Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Spring in Nepal - an update from the PoD Charity



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!!!

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!
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.

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.