Read the article in the Kathmandu Post about this.


Boat capsized in river in nepal: eight people died
12-07-2005 - certainly eight people have been drowned when the boat capsized in a river in the south of Nepal on Monday. Seven other people are still missing on Tuesday. There were about 35 people on the boat at that moment. About twenty people could swim and reached the bank safely.
15-07-2005 Care workers in Nepal fear that dozens of people have been drown in a swirling river last Thursday. A boat with more than hundred people capsized, whereupon only forty people reached the bank safely.


This sort of things happens in Nepal during monsoon. Beside the green and nourishing side of the rain, it also causes a lot of deaths and destructions. But life goes on, and from our side, we have good news to tell.

After two years looking for a good place, with many options and the same amount of disappointments, the time is there now. The ground is situated close to the village Sanku, in the Kathmandu Valley.
It is on the northern slope of the Valley near the Sali river, which is known as a holy river. Close to our field are a few temples, which every year attract thousands of pilgrims.
Our field is almost flat, so no terraces which makes it easy for the disabled children in a wheelchair who will live here in the future. The size is like a soccer field. Along side the holy river there is also a small river dividing the ground in two parts.

2/3 of the field is on the right side of the small river, 1/3 on the left. On the left side we will build a contact centre and a job centre. The children home for 45 to 50 children will be on the big right part. Beside a playground, playing-garden and a sport field there will be enough space to grow our own vegetables and potatoes and to cultivate flowers. The biological garden will be part of the job training project. Many children can learn a job here and we can provide ourselves with food.


But till now we are preparing ourselves on building the new children home, so that we can move as soon as possible from our too small and too expensive rent building to the new house.
We would like to move when the next school year starts, April 2006. So we have a short year, which normally should be enough time to build it. We also have to put extra energy in fundraising, because we have a shortage of 40.000 Euro in the budget. Our existing children home with 31 cute kids is also still running, so we also have our monthly costs and this has priority off course.
So dear readers, if you have good ideas for a fundraising action, please let us know. You can think about a benefit concert, gala dinner, marathon, school project or something else. Stichting Veldwerk will use every single amount of money straight for the children, and they deserve it!

On the 15^th of May we celebrated the children home three years anniversary. Many children don't know their exact birth date, that's why we celebrate it on the opening date of the children home.
This is also easier during the year, so we can celebrate everything together. Cake from the Raddison Hotel, presents from the visitors from the Netherlands and Belgium, a delicious Dhal Bhat and a barbeque from the restaurant 1905 Kantipath, cola, fanta, chips and 31 exiting children!
Same like last year, when they went to school in the morning, they didn't know that there would be a surprise waiting for them when they would come from school.
Have a glance at the pictures. There will be a report from this day soon.
I really hope that this was the last birthday party in this building and that we can celebrate the next birthday together with the opening of the new children home. I will keep you posted.






Dancing for university in Restaurant 1905 Kantipath

It is good to know that the children in our children home have a great time. I am very happy to see that these traumatic orphanages have it better than me at their age.
But we will keep an eye on it, that they will not be spoiled, because they have to go back to the hard reality in Nepal. When they are old enough, they will live in a different house with a Nepali income. The older children are already used to cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry and ironing. They all have to help like in a normal family. That is much easier for the staff, but they also learn to survive in the future when they go and live on their own. But they also do many nice things, like biking to interesting places in the city and the valley, going to a Champions league soccer game, guitar lessons, computer lessons and dancing. The Nepali really like traditional dancing, it's in their blood. And you can see that in our children. A dance teacher visits us to teach them many dances from one of the 40 different tribes in Nepal every Saturday. The children really enjoy this and it gives them a good self esteem.


Many travel agencies from the Netherlands and abroad visit our Children home. The tourist liked the dancing that much, that we got the idea to do some traditional dances for them for some money in the beautiful restaurant 1905 Kantipath, while they can have dinner. So it cuts both ways, doesn't it?
We will use the money from these evenings on a special way. It's too easy to put all the money together for the day to day stuff. We made a special bank account for this money. We will use this when they need it for university. Like in Europe the children work in a supermarket, bar or restaurant next to their study. They can be proud to earn some money for their future.
I would like to thank the travellers with Summum and Koning Aap, who supported the children this way.



Our Contact Centre
With the coordination of local NGO CCSD, we are running the Contact centre beside our children home “Hamro Niwas”. This is a kind of pre-school for those children whose parents do not have money to send them to a normal school. So now because of this, part of the children from poor background can receive education for free.

Most children who don't go to school end up in child labour like carpet factories, brick kilns, or even worse are sold as a sex slave to India. The newspaper of today reported that 59,000 children are working in stone factories, more than 12 hours per day. 24% of these children are between 6 and the 12 years old, and they earn 3.60 USD per month, if the employer pays to all. 61% of the children do not receive their promised salary. The clay and bricks are very heavy, so it is also not good for their health.

