Stone Quarry

I am calling this the stone quarry children out of habit as the quarry has now gone.  Over the years the land has gradually been built on and the families have been sqeezed out of their dwellings.  I met most of them in a room one of them lives in.  These children have lived hard lives in very poor circumstances but they do so well in school and we have three in college and one that has graduated.  I have been coming to visit these families for so many years and it is always a pleasure to see them.  Photos 

Of Abeseka, Bijaya first year college and has mo sponsor now, Aaiseka, Sarita and Sanija.

Sabitri and City Academy

Yesterday we met with Sabitri, one of our blind students.  She is doing really well and she is helping us with a project in Chandaswori, Nuwakot. That is where we are building five school rooms and toilets.  We are supplying school supplies for the blind students including two computers with special software.  This project made possible by a group of students at a High School in Georgia, USA called Jewels for Jewels.  They make creatively distinctive jewelery which they sell at local markets to raise money tohelp others  less fortunate than themselves such as the children supported by NEF.  She is buying a lot of the supplies for us as she knows the suppliers and exactly what is needed.  She hopefully is going to be the teacher at this school.  Photos and details to follow after we deliver the supplies to the school.  This school was destroyed in the earthquake.

We also visited City Academy School where we have eight students, two who are in their last year and taking their School Leaving Certificate exams next month.

Photos:  Sabitri, Binod who has lost his sponsor, Jwala and Samjhana.

Photos of some of the Children

Photos of children at Gyan Bigan School, Asmita ans Susmita Bhujel, Rajesh, Surabi, and Pinki.

Nakhipot Area Children

SYesterday we went to the Nakhipot schools and saw about 20 children.  As always it is a delight to see the children.  It has been a year since my last visit and many had grown a lot.  Some are in their teens and can converse in English.  Krishna, who himself was educated through NEF, was my guide and he has excellent English and is doing a great job recording all the children, school fees, telephone numbers etc.  

We also visited the Mahalaxmi School where we did the project last year of building toilets and making a nursery class.

Dave's idea of making up bags for every child is a great idea.  Their sponsor letter/gift goes in the bag and if there is no letter we put a small gift in the bag of clothing etc.  This way every child gets something.

Arrived in Nepal

I arrived in Nepal late night after a 40 hour journey.  Dave and Krishna met me and it was good to see them.  Today has been a full packed day of work and just going to bed now at 10 pm.  Krishna, Dave and I spent hours planning for our visiting of children and schools.  We sorted all letters and gifts and made up gift bags for all the children that did not have anything.  Dave purchased fabric bags and we filled them.  Plastic bags are outlawed here.  Amazing a third world country and they are ahead of us on this one.  

Tomorrow we visit Nakhipot and the five schools there.  We also met with Ram for two hours tonight and I can say that I am very pleased at how the charity is being run by what I have see so far.

Now I must get some sleep.

Leaving for Nepal

I am leaving for Nepal on Sunday Feb. 28th and will be there for three weeks.  I will be visiting all the children and meeting with the NEF Board.  I will update this blog hopefully most days as long as the internet is reliable.  Dave, from New Zealand, has just arrived there and says it is cold.  Hopefully it warms up.  Dave will be helping me while I am there.  

Now that the monsoon season is just about over we are able to start our earthquake project.  Dave, our sponsor from New Zealand, and Ram, NEF Chairman, went to a village in Nuwakot that was badly hit by the earthquake.  Their school, Shree Chandeswory Higher Secondary, a school 36 classrooms suffered a complete loss of 25 classrooms which also included the library, science lab, office, toilets etc.  The remaining 11 rooms are damaged which makes them dangerous.  

This is what the school wrote to me:

The devastating earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday 25 April has caused a great damage to Chandeswory Higher Secondary School. Many rooms of the school have been collapsed, turned into a pile of rubble. An office, an administrative room, a science lab, a computer room, a store room, 10 hostel rooms of blind, a blind research room, a library room and  27 class rooms  have been completely destroyed while a meeting hall, two toilets next to the administrative building and some computers have also been damaged. Similarly, six class rooms have been damaged partially. Thus the whole buildings of the school  have been damaged either completely or partially, with the estimated cost of the damage amounting to 7 crore of rupees.

If the villagers do a lot of the labour work themselves we should be able to build about 10 classrooms.  If the labour has to be hired we could only build 5 or 6.  We will see what happens but hopefully we can contribute 10 rooms to this school so it can carry the great work of educating so many students.

The work on this school will begin shortly and I will update on the progress.