy home did not have roof on the top floor and now we
have a roof so that the kitchen and dinning room will be safe from the rain. Our
children are very happy to have windows in the dining hall. 
We would like to give thanks to our volunteers Anne and Dan who raised money for
our new project “ Child Day Care center in Sitamai." The work is going on
rapidly and we are hoping to open it from April. This is the Village where we
built 22 toilets in 2005.
Ganganagar library re
-opened its doors on 17th Feb after a couple of busy weeks painting,
cleaning, laying carpets and putting up plastic ceilings (all new skills to
be added to the c.v.!) Eleven 11-13 yr attend the
morning session and fourteen 4-9 yr olds attend the evening session. The
library provides them with the opportunity to develop their English through
grammars activates, word games, picture competitions and craft. Friday is
sports day when the kids play table tennis, basketball, football and
skipping. They are fantastic children
and are really eager to participate. The older children have excellent
English and have been known to stump me with their complex questions on
verbs!!
The building of Childcare
center is going well.
Every day there are 7 youth from the village are
working on the contraction site. There was a bit delay last week because of
lack of Cements. All the villagers are very excited to see the center complited. The youth are very happy to get a job every day on the center and
thinking that if there will be more projects in the village, they should
stop thinking to go to Saudi Arab or Malesiya to work.
This resource center is
also going very fast. All the youth are very excited and donating their free
time to build this center. Yes, the work last week was a bit slow because
lack of the Cements, but now it is going fast. The roof of the building has
made with trust with Iron pipe and all the walls plastering and door and
windows are already fixed. Now we are waiting for you (Asim ) to come and
buy the Tin for the roof. The youth already started to work on the flower
garden in front of the center. We need to place two volunteers in this
placement because there are so many children in this village and as the
center is middle of the village there will be many children coming to the
Library to learn . The Host family is just 1 minute walkable distance from
the center with Toilet and bathroom. We are hopping to start it from April
first week. We would like to give a lot of thanks to Anne and Dan from
Ireland who have helped for this center to complete. 