For a small number of poor children it ends up better thanks to the Contact Centre. Last year 14 out of 35 children from the Contact Centre could go to a government school. This was possible with the aid of our sponsor Armas Europe. In the previous year, our volunteer Mara van de Ven also sponsored 17 children. We also have some other people who sponsor these children. From dustman to student! That is a beautiful idea, so much direct aid with relatively less money.


Two of our children, Surendra and Deependra are living with their mother, on the other side of the city. There father died in a mine accident in India. Their mother earned their money with washing clothes. But she washed too much, so that her hands become open and wounded and are not functioning normally anymore. So she lost her job and there is no money for food and lodging for her. She asked us to take care of her children but our Children Home Hamro Niwas is full now. That's why we could not take care of them. That is one of the reasons I hope I can start with building the new bigger Children home soon. Thanks to a sponsor we found a new school for these children and now they have a better future. Read the story of Bipendra en Surendra


Jyoti Vocational Training.
The vocational training project for street children in the city Pokhara, which started 3½ years ago, is running very well. The fourth group of 30 initially prospect less young street dwellers has been started. The first group said good bye after obtaining their diploma. Now they can start a new and bright future. Two students married last week. The Dutch artist Henk van Hemert will help us to give more attention to this Vocational Training Centre in Pokhara. Click for the Jyoti VTC report.


New project “Bag with a message” – An income generating program for women in difficult circumstances

Almost every week another woman knocks on our door with the question “Can you take care of my children? They are yours now” Those mothers must be very desperate when they say this.
We don't have enough room for all these children. But in fact this is also not a good solution for the mother and her problems. She has no job, so it is better to help her with that problem. When she earns some money she can take care of her children by herself. But it is not easy to find a job in this poor country.
A Dutch colleague who is working in India had a good idea, making paper bags from old newspapers. And what they can do in India is also possible in Nepal. And India is far away, so we are not competitors for each other.

I had contact with an organisation “Shakti Samuha”, what means “Group of Power”. They help women with difficult situations, like widows with children, women who've been traffic to India and sold as prostitution when they were young and came back to Nepal with no money and women and girls who are HIV positive.

We have started making a bag project with the help of some volunteers and the bag project is a big success. “A bag with a message” is the name of this project. There are six women working now. The Asia- Projects Melania Foundation has given us some money to start. Beside the women get a respectable job and salary, their children will get day care very soon and the women will also get some education in reading and writing. Most of them are illiterate. We also want to give them job training in another subject. In this way they can have their own business in the near future. When one woman is leaving we can help another woman. So this is a new and progressive project. Bag with a message


Our care of Disabled children
One of the goals of Foundation Fieldwork is to help the disabled children. We are always looking for these children to see how we can help them to live under better circumstances.

We are working together with Disabled Newlife Centre (DNC). We are helping the children with their homework, give English class and physiotherapy. Raymond and Diane, who work for VSO, gave them lots of toys. We also planning to give all the children a health check-up at the Orthopaedic Hospital Jorpaty. Disabled Newlife Centre


Most of the time we succeed to give the disabled children a better life. In the last newsletter I told you about a girl Lalimaya Tamang, who lives high in the mountains. She had a heavy surgery because of the disease Spinal Bifida, what means open backbone by birth. We went to visit her high up in the mountain and it was pathetic to see her again, and now she can walk behind a bamboo walking frame. She is young, but she can go to school soon. With the walking frame and the exercises school is within reach.

We also supported a little boy Govinda Nepal, high in the Hills. He also had a Spinal Bifida and an awful cleft pallet. After his surgery he looks beautiful and healthy now. His parents help him with the walking exercises.


But sometimes, things are going wrong like the boy from Dharan with big and deformed head, which you maybe remember from our last newsletter.
After our first visit, he was not willing to talk with us. Anneke Holweg (who told us about him), visited him twice with good Nepali doctors after us. But the boy doesn't want to receive any help! He is too scared for the surgery. We don't know for sure how he will be after the surgery, so it's also scary for us to give too much pressure. What if the surgery doesn't go that well? His parents don't support us at all. We offered them to pay for the surgery but if the boy is normal again after surgery then they think they will lose their main income because the boy is begging in temples, and people give him some money to prevent themselves for that evil. That is easy business for the parents; they do nothing beside whole day drinking tea.

We made an appointment with the social worker in Dharan, to talk sometimes with the boy to see if he changed his mind. We can not force him, but without a surgery he will be paralysed soon. We have a little hope when his older brother comes back from India. Maybe he can exert an influence on the parents and the boy. The only thing we can do in this case is waiting but in the mean time, we go on with other things.


