Stichting Veldwerk
Postbus 163
1850 AD Heiloo
The Netherlands
veldwerk@wlink.com.np
Gironumber: 8289522
Tav. Stichting Veldwerk,
p/a Egmond binnen
Bank: ABN-Amro 543703266
|
Secretariat: Stichting Veldwerk Postbus 163 1850 AD Heiloo The Netherlands |
|
Tel:+31 (0)72-5339585 veldwerk@wlink.com.np Gironumber: 8289522 Tav. Stichting Veldwerk, p/a Egmond binnen Bank: ABN-Amro 543703266 |
News Letter, March 2003
Hi everybody, a newsletter from Nepal explaining the situation in the country, Kathmandu and what projects we are undertaking at the moment.
At the moment there is a ceasefire between the Maoist movement and the government this is positive for many reasons there was a strike planned next week but they cancelled it. We only can hope that less people get killed, which happening on a regular basis a on both sides. Recently a high ranking police officer and his wife were killed in the past the Maoist had always targeted normal citizens as a their victim.
If you fly to Nepal you can see the beautiful Himalayan mountains (on the left side in the plane out of direction India) but the closer you come to the valley the greyer the air seems to be it looks like the valley is on fire. The government is working on it by converting the diesel taxi-vans so that they now run on gas. A new type of a Honda road bike is not allowed in the country, as it doesn't fit the Nepali environmental rules but the owner of a very badly maintained car or bike can buy there environmental license with a box of cigars. The vehicle doesn't have go to the garage if this form is obtained. What I'm trying to say is that some officials don't really care, but only want to get some extra money in their pockets. Its an easy way to make some extra money but to the cost of the environment. The Honda bike I'm sure has comparatively clean emissions but the imported probably just went to the wrong office, or…. They forgot the cigars!
(from left to right); Lucy, Frederiek en Anne.
Early in the morning Anne and Frederiek help in the home of Mother Theresa. The nurses are very pleased with them Frederiek is helping with the children and Anne helps with the people that are handicapped mentally and physical. Besides doing the laundry (with cold water by hand) and helping with the patients Anna also cleans the toilets and also re-painted them. Anne made a report of her work and her experiences which you can read under the header "volunteer newsletter" on this web site.
Femke Leijten also helped there for 8 weeks but has now gone back home when she arrived in Nepal she brought some presents, a football for the children and an iron for the Didi's, the school uniforms and the sari's needed to be ironed some times.
Jimmi Oostrum arrived to help for a longer period of time in Nepal he took over the assignment of Femke at the Mount Kailashschool where his job involves accompanying "the weak children" as they call it here.
Carin Barendrecht was working at the job-trainings project Jyoti in Pokhara. She was working as a counsel for the Nepali teachers and the rest of the staff you can also read her story on the web site. Carin has gone home now, but our partner of Child Welfare Scheme asked her to come back again in August this year. It seems like Carin is going to do that.
I almost forgot! Last year fall there was a T.V. show in Holland called "Hero's"
Last but not least for this newsletter;
If we think in the most positive way there will be no more street children in this country. At that moment we can sell the house and use money in another place where it is needed.
For now many greeting from a spring like Nepal, (the shorts have been out of the closet already, ha ha ha….)
Many thanks for your support with our past and ongoing projects,
Spring is on its way, it has been very cold and foggy over the past couple of months. The newspapers reported that a lot of people had died especially older members of society and children because of a lack of good shelter, heat, clothes and food.
During New Years Eve I was in Varanasi (India) and a lot of the burning ghats couldn't handle the influx of the people that past away during the cold snap. I asked some people if something serious had happened they explained to me that because of the cold and bad circumstances a huge amount of people had died. The newspaper article explains the situation in more detail.
Also our volunteers noticed the cold over the past few months you can read their story's under the header volunteer's newsletters.
Nepal is slowly changing it has been one year since the main streets of the city have been coated with asphalted as apposed to the dirt and rocks that once made up the road surface. When you travel in a car or bus doesn't shake around as much as it did before! My kidneys felt like they had jumped up into my throat on some occasions before but its all changed now. Of course the first vandals came and destroyed the asphalt to repair some blockage in the drain they fill the hole's up with mud and it will take some 4 years before it will be reconstructed again. It has been one month since traffic lights have been installed at all the main crossroads the local have no idea what the colours mean or what lane they should be in. Just like in Amsterdam everybody ignores the red light. At the weekends they have men standing on the roads directing the traffic and educating people how to use the traffic lights. And funnily enough it works!!!!
