Stichting Veldwerk

Secretariat: Stichting Veldwerk Postbus 163 1850 AD Heiloo The Netherlands

Tel:+31 (0)72-5339585 veldwerk@wlink.com.np IBAN nr. NL51ABNA0543703266 Attn. Stichting Veldwerk, p/a Egmond Binnen Bank: ABN-Amro 543703266

Cuckoo Cuckoo, Cuckoo Cuckoo, Cuckoo Cuckoo

The same sound over and over again for fifteen minutes…..

Good morning
Yes, that's the sound I woke up to this morning. In the middle of the city of Kathmandu, in a large tree in front of my bedroom, sat a beautiful large cuckoo. He probably thought it was time for me to get out of bed and came to wake me up. But isn't it nice, a beautiful cuckoo in front of the hotel window. It gives me the impression of being in the middle of nature. There are also about twenty chipmunks scraping together, lovely to watch. And it has been hot here the last few weeks and there's hardly enough water; we're still a little dry and on a ration.

Dear people upstairs....please, please can it start raining??

Anyway, after a while it was pouring with rain, along came a big thunderstorm with hailstones as big as Easter eggs. They came falling right trough the covering and garden furniture. In Pokhara the hailstones were even bigger, as big as tennis balls and as a result all the glass from the solar panels was shattered.

It seemed to be Caribbean style, all the trees bending down because of the wind, corrugated iron plates flying trough the air! And for me; I've been soaked several times on my motorbike!
Ok, Ok that's enough I said! But it's a little bit the same as in the Netherlands; it's never good enough. But, for now, the weather is ok 'again'. Sometimes a little shower for an hour and then the sun breaks trough again with a nice temperature. In short; it's just great!

That's Nepal, isn't it nice...?

Actually it isn't that nice at all. The country is still in complete chaos and today was the third day in a row off a nation wide Bhanda. No traffic, all the shops and everything closed and of course the schools were closed as well, meaning we had 30 noisy and screaming children running around. Next week is going to be the same, from 7 till 12 June there's another strike, Nepal at its best.
Yesterday the King actually assigned a new Prime minister, what's big news after months without any kind of government. The last Prime minister turned in his resignation because he couldn't cope with the problems the country is dealing with at this moment.

The hilarious thing about this new Prime minister is that the King dismissed this same sir Deuba, because according to the King he wasn't competent enough to the job and run the country. After dismissing Deuba the chaos in Nepal got even worse, but the King probably seems to think that now Deuba is capable enough…according to Deuba's reassignment by the King yesterday. Anyway, this is the never ending story of a very corrupt 'little' Kingdom.
But as always the poor people suffer the worst and it doesn't seem to get any better, not even with the reassignment of Deuba.

Here in Kathmandu and at Hamro Niwas everything goes all right, see the information about us from the last 3 months. It is almost too much to mention. And it is unbelievable how busy I am with all the things happening here. Nice things happening but there are also some sad stories about very needy children we had to take in because they had now place to go and they've already been trough the worst things. Below you can see a description and the links to the stories.





Hamro Niwas' Second anniversary...
Early May it was already the second birthday of Hamro Niwas and then we also celebrate the birthday's of all our children, because from most of the children we don't now their exact dates. It was a big party for all. We kept the party a secret for the children so it was a big surprise for them when they came home from school Sunday afternoon. Although a few children suspected something was going on, it was still a real big surprise for them. We had presents for all the children but we got spoiled as well by our friends from Kathmandu who were also invited to the party. See here the rest of Birthday party!

All the children go to school.
Since April the 15th all our children go to a school nearby Hamro Niwas. Everyday they leave for school in their pretty uniforms. At 09.15am they leave Hamro Niwas under the guidance from our Guard in small but quick steps….on their way to school. Some children are still very small and with our midget Sita and her little legs its not going very fast and it will take them about 15 minutes to get to school. It is really a lovely sight, all those children with their little backpacks and a poncho on their back, hoping it won't start raining….and of they go!

Last year, when the youngest ones were still too young to go to school, Boenoe, the youngest one cried her eyes out every morning when the others left for school. She also wanted to go!! Crying, crying and crying…every morning the same little drama…Now she can walk in front of the line because she also goes to school now and it makes her the happiest girl alive!
The 2 children who are intellectually behind also started school as well as our 3 new children, the 3 children who came to Hamro Niwas earlier this month.

Last school year our children did excellent in school, and some of the credits go to all the volunteers who were tutoring them after school. They helped our children with their homework after school and also taught them English. The children at Hamro Niwas have a good live here, most of the time even better then in poor families or the children living on the streets. See the school summary.