The Navajyoti Day care centre for mentally disabled children
We are working together with the centre for mentally disabled children, Navajyoti. Our volunteers Mijke Caminada and Neeltje Verheijen have worked there. Mijke organized a sponsor walk in Holland for sport materials. But when she worked there, she found out that they had already lot of materials so we looked for another project. The teachers in Navajyoti have lot of materials to use, but they didn't know what to do with the materials. Somebody told me about an institute where they had a program for teachers that they can learn how to use the materials. This course was for a week. So, we offered the teachers of Navajyoti for training during the holiday period. The institute made a program especially for mentally disabled children. Mijke was there also and she saw that the teachers were very enthusiastic. They still use the skills they learnt at the training. So we want to thank Mijke Caminada for the help and the sponsor money. We also started to sell the products, made by the students from Navajyoti. We made a big show-window and have a nice brochure and we are waiting for customers now. Click for the Nava Jyoti story (in Dutch)


More sponsor activities.

Jelmer van Ast Ast was coming to Nepal this autumn. He is working for the EPO (European Patent Office) in Rijswijk. The EPO saved some money for third world countries. He told them about the new Children Home and EPO is willing to pay for the special new foundation of the house, to make it an earthquake proof. Thanks to Jelmer and EPO.
For details see his website. www.vanast.info


And a Big thanks to our Sponsors and Donors;
Armas Europe,
Is a company under the leadership of Will Mosk.
Will is involved with Foundation Fieldwork for a long time already. She also sponsored the Contact Centre which is a Day Care centre for children, whose parents are very poor to pay for their children's education. Mostly they are from the lowest caste of the Hindu religion. They get their first education and we try to find some sponsors to bring them to a government school. Will sponsored 14 of these children and because of this we created possibilities for new children. Right now, 35 children have a safe place there. Thanks to Armas Europe.


Party animals:
Leo and Liset Hoetjes from my village Heiloo in the Netherlands are married for 25 years! Time to celebrate!!! Normally you get lots of presents. But they didn't want any present, only a gift for Foundation Fieldwork. Thanks to Leo and Liset for this good idea and support.


Jolanda Verhoeven is board member of Foundation Himalaya in Breda. This foundation is fundraising for Foundation Fieldwork. Jolanda celebrated her 40th birthday last month and invited some friends and family. She made a big box, with “Hamro Niwas” on it. Even on her birthday she is fundraising! A big hand and thanks for Jolanda.


The Maha Mata Mama's from Heenvliet
There will also be a small Day Care Centre (similar to the Contact Centre) close to our new Children Home because many poor people also live in that part of the Kathmandu Valley. The Day Care is financially supported by the Foundation Maha Mata from South Holland. This is a foundation with enthusiastic women, the Maha Mata Mamas. They already fundraised 12000 Euro for this school. Very good news and thanks for there very big help! For more information read stichtingmahamata.helpt.nl

But we have more sponsors .....


Big visit in Hamro Niwas
Beside many other visitors, in this spring my family and a few good friends also came to Nepal to visit me. I am always very proud to show them the nicest Children Home of Kathmandu. My family went back to Holland with Martin Air which unfortunately stopped flying to Nepal.

Annemarieke Smits was working in this aircraft. She had been in Nepal earlier, and had heard some stories about our Children Home. She emailed me with the question “Is it ok when I visit Hamro Niwas with the whole crew….?” off course we like it. So I arranged a Mini-Micro Bus to bring my family to the airport, said good bye to them, and went with the crew to Hamro Niwas for a very quick visit.
It was a big happening for the children to see the crew with their uniforms. They also had a nice present for the children. A big airplane made from plastic. I want to say thanks to Annemarieke and the nice crew of Martin Air.


En nu,

I can imagine that when you read all these stories, you might also want to visit us in Nepal. You can do that! We love visitors. Martin Air is not flying to Nepal anymore, but there are daily flights with Qatar Airways, Thai Airways, Gulf Air, Austrian Air or Biman Airlines. If you come, please, bring some clothes for the children between 4 and 17 years old. For example, warm coats, good shoes, sweaters or trousers. And the things which we do not need in our Children Home will go to other Children Homes or to the Tibetan refugees… there are many of them here.

When you are not able to come but willing to support, you can also support us in other way. We still need some money for our five year plan to raise our new Children Home. Every support is welcome.

With Regards, Rene Veldt,
Stichting Veldwerk, actions speak louder than words.

If you have some reactions on this newsletter you can mail to veldwerk@wlink.com.np
Donations: (In Holland we are known as a Charity Foundation, so your donation can be calculated in your tax) attended to;
IBAN nr. NL51ABNA0543703266
Bank: ABN AMRO 543703266
T.a.v. Stichting Veldwerk p/a Egmond Binnen, The Netherlands

To ensure messages from specific e-mail addresses are not sent to your Junk E-Mail folder, you can add them to your Safe List.

1. Go to the Options page
2. On the left side of the page, click Mail, and then click Junk E-Mail Protection.
3. Click Add Senders to Safe List
4. Type an address or domain (a domain is the part of an e-mail address that follows the @ sign) from which you always want to receive messages.
   For Stichting Veldwerk: stichting-veldwerk.org
5. Then click Add.
6. Click OK.

For technical remarks, i.e. "dead links", we appreciate an email to: the webmaster.
Jos Storken, webmaster Stichting Veldwerk.