Stichting Veldwerk at Nepal

Secretariaat: Stichting Veldwerk Postbus 163 1850 AD Heiloo The Netherlands

Tel:+31 (0)72-5339585 veldwerk@wlink.com.np Gironumber: 8289522 Attn. Stichting Veldwerk, p/a Egmond binnen Bank: ABN-Amro 543703266

An amazing experience and a different world!

It’s Saturday the first of February and while I’m writing this I’m in the plane on my way back home. Ten weeks in Nepal and not ready to go home yet! I have been working as a volunteer for Stichting Veldwerk. A great organisation if you want to do volunteer work in Nepal.

I have been working at a Tibetan school it’s a wealthy school for Nepali standards,
they have a lot of  items to play with and excellent learning materials that most other schools in Nepal can only dream of. The volunteers are helping the slower students within the classes so they can gain a better understanding in the lessons this involved escorting a couple of the children and help them with their English. While we where doing this we found out the system that was in place didn’t really work despite the excellent material the school had to work with. We found there was only one teacher with the qualifications to teach which a fundamental problem. There were only the two volunteers and we found it very hard to find the time to help the teachers improve and even gain acceptance from some of them that they needed to improve. We did help one teacher who asked us expressly to help her so she could gain better control and structure to her lessons. Due to this our work became more varied and more of a challenge. If we only had more volunteers we could really get to work on the problem and better the children’s and the teacher’s education.

The work has a lot of good side’s. The children are very greatful; they are really open to our assistance they come to look for you and are so happy with just a little sticker in recognition of their hard work. I can plan my own day and the expectations the school has of me are realistic. I have learnt a lot, my English has vastly improved I was able to experience a lot of the culture of the country and have grown in confidence hugely.
Of course it’s not all perfect. The children treat you like a God sometimes it can make you feel good but not always, they expect you to be able to answer every question they have, we don’t have an answer to all the questions. In this respect the expectation put upon you are sometimes too high. Most of the children’s English is poor, it’s hard sometimes to make yourself understood and you have to be sensitive to this fact as sometime before you know it they end up crying which can put you in a difficult position. This is another learning curve which with experience and trust from the children can be overcome.


  I had a great time in Nepal not only due to the children and the culture but also because of the way the organisation took care of me.
René Veldt, the founder and coordinator of Stichting Veldwerk lives in Nepal and takes care of the new volunteers that arrive. René makes sure that you have a good place to stay and accompanies you to the first day of your placement to help you to settle in and explain the structure of what you will be doing. If you have any questions or problems he will always be there to help you something that doesn’t happen in every volunteer organisation.
The volunteer work and Nepal in general was a great experience and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Working as a volunteer I got a really good tasted of the way of life and the culture of Nepal sometimes it was hard there is a lot of poverty which confronts you everyday. Despite the poverty the people in Nepal really try to make the best of their lives and it’s amazing how satisfied many of them seem despite what little they have. As a volunteer you can help the future adults of Nepal and hopefully provide them with the opportunity their parents never had.

Regards, Femke Leijten,
Maastricht, The Netherlands.