The Contact Center
Just a week after we had celebrated our second anniversary, we had another reason to party. Why? We opened the new Contact Center!
We as Stichting Veldwerk work directly with our Nepalese partner CCSD (Centre for Child Studies and Development).
The CCSD already had a Contact Center, a place our volunteers also attend to as teachers.

The Contact Center used to be resided in a small and dirty house with only two rooms, no windows and no indoor toilet.
The walls didn't have any plaster on them, no running water to be found anywhere near and it could only lodge 16 children. At that time lack of money made it impossible to settle elsewhere. In principal the Contact Center can be compared to regular Daycare Centers in the Netherlands. It provides the poorest children with a save and clean environment during daytime where they'll be loved and nurtured and also get in “Contact” with other children. Besides playing, learning and having fun, they're getting at least one healthy meal and a few cups of tea and if necessary some medical care. If the Contact Center would not provide this, the children would probably be forced in to heavy child labour or else they will be locked in their small, filthy houses which is an unhealthy and dangerous environment for small children to be left alone in.

Not so long ago I received an e-mail from our sponsor, Wil Mosk from Armas Europe. She asked me if I knew about a good project for children; “but it has to be about the basic needs” she said. “I know…The Contact Center” I nearly shouted! The Contact Center should be moved to a bigger and better place and it takes care of the basic needs of the poorest and needy children. After some e-mails back and forth Wil said “Ok, it's a good project and for the next two years you can count on me!!”

Cuckoo, Cuckoo, wake me up, am I dreaming????


Luckily I still had some money left from Roos Dusseljee's donations and the sponsorship from her pre-school 'De Ark' in Haarlem so I could buy some supplies for the Contact Center. Roos had worked at the 'old' Contact Center last year. With the money I bought a water purification machine, a water tank, some kitchen inventory, a cabinet, a table, some chairs and linoleum for two rooms. Many, many, many thanks go to Wil Mosk and her company Armas Europe and to “De Ark” in Haarlem for all what they've done for the children in Nepal!

See the opening of the Contact Centre



Family reunion, Bhim is going home!!!
Yes, our Bhim (Bhim Laden for insiders) is back in his home district Dhading, a district just between Kathmandu and Pokhara. Dhading is actually a very large district that reaches as far as Chitwan, but the capital city Dhading Besi is only a four hour drive from Kathmandu, next to the Trishuli River.


On the day of Bhim's departure everybody was a little bit sad; saying goodbye always hurts a little… Bhim received a lot of presents, drawings, a flower behind his ear and a Tika; all given to him by the other children. However, Bhim will always be welcome in our big family and we'll always keep in touch with him, and the other children who will be reunited with their families in the future. Recently we went to visit Bhim in Dhading to check up on him and to see if all the promises made are kept; is he going to school, does he get enough to eat, is he being loved and cared for, etcetera. And thankfully everything is going well; he is very happy to be reunited with his sister and the family takes very good care of him. A sad story with a happy ending after all…..And….. Bhim's story.


And after 2 days the next two very needy children arrived at Hamro Niwas. Sandip is a small boy from the Terrai; his father died and his mother went looking for work in India and dumped the little boy with the neighbours and she never returned. Due to the fact that the neighbours are very poor as well, they could not longer take care of Sandip. Sandip is now staying at Hamro Niwas and his big tears are dried up now.

Another two days later a young woman came to Hamro Niwas with a little girl by her side, only for years old. “I'm very sick, could you please take care of my daughter?” was the story she told. After some consultation we took in little Puja, and it appeared just to be in time! “Please treat her as your own daughter” she begged, when she left her child with us. See her story here:Sandip & Puja

A little bit more than a week ago, two social workers arrived at Hamro Niwas. Could we take in a girl whose mother is possessed by the devil? Her father died two years ago and her mother got totally psychotic. The voices in her head told her to sacrifice her daughter. The mother did lots of horrible things to her child one can't even imagine, she even took her child one eye out. At that time the neighbours finally interfered and contacted Social workers. These Social workers tried to place the child at the official childcare centre run by the Nepalese government, Bhal Mandir in Kathmandu. But, because of the missing eye they weren't willing to take her in. Now, Samjana is in safe hands with us. I took her to the Eye-Hospital several times, which again was a horrible experience for Samjana, but the painful operation for the artificial eye finally took place and it's all behind her now. Samjana can move on with her live. Read Samjana's story.