In the children's home thing are going to plan on the whole. Since we have the acquired the heaters it's not that cold for the children, they still have runny noses but with the amount of pollution it's a common ailment even amongst adults. The electricity bill tripled in this period but it was warmer and our spending is far under our budget at the moment, so that's good news. The Nepali staff, two Didi's and a guard (he also takes care of little things around the house) are taking care of the children. Once a week it's shower day and we check the children for hair lice and they have to wash their own clothes.
The children are very busy preparing for their exams, they will commence in March and in April they will hopefully go to their new classes. Most of our children have never been to school it's hard for them and for this reason every day 3 volunteers try to help the children with their homework. This is also very hard as the school system here is so different from the western system.
The children just have to learn what's written in the book, copying basically. The theory of English, mathematics and language just doesn't exist which makes it very difficult to explain something. Also the English and science books don't explain any thing in Nepali It's hard to understand them.
On new years day our volunteers Ophélie and Lien went home to Belgium after 4 months of hard work to continue their study Ergotherapy during their stay they made a very good base for the progress of the children.
At the moment the volunteers Anne Baldee and Frederiek van den Berg from Holland and Lucie Fenton from Scotland are helping in Hamro Niwas every afternoon and evening they work with the children and help them with their homework. To make it complete we also have a Nepali boy helping the children with their Nepali lessons, and if there is a language problem between the volunteers and the children he can help both sides to gain a better understanding.
At the moment our volunteer Rene Streefkerk is working at the Mount Kailashschool, a beautiful brand new building a bit outside of the city. He started there 10 weeks ago and is still helping.
Thanks a lot Femke for all your effort the last period it was greatly appreciated.
Also Femke wrote a report about her experiences, refer again to the header "volunteers newsletters".
In away it is the same story as at Hamro Niwas, these children are from remote areas in the mountains and at the Mount Kailashschool they only have Tibetan children. All thought it's a brand new school, the system isn't, a lot of children have learning problems and they don't have enough theory. After the up and coming exams we will try to change the system by training the teachers and spend more time on the theory with the children. The well known story of "the fish and the fishing rod".
Child Welfare Scheme started to select 30 new students /street children for the coming school year for this reason we started to expand the school building with for 4 new class rooms In the distance between the clouds you can see the white tops of the Annapurna range what a backdrop!
After teaching at the school of Rabin Jirel Eefje van der Linden and Susanne Verstegen also worked in Pokhara for the project Children Nepal. This project teaches the smallest children of very poor neighbourhoods that don't have the money to send them to school. The project is runt by two Nepali lady's and Eefje and Susanne helped there and imparted their knowledge to the lady's. After their time there they had a great farewell at the school in Kathmandu, the same as Willeke when she left. They stopped their period as volunteers and now they are on a well deserved holiday in Nepal and India.
With many thank for their great dedication and this of course applies to all our volunteers that are working for the good cause.
For this programme you could put forward the name of a person who you thought was a Hero and what an honor somebody announced me. There where over 1200 names put forward and I was one of these lucky people so now I'm on a poster together with Lady Diana, Vaclaf Havel, Herman Hesse and many more celebrity's. The posters are on all the train stations in Holland and the funny thing is that people from Holland find me here through this poster. Like Nathalie van de Loo, she came with a backpack full of shoes for the children. That gives me more courage and hope that things will work out for the children.
Stichting Veldwerk made the decision to start an International Non Governmental Organisation (I-NGO) here in Nepal which means that as an organisation we have more rights compare to a Nepali partner or the government. When that becomes reality we can buy our new house as an I-NGO and be the owners. This is of great benefit to us for example a residence visa for at least one person, tax free importation of helpful goods (tools, computers and for example a good strong washing machine).
To my surprise, to set up an I-NGO doesn't cost anything, besides some administration and time we don't need to pay big amounts of money to this or that. Maybe a box of cigars..? But that's something we don't do!
Rene Veldt, Stichting Veldwerk,
Nepal.