Hi everyone, time for an update from PoD Nepal!
We recently celebrating the Nepali New Year and it is now officially 2070 (the
summer of 69' is long behind us!) which also marks the start of the new school
year. We were all delighted to hear how well all our children did in their
annual exams, in fact many of the children from the Asha Foundation came top in
their class, and every one of our children have moved up a year.
Congratulations!!!
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| Handing over the donation at the Street Kids |
It's always a bit slow going back to school, inevitably the
school books have not been printed, the calendar is late and everyone has that
post festive feeling, but things are slowly starting to get back to normal. There's
a new batch of children at Ward 6 and Annapurna Primary that are starting to
settle in, we are nearly past the crying every morning when Ama drops you off
stage!
We were fortunate enough in Nepal
to be given quite a large charity grant this month thanks to some amazing individuals
fundraising for us. So with the help of the current volunteers and Phil (the
placement manager) I have been set about doing some good with this money.
The first thing we have done is to buy a new carpet for the
children of Ward 6, one of our day care centers. The current carpet they have
is quite old and tatty, it still has a little bit of life left in it, but the
staff at the center wanted to move that into another room, which currently is
just bare concrete and get a new one for the main playroom where the kids spend
most of their time. We were more than happy to lend a hand, as it makes such a
difference as the children spend most of their time on the floor, it will also
keep our volunteers happy as the new carpet is quite a bit thicker which will
keep their bottoms warm in the winter months.
After this we then visited the Street Children's Rehabilitation Center which is currently home to
11 at risk children. We are supporting them with a years worth of gas for
cooking, meat, fish, eggs and vegetables. You'd be amazed how much food these
little guys get through, but we thought it was important to provide decent food
to help with their nutrition, growth and development. I have also donated some
tea as Ama is always offering the volunteers tea every day we go there!
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| With the headteacher at Shree Krishna |
We then went to Shree Krishna Lower Secondary School where they were in need of a new
whiteboard after the previous one was damaged. They are in real need to
furniture for one classroom as well (I
visited this week and the children are sat on the floor studying as they had no
desks or chairs) but unfortunately we currently do not have the funds to
provide this, however I have added it to our 'wishlist' for the future.
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| Me with the chairman from the Asha Foundation |
Our last stop of the day was to the Asha Foundation where we
have offered to pay for a years rent of their farmland. This is the donation I
was most excited about as it means they can save thousands of rupees each year
by growing their own vegetables. To this date, they tell me they have never had
to go to the market for vegetables. Our aim is to make Asha as sustainable as
possible. They recently were donated a cow, which is incredible as it means the
children get fresh milk every morning and curd (yoghurt) every afternoon after
school. After discussing with the chairman we would also like to introduce some
chickens and a few goats, but before we buy them we need to make sure we have
the funds to care for them and keep it going.
We are also continuing the support at Annapurna Primary School and paying for the
whole school to have snacks each day as many of the children do not get fed
before they come to school, have no food with them and are expected to wait
until the evening before any food.
It's been a great month for the PoD Charity. For more
information on our work in Nepal and how to join our team, look at our website or contact
Gemma in the UK on 01242 250 901. If you would like to help, but don't
have the time to come in person right now, you can always make a donation to the PoD Charity and help fund our work
here.