Now it is business as usual again at Hamro Niwas and all the children have had their yearly dental appointment. We went to the dentist when the schools were closed due to another Nation Wide Strike and it was, because of the strike, nice and quiet at the dentist office…. We finally got ourselves a properly working water filtering system; the regular 'drinking water' in Nepal is far from reliable and it makes a lot of people and children sick. Our former volunteer Arina van Eck contributed to this nice device. See also Purified drinking water

But there's also so much more happening outside of our Children Home, take a look…..

Ruplal Tamang is finally going to school;
The 9-year-old boy from the mountain area, Ruplal Tamang, who wanted to attend a school in Kathmandu, is finally in school. In the mountains he was working to make a living. He worked in a small cabin in Helambu; the cabin served the purpose of being a hotel and restaurant for trekkers and mountaineers. It sounds dreadful, I mean we're talking child labour here, but compared to his former situation it seemed like a small paradise.
His mother died at an early age and his father was employed at a family living in the Terrai. He worked there as a guard and gatekeeper and in working situations like that, children aren't welcome. For that reason Ruplal was living with his eldest brother. His brother was working, together with his wife, in a small carpet factory and Ruplal was left home to take care of their little baby. The small place with its roof made out of corrugated iron sheets they called home was extremely dirty and dangerous, but at least they had a roof above their heads and that's something a lot of people and children in Nepal don't even have, let alone work or food. Ruplal's neighbour brought him to the mountain area and after a long time wandering and rambling he finally attends a good school where his perspectives for a good education and a better future are certainly looking better. It took us some time and we had some problems to overcome to get him into the right school, but we've made it!!! He's going to a nice school and that's one less problem for me to worry about! See Ruplal's story.

Lalimaya is going to walk for the first time in her life!
On the same expedition through the Helambu area we came across a village where we saw a little girl suffering from an open back (Spina Bifida), Lalimaya Tamang. She was crawling on her hands and feet trough the fields. After some consultation with the parents and the Lilianefonds in The Netherlands, we took her out of the mountains to an orthopaedic children's hospital. After a having some very expensive MRI-scans made, there seemed to be more complications than we foresaw at first. She had to undergo 2 very complicated and painful operations. The total costs are over 2000 Euro and the Lilanefonds is still looking for extra sponsors to take care of this little girl's medical bills. Lalimaya has returned to the children's hospital now to undergo several treatments and rehabilitation. She is getting crutches to help her walk; she is going to walk for the first time in her life…isn't that amazing?!!! It took her, and me, a lot of work! Look for yourself





Guitar lessons for our children…..
Once in a while I'll have a small beer after a hot, long and hard day of work. I prefer to have my beer in the Upstairs-Jazzbar. It is only a mile away from Hamro Niwas and on the way to my room in Thamel which makes it even more convenient to go there! Every Wednesday and Saturday they have a band playing; Candenza is performing live Afro Jazz music and it's said to be one of the best live bands in Kathmandu. De band's base guitarist is Chi and on a certain night he asked me if it was possible for him to teach our children some guitar at Hamro Niwas. Of Course I said, let's arrange something! Now, every Sunday Chi visits Hamro Niwas and teaches six of our children, the children who got lucky drawing straws. They're the lucky ones in Guitar class.
But we stumbled into a problem…..no guitar lessons without guitars.


Hamro Niwas' visitors
Last period of time we had, by coincidence a lot of visitor at Hamro Niwas. To many to mention them all except for the ICFON secretary Dick van Duynhoven and his wife Annemiek Verlsuys and Veronica Barendregt. Veronica is Carin sister. Carin works for our Job-training project Jyoti in Pokhara. After a tour in our house, Hamro Niwas, we shared a nice cup of tea when she mentioned to me that she would like to donate 50 Euros and her mother also donated 50 Euros!! “Use this money to buy something nice for the children.” Well, with this money I was able to buy some nice acoustic guitars for our children. Chi would bring his own guitar so 3 children would be able to practice and play guitar at the same time. Our special thanks go out to Veronica Barendregt and her mother for supporting our project!


The family of Eijgenraam also belongs on the long list of visitors. They were here to visit their daughter Brigit who was working here as a volunteer; with and trough our organisation. Many parents do that; visit their children to see what they're doing out here, and that is usually not scanty! Anyway, father and mother Eijgenraam had dinner with us and afterwards they donated a nice amount as well. With that money, no more than a week later, I bought this amazingly beautiful sowing machine; that was still missing in our home. Nowadays our Didi makes all the school uniforms for the children and nice sari's for her. Many thanks go to the family Eijgenraam.


