Travel
Asia Site Visits - Nepal (Oct 20-28)
October 20, 2008 - Maiti Nepal
Bishwo Khada, the Director of Maiti Nepal met us at the Kathmandu airport and took us to their main building, a large brick complex in the middle of Kathmandu. This is home to 300 abandoned or abused children and 100 trafficked and/or domestically abused women. The facilities include a nursery for infants, a school for grades 0 to 10+2 (11th and 12th grades), a 38-bed infirmary, a hospice, and an ambulance and a training center for women. Founded by Anuradha Kiorala, Maiti Nepal is the largest group in Nepal working on human trafficking issues. They work in 21 districts of Nepal providing awareness campaigns to students and teachers, working with government to influence policy and strengthen laws collaborating and orienting police. We learned most cross border trafficking is to India but it is also becoming common to the Middle East. Girls are coerced into taking domestic jobs where they are treated as slaves and often sexually abused. Maiti Nepal, in collaboration with police, has screenings at 10 out of 26 border crossings. Women (formally trafficked themselves) are on duty at all times to talk with girls in cars and on busses. Ten transit homes have been set up on the border for girls and women that are rescued.
Maiti Nepal's mission is to combat the sex trafficking of women and children. Their program focuses on (1) Prevention, including education and advocacy; (2) Interception, Rescue, and Rehabilitation; and (3) Social Reintegration.
October 21, 2008 – ASHA Nepal
ASHA, meaning, "Hope" in Nepali, established itself as a non-profit organization in 1998 through the efforts of Nepalese professionals who wanted to improve the health, sustainable agriculture, education, livelihood and socio-economic status of local communities and children. Their activities have focused on school and community health education, sustainable agriculture, food security, environment and nutritional promotion programs.
ASHA has a volunteer board of 17 (12 men and 5 women) from a variety of professional backgrounds. Major achievements since their founding in 1998 include training 500 traditional health workers in allopathic treatments and diagnostic skills to recognize HIV/AIDS and to be able to educate their patients about infectious disease prevention. Currently they are working with 5 women’s groups located in Okharpauwa Village Development Committee in the Nuwakot District about 1 hour north of Kathmandu. Each group has between 20-26 members for a total of 110 women. ASHA's role with the women's groups is to help create savings groups, improve literacy, teach agricultural skills and facilitate linking the women farmers with markets for selling their produce.
We traveled up into the hills north of Kathmandu to visit the women. The first group met us by the road to show us a weigh station ASHA has helped them buy. It will be used to weigh produce so women will not have to pay for this service and to generate some income by charging for use. This is also the spot for temporary storage of produce. The trucks come down the road at 3-4 am to buy produce to take to market. Women carry the produce down or up the hills to the storage facility. Then only one woman needs to be there when the trucks arrive. A permanent structure is being built further up the road where we met the second group of women. This structure when completed will be a meeting place as well as a space for storage of produce. ASHA will also provide monthly health service in the same building.
The women were very welcoming. We hiked with them up a steep trail to one family home. We saw many women hauling harvested grains and vegetables on their backs and working in the fields. Very occasionally we would see a man working in the fields. We saw young girls carrying heavy loads. It is an incredibly hard life. We asked the leader of this women's group how she is able to work so hard and have such a positive outlook. Her response was "as long as I have my health I can do anything."
ASHA asked the women what project they wanted to propose to Pangea. The group of 110 women agreed that latrines are their highest need. Pangea's grant to ASHA/Nepal will construct latrines in 30 of the 110 homes. The women will decide which 30 homes will get these first latrines. Pam Elardo, President of Living Earth Institute (LEI), joined us on this site visit. She was able to talk with the ASHA program manager about the details of how the latrines would be constructed and offered to donate design and oversight assistance of LEI engineers from Kathmandu.
October 22, 2008 – Nepal Children's Education Fund (NCEF)/Campaign for Education (CE)
We met with Hari Tripathi, Program Director of Campaign for Education (CE) in Kathmandu. CE is the local NGO in Nepal. NCEF is the NGO in Boston that does fundraising and oversight of CE. NCEF started about 7 years ago. We also met with some students and another volunteer. They gave us tours of two schools.
The Campaign for Education is entirely run by volunteers. Nepalese students living in the US started the Nepali Children's Education Fund. Together they provide scholarships to students that would otherwise not be able to attend school. The scholarships pay for uniforms, books and fees. The total cost is about $100 per student annually.
Most of the students are in public schools but we did visit upper level classes in a private school. The model is interesting. Former students come back and work in the communities as volunteer coordinators. Students apply for the scholarships and the applications are evaluated by the coordinator who then makes recommendations to the board. The coordinators visit the students every month to evaluate progress and encourage the family to keep their son or daughter in school. There are currently 70 students on scholarship and 30 volunteers working to assure their success.
At one of the schools we met with a single mom and her son who is a scholarship student in the 6th grade. She is a single parent who works as a domestic. Without the scholarship her son would not be able to attend school. The public school we visited was pretty run down and crowded but the principal and the school board member we met were very committed to improving education in Nepal.
October 22, 2008 – Nepalese Youth Opportunity Fund (NYOF)
The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Fund was started by Olga Murray in the late 80's. Since retiring, she has committed her life to helping street children. This program was recommended to us by Pradeepta Upadhyay, a Nepali woman living in Seattle who directs Chaya Seattle, a community based nonprofit organization that serves South Asian women in times of crisis and need, and to raise awareness of domestic violence issues.
