Also on the Christian Primary School 'De Merula' in Heenvliet good work was done for the children in Nepal. On our web page Sponsors, we further elaborate on these actions, so take a look! I and all our children would like to thank all the students and teachers from this school! Thanks a lot for your support!


Students of the Jan Arentz College, department Viaanse Molen in Alkmaar campaign for SVN!
For years now, the students and teachers of the Jan Arentzs College campaign around Christmas for SVN and the children in Nepal. They organize a Christmas village in their school which is all about Christmas and the projects of SVN. This year, they specially dedicated it to a part of the construction of the new children home, namely the Cane or Helophyte filter. Once again they have put a lot of effort in it and again with great result.


KSA Etten-Leur
The Catholic School in Etten-Leur held their third annual world market on March 16^th. This day is always full with activities: amongst others, the first graders e.g. participate in the charity run. This third world market was organized under the supervision of Onno Meijer and Reinier Geurts and is being visited by many friends and family of the students as well as by others who were interested. After multiplication of the money raised, by Wilde Ganzen, on this day, the total amount was 10.900 Euro! With this money, we will build a large water tank. This is really urgent, as the water supply in Kathmandu is very bad, especially in the spring. To anticipate this water shortage, we will make a large concrete tank for the drinking water. Many thanks to all the students and their teachers and of course to Wilde Ganzen, for these beautiful results!

In addition to the school activities of the story above, we have received many more funds by other campaigns and private donors (in total over 250 donations!!). Our warmest thanks to all of them!


So now, let's go on with the construction of the new children home! Action speaks louder than words!
As we already mentioned, we have rented a house, furnished some rooms and the office has been inaugurated by a real Hindu Puja! The contracts with the constructor have been signed and the construction has started from the 4^th of September. The members of our board, Jaap de Vries and Fred Valkering, were present at this memorable event and have signed the contracts as representatives and witnesses from The Netherlands. The first stone ceremony took place on September the 27^th. I really hope that in two years, we can have a last stone ceremony! By that time, we hope to have completed everything for our ecological little village. To be continued! We will create a photo report on our website of the progress of the construction, so you can then follow the process from behind your computer!


Other activities and the progress in Nepal.
In spite of all the political problems, we keep putting our efforts to help poor government schools, several children homes, and the women and disabled children program. Still, it was not very easy to accomplice to all our goals during this roaring period. The streets were often closed, due to demonstrations or strikes. During these strikes, no one was allowed on the streets and the schools and projects had to be closed. The children of Hamro Niwas were also at home and got bored by watching television or tried to do some homework. But, as western people, we could sometimes sneak through the blocks to get to the children home. This way, we were still able to give the children a little extra attention regarding homework, the computer class or with little games within the walls of the house. At the time of the exams, the effect was that our children could come home with good results.

The new school year started a little late again, because of the so called Andolan; the struggle of the people against the power and dictatorship of the king. The residence of the prime minister is in the same street of the children's house, just one hundred meters away. Our children could witness from our roof terrace that the formerly feared rebel Maoist leaders were welcomed for the peace talks after the king had been dethroned. An historical fact for our children and the people of Nepal.


  The World Championship Football and the Toto 
In the meanwhile in Germany, the world championships had kicked of and this was closely watched by the Nepali people! Because of the time difference, this sometimes got a little out of hand when some matches started at 1am! The two Dutch workers in Kathmandu, Gerard and Raymond, had set up a football pool and we could also participate with our children. This was a lot of fun and brought an extra dimension to the world cup. In the end, one our four groups ended on the second place and they won some money. Thanks to Gerard and Raymond for all their work on this!


Beautiful Photo book about SVN!
In the autumn of 2006, a very special guest paid a visit to our team: Peter Voerman, a professional photographer from Assen. He wanted to get the Nepal feeling and pass it through to others by creating a photo book. Peter has visited nearly all of our working places and thereby became the traveling reporter for SVN. This book will be for sale and the revenue will be for the projects of SVN in Nepal. You can already get a preview of his work on his photo book website. Here you can sign up to order a copy of the book when it has been published. I have already seen the proof and I can tell you it is a beauty that you should not miss.

But more visitors have come, like ….
Trudie and Trudie, Joke Bakker, Gérard Urselman who brought me my favourite special coffee from the Netherlands, but also Padma Bansie, her brother Ronald and his wife Ineke came to visit us. Ronald and Ineke have been collecting pens, books and copies and have carried it all the way to give to the children. They were very happy! For this again thanks to Ronald and Ineke for their visit and aid for our children.