Our Volunteers
Yes, our volunteers. Well, there's enough to say about them. A few of them already left; they went home or they went on to another exotic place but there are also some new volunteers.
Maaike Jonker (still in Dutch) has exchanged Nepal for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Janneke went home after a long period with us and so did Brigit and Mara. Naomi Bik went back home after going to India and Varanassie; she is back in Alkmaar again.

Saying goodbye is always hard on the volunteers. Saying goodbye to the sweetest children of Hamro Niwas, children you probably won't ever see again…. Most of the volunteers think it is pretty boring being back home again after their trip to Nepal. It's all too tidy and clean, it rains a lot and nothing really happens. And compared to the sunny and colourful, chaotic Nepal the Netherlands are a bit boring…I mean the people here are the friendliest people you'll ever meet and the children are always so cheerful. But there's always a time of coming and a time of going…isn't it?
I want to mention Mara van de Ven separately, she really (tried) to move mountains here during her four months in Nepal. Same as all the volunteers try to do, but with a difference. Check this link and read Mara's story. (still in Dutch)


It so happened that a small group of volunteers, under the leadership of Yolande Kat uit Heiloo, started working in Kathmandu trough a very expensive Nepalese Volunteer Organisation called RCDP (Rural Community Development Project). The work turned out to be nothing they expected it to be and their good intentions (and money) were very much taken advantage of. The children in the orphanage they where they worked were also much mistreated. In short; a sad story and when they tried to get their money back they were left empty handed. Then Yolande turned to me and asked me if there was maybe anything they could do for Veldwerk, put one's shoulder to the wheel; paint, carpet, teach??? Whatever is necessary!
“Well, as the matter of fact….the school of principal Rabin Jirel is such a mess, it could really use some paint by now, but there's not enough money to realize that.” During their introduction at the school they were totally overwhelmed….saying “aah, and ooh…” and “No problem, we will buy some paint, make some new blackboards etcetera. And this was all done in less then two weeks time, during a school holiday. Nava Indradhanush Boarding School Yolande (still in Dutch)

Four weeks ago Chantal ten Have and Anna Barneveld arrived in Kathmandu. Anna was the smartest at the time because she immediately started a trek in the Annapurna region while it's still possible, before the high monsoon. But Chantal took over Mara's computer class at Hamro Niwas and she also works at the new Contact Center. See the story about Chantal (still in Dutch)


It's is usually a lot of fun to place these volunteers in a nice working environment but it also takes a lot of my time and energy. However it is a job I do with love and I enjoy almost every single minute of it. Anyway, on the long term this is not going to work so I've decided to make some changes. I started a new Nepalese non-profit organisation which is going to take care of all the work concerning volunteers. I will be there and supervise wherever necessary. I am/was pretty indispensable, a lot of people were relying on me and that wasn't a good feeling. Now some very competent and trustworthy people are going to handle the several tasks concerning volunteers and voluntary work so we can improve our organisation and professionalize it so it provides the volunteers with more individual attention and make their stay in Nepal definitely worthwhile and the best lifetime memory. This project is officially starting in October, October the fifth. For further information check this link; www.cross-borders.org (Dutch only)
Because of this project and those reliable people I can focus all my energy on building the new children home, the sponsors, taking in new children in desperate needs and getting in touch with disabled children. Together with the Lilianefonds we can give those children a better future.

You can imagine these are very busy times and incredible tiring but it's all worth the effort! It's a question many people ask me; "Don't you ever regret going to Nepal, leaving your home, family, your job/salary and luxurious lifestyle?"
No, dear people, I haven't regretted it one minute! Of course I do have my moments here…feeling miserable if things don't work out the way they should. But can you name me one person who doesn't have moments like that? My work is extremely significant and it gives me great satisfaction that up to a certain extend I can really make a difference for the poor and needy children of Nepal.

In July I will be back in the Netherlands for some time to visit my family and friends, informing our sponsors about all the developments and talking to some new volunteers. Of course I'll check out the beach, lay lazy in the hot sun with one or two cold beers!
That'll be nice, won't it?





Love and greetings from Kathmandu,

René Veldt, Stichting Veldwerk, actions speak louder than words.
Are you goanna join us..??

veldwerk@wlink.com.np

René Veldt, Stichting Veldwerk, Nepal
IBAN nr. NL51ABNA0543703266
Bank: ABN AMRO 543703266
T.a.v. Stichting Veldwerk p/a Egmond Binnen