NYOF has a number of programs and we just had time to visit the two homes that Olga has established – one for boys and one for girls – who were rescued from the streets. They are nice homes where the children room together and have common areas for studying and play. There are water cisterns and solar panels on the roofs. They grow a lot of their produce in the back yard. Many of the children have been in her homes since they were very young. Some are now attending pre-college courses. The children speak excellent English and are very engaging.
In addition to these two homes, NYOF runs the 1) Indentured Daughters program, which saves girls from virtual slavery and enables them to attend schools; 2) Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes, which restore severely malnourished children to good health while educating their mothers about nutrition and child care; and 3) Scholarship program that provides funds to impoverished children in rural Nepal, disabled children who must attend special boarding schools because they are unable to get to local schools, and highly talented and motivated girls of the untouchable caste.
October 23, 2009 - SAHAMATI
We started our 4-day road trip this morning at 5:00 AM to avoid a street vendors' protest that had the potential to block all roads out of Kathmandu. Dibya Kansakar and his wife Meera who manage all the LEI projects in Nepal designed this trip and came along with us to introduce us to the villagers with whom they work. First we headed south for Gaindakot, Nawalparasi about a 5 hour drive, including a very civilized chai stop and another for breakfast. We met with the founders and board of SAHAMATI at their offices in Gaindakot.
There are 27 founding members of SAHAMATI which organizes and funds work in 6 districts. The founding members worked for other NGOs in Nepal before starting SAHAMATI. So they came with experience in the field and also relationships with some of the big funders. Their focus is development of civil society including economic development, social development, and Governance.
They are working on a number projects including medicinal plant research funded by a French group; Flood warning systems to reduce impact of floods funded by Oxfam; Rural Youth Development funded by AWO International (a German NGO); Governance funded by Action Aid; Community Based Post Conflict management funded by the Asia Foundation. They work with 51,000 households and more than 1,000 women’s groups.
We met with men and women from the community based organizations. The men's groups at the meeting outnumbered the women. The work includes economic development projects (pig farms, bees) and water and sanitation as well as issues around migration and drinking.
We visited a community health center that was built to serve the poor. They have a part time physician. They would like to build a hospital and are looking for funding. We did learn there are other hospitals close by and another hospital may not be needed.
After leaving SAHAMATI, we drove to Chitwan National Park where we spent the night and explored the jungle on the backs of Elephants the next morning.
October 24 - Living Earth Institute
From Chitwan we drove to the Bara District where we were welcomed by what seemed to be 100's of women-- men and children from the Rampurwa Village Development Committee (VDC). This VDC includes 9 rural villages, with an overall population of 4,758 individuals in 759 households. Ethnically, the population includes Tharu, an indigenous Terai Community, and the Dalits, often called the untouchables. After being gifted with flowers, and tika, and hearing many introductory speeches, about 25 women were honored with certificates for their recent completion of training on how to make incense sticks.
We took a walking tour through two of the nine villages, saw a few shallow community wells, no latrines, many smiling kids, cows, chickens, mud homes, and women working in their colorful saris. We were shown the village primary school, which serves primarily the Dalits. Currently there are three rooms, 170 students, one teacher, no water and no latrines. The building was in extremely poor condition. The government is prepared to provide funding for a new building but the community has to pay 20% of the cost.
LEI submitted a proposal to Pangea to fund the construction of 25 family latrines in the Rampurwa VDC. The first phase of the total LEI project will construct 100 latrines that will serve about 600 people. The project also includes sanitation education and women's economic development. LEI will work with a local NGO in the Bara District called Development Alternative Organization for the community organization aspects, various training programs, and project implementation. LEI is a very impressive, organization with a local Nepali, Dibya Kansikar, acting as Program Manager. After meeting Dibya and travelling with him and his wife Meera for 4 days, we were even more assured that LEI is highly skilled technically and in touch with the needs of villagers in a very compassionate and practical way.
October 25 – Janakpur - Women's Development Service Center
We made the long drive from the Bara District to Janakpur in two stages, spending the night of the 24th about mid-way. The road was hot and dusty so our suitcases that were transported on top of the Land Rover were brushed off by the bellhops before coming into the hotel. We felt refreshed after a shower, dinner and cold drinks. We arrived in Janakpur around noon on the 25th in time to have lunch with many of the Women's Development Service Center members.
We met in their offices and women's training center. This group of women has been organized and providing leadership in the Janakpur region since 1975. There are 11 Board members and 65 general members working on social issues including women’s literacy and training to provide a means of economic independence, providing sanitation education, latrines and drinking water through their connection with LEI. When asked what their next project would be they said they want to build and staff a shelter for widows and abused women.
October 26th – Dhanusha District - Rajaaul Village
This morning we walked through the villages where LEI has completed latrine and well projects. There was much excitement on the part of the villagers to show us their latrines and wells.
Pam was very happy to see how well the facilities had been maintained and kept clean. We also saw the village school and Community Center. The school and community center both requested libraries. We will try to connect them with Room to Read which is very active in Nepal but probably not in this region yet. In the afternoon, we visited two villages that are just beginning to work with LEI on a future latrine and well project.
October 28th- Namje
The three of us received a grand emotional welcome to the village of Namje. As we climbed a long steep stairway up to the school, villagers lined both sides giving us so many flowers we could not hold them all. This village has received support from LEI for a few years and this was Pam’s first visit.
There was great anticipation for our visit and a keen desire to show us everything they have accomplished with their water system and their schools. Their generosity and genuine friendship will be remembered for a lifetime. Life in this remote village is hard and yet they have great community spirit.