Co and Corrie of the Holland Building.
Co and Corrie Rijnders from Enkhuizen are coming to Nepal for years now and not just for vacation. Long time ago Corrie's brother, Ben van der Stam, was coming to Nepal for a handicapped children's project in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, just before arriving at the International airport of Kathmandu the airplane disappeared from the radar, Corrie's brother never to be seen again. To find out what Ben once was planning to do, they went to look after the handicapped children's project. This was the start for Co and Corrie to help Nepal. A few months ago they opened the Holland Building. This centre is a learning centre for children with Cerebral Palsy, but the priority is given to the parents of these children. They have to learn to bare their home situation with their child and his/ her handicap. Of course Co and Corrie came to visit our children home again. Besides some other gifts they brought a beautiful garage and car-toys with them. The children play with it for hours. Co and Corrie, many thanks to you. Link to the Holland building

So, it is out of our hands from now on. It's the principle of the fish and the fishing rod! The Melania foundation has made this training possible and John and Ans Calemijn have given a contribution what serves as a micro credit, because you first need some money to begin a shop. After a while, you can pay back the loan if you have made profit. With thanks to Ans, John and the Melania foundation.

New start with the Woman Foundation
The Nepali bag project has made a second edition, but now in hands of the Women Foundation. The Women Foundation gives job trainings for women from 35 different districts from Nepal. All women are victims of military violence in Nepal, rape, domestic violence or other bad circumstances, which occur out in the remote areas of Nepal. So to all of you, showing interest and support in our projects, our Nepali newspaper bags are still for sale. When buying think of the fact that this product makes live possible for at least one woman. Details can be found here www.womenfoundation.org

In the village of Barhabise (just near the Tibetan border) the project of Bhakta Nepali takes place. The man is a Dalit, what means one of the de lowest castes in the Hindu system. Sir Bhakta witnessed the need for help of the women of the lowest cast and decided to start a project to help his sisters. He got some money from local government and some local companies. He bought a few second-hand sewing machines and started training for the women. From every small village two women can join his training, so later they can become a professional sewer. With two ladies only, we avoid competition between them in the small village.

Out of the 74 women on sir Bhakta's list, already 40 women has finished the training and are running their own business in the mountains. Because the women are coming from far, they can not go home every night. During the training he takes care of the women's shelter, and provides food, if they can not pay it themselves. This resulted in an almost bankrupt sir Bhakta. Thanks to one of our sponsors (Armas Europe from the Netherlands) this project is able to continue and the women can finish their training.

Because of his success, Sir Bhakta was considered trustworthy by his local community and again, could get some money from them. Bhakta also is busy to start up the Dalit Women Welfare Association, with an own building, which gives space to the sewing classes and the women's shelter upstairs. His building is not finished yet, because of lack of money. He waits for a little miracle of Laxmi, the goddess of happiness, as he is telling me. Let's see if miracles still happen.


Disabled children in Nepal
Our contribution to the welfare of the disabled children was not that high this year. This was because the areas outside the capital Kathmandu were in hands of the Maoists and unreachable for foreigners without paying fee or taxes to them. Like other aid organisations we couldn't do anything. But times are hopefully changing soon. In the mean time we have given extra time and energy to other children within the Kathmandu-valley.

Suman Lama is a boy of 14 years old; he is disabled and is lying on his bed the whole day. He can not speak, eat himself or go the toilet on his own. His father is an alcoholic and not doing anything. His mother left him for that reason, so when Suman was three years old, his mother has been married another man. Like most Nepalese men, her new husband did not accept stepchildren, so Suman has lived with his grandfather and grandmother. They are now 70 and 75 years old and do not know what to do with him. When they leave the house they tie the boy on his bed behind the barriers of the window. Otherwise he is falling out of his bed. Horrible circumstances for this poor and innocent boy. Our volunteers try to help him, so that he doesn't have to lay down the whole day in spastic position. We also decided to paid local professionals to help him. Once a month a van brings Suman to the CP Centrum (from Co and Corrie) to get in contact with other children and to give him professional coaching. Every week a housekeeper is coming to the grandmother and grandfather to help them with the daily stuff, so that they can leave the house without tying the boy on his bed.


Coincidently, representatives from the Lillian Foundation were on work visit here in Nepal in August, and we spoke about this problem. They agreed to associate one person with visiting children who can not leave home. This person is going to map out the actual situation to see how we can help them out of their isolation. The Lilian Foundation (founded in 1980 by Lilian Brekelmans to help the disabled people in third world countries) wants to help us in our project to look for these forgotten children and give them the attention they need.

  In our latest newsletter I wrote about the boy with the terrible burns all over his body. He gets treatment in a plastic surgery at the Teaching hospital and he is receiving now free medical care, so his poor family don't have to pay this treatment. His recovery will take some time. I will write more about this in the next newsletter.

  As I view this newsletter I see that we have done many things, despite the delay in the building of the new house. This is thanks to the support of all the visitors, the board of Stichting Veldwerk in the Netherlands, but also thanks to the people who worked here and still are here. Thanks!

  So, now I am going to put my Overall on, because it is time to go back to our constructing area. Thanks to the support of many people on our Wilde Goose action together with NCDO. I want also thanks everybody in general who has given us and the children of Nepal this great opportunity.

With Regards,

Rene Veldt,
Stichting Veldwerk; actions speak louder than words!
Kathmandu-Nepal,
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