Visit to Kathmandu, October 2015

From President Anita Pater:

I visited Nepal with other Soroptimist sisters from SICB, SI Ipoh and SIPJ from 7th – 11th October.  The reason why we made the trip was to see for ourselves how funds SIROM donated to SI Kathmandu sisters and another village in Sudal, were used. I did not include the Nepal visit in my quarterly report because it was a personal trip for all of us.  I was however, going to send a separate email to all members,  to share some experiences and information we gathered from the trip.  I hope you will all share the same with your club members.

There were 7 Soroptimists in total who made the trip.  Days before the flight, there were a lot of whatsapp messages going back and forth, on a daily basis, sharing news from visa applications to what we would take with us.  We packed our bags with new bras, stationery, colouring books, colour pencils, some games, boxes of multivitamins and liquid panadol, deworming tablets, biscuits, sweets and chocolates.  It was an experience arriving at the airport in Nepal.  We waited for a long time to get our suitcases, and after more than 2 hours from our arrival, we finally reached the Kathmandu Guest House at Thamel.  We were quite pleased to see it was a comfortable and clean hotel (located in the middle of the shopping area), with a beautiful landscaped garden where we had our daily breakfast and some fun evenings eating dinner, sitting under the stars, having a drink or two amidst lots of laughter till late in the night.

On our second day there, we met with the representative from Sudal Village – Dipesh, who took us to Sudal, a village SIROM had sent funds to. Sudal is situated in a very remote area, and believe me ladies, our road trip to this village was at times really scary. There were no roads, just VERY bumpy paths full of holes, along very narrow streets.  There were times where our van was driving precariously close to the edge of deep valleys. It was a most horrifying road trip but I must say, I am very proud of all my sisters who were with me. Nervous as we all were, holding our breaths with each bump and turn, we never uttered a word. We were relieved when we finally reached our destination.

Dipesh showed us the temporary bamboo school buildings, which he and others built from funds donated by SIROM.  We were introduced to the principal and a few teachers who gave us more information on their recovery progress from the earthquake.  The multivitamins, panadols, and deworming tablets from SIPJ and stationery from SI Ipoh were presented to the principal. We were also told that they were  looking for sponsorship for 6 young girls who would have to leave school as they could not raise the funds for their school fees next year.

Here again, SI Ipoh came to their rescue with a donation towards the school fees for the 6 girls.  Kudos to the members of SI Ipoh who raised the most for the people of Nepal.  After 2 hours or so, we said our goodbyes and made our way  back down on those scary paths.  As luck would have it, our van got stuck in a big hole, and broke down.  Some of our stronger and healthier sisters had to get down to push the van.  Thank God for my younger and healthier sisters!

The road trip then continued along more bumpy roads to another school which was supported by the Government.  Here all the kids lined up and presented us with flowers as we came in.  With hands on their hearts, the school children then started to sing the National anthem, which was nicely done with great pomp and gusto!  It was a lovely sight to see.  Not far from the school, we went on to Dipesh’s village.  We were informed that they needed bras for the women in this village.  On arrival, we were greeted by all the village folk and after some words of welcome, the oldest male proceeded with the ceremony of blessing us on our foreheads, I think it is called “bindi” or “pottu”, and draped “khatas” on our shoulders.  We had some home-made yoghurt while the village head welcomed us to their village.  We then proceeded to a separate room, where we had the women come in one by one. They were measured for bra size and presented with new bras, donated by SICB, which were wrapped in pretty pink paper by us the night before.  At this village, SICB also came to the rescue in helping two of three young girls who could not continue with their education as they too did not have the required school fees.  Again, a good deed by another one of our clubs.  Well done ladies at SICB!

On the third day, Pastor Buddiman, a contact from a member of SICB, brought us to visit a couple of orphanages.  At the Bishal Home in the district of Nakhkhu, we met 15 orphans. I was very taken with a chirpy and pretty five-year-old little girl named Ashika,  who despite having lost both her parents at a very young age, had a happy disposition, always smiling and dancing around.  Thanks to SI Penang and my staff at my workplace, the children were delighted with the bags of stationery, books, games, sweets, chocolates and stationery which we brought for them.  The house master then showed us the home, the rooms where the children slept.  After seeing how little they had, and knowing that winter which is harsh and soon arriving in Nepal, I asked if we could go to a shop where we immediately bought them each a warm blanket  (15 in total), a big bag of 30kg rice and 10kg sugar.  I could not help myself as I specially picked a pretty flowered pink blanket for little Ashika!  It was hard leaving those orphans.

The 2nd orphanage to visit, we were told by Pastor Buddiman was only 20 minutes away, in another very remote area.  More than an hour later,  driving on roads which were bumpier and more back-breaking than before, we unfortunately met with an accident.  A very enthusiastic motorcyclist coming down a slope, at a fast pace, drove smack bang into the front of our van and was thrown off his bike,  onto the ground.  Fortunately for the young man, he had a helmet on, but he was obviously stunned and bleeding.  Our visit to the orphanage was cancelled as we had to take a detour and drive him to the hospital.  After we made sure the young man was in hands of good medical care,  we then proceeded to another orphanage where we met a few other orphans with single moms.  Sweets, biscuits and chocolates were handed out to the children, and later as I had some spare goody bags, I handed them to Pastor Buddiman to give to the children.

On our third day at Kathmandu, we had the pleasure to meet with SI Kathmandu President Radha, Secretary Deepa and few other bubbly members of SI Kathmandu.  We spent a whole day with them.  Again, we were told the village/school we were visiting was not too far away.

A van came to fetch us from the hotel, after which we drove to President Radha’s home to fetch her, along with 2 other ladies from the Medical Unit of a hospital who were coming along to give a talk on mensuration, to the young girls at the school in the village.  Thankfully, the roads were better, traffic – a chaotic organised mess and although very dusty and air – polluted, our backs were spared.  Along the way to the village, we had to stop a few times by the road side and each time, an SI-member joined us.  You should have seen the look of amazement on our faces as one by one, more members joined us in this tiny van. We were told there were two more and wondered how else to fit another two in this already tightly packed van.  But the Nepalese are quite used to travelling packed full in a van.  We saw many sitting on top of the same vans!  Our dear SI Kathmandu ladies were not at all disturbed as they happily chatted all the way. Would you believe after our last pick-up, I think we had close to 23 in a van for 12 passengers?  President Radha kept consoling us, telling us not to worry, there is a lot of place and we are not too far away.  It was sweet how they accepted such situations.

Anyhow, a couple or so hours later, we were still on the road, cosy in the van, passing through mountain sides where we saw beautiful and scenic country sides.  We finally arrived at the school which SI Kathmandu have been working with for some months since the earthquake.  We had the same welcome ceremony at the school and while the medical personnel made their presentation on mensuration, SI Kathmandu Secretary Deepa brought us to another room where she updated us on all that has been done with the funds SIROM sent to them, one of which was the school we were at, looking after the needs of 11 orphans and helping the villagers with food, tents etc. The ladies at SI Kathmandu are to be admired for their dedication and commitment in helping all the poor people who were affected by the earthquake. They shared their plans on doing even more good work for many other villages and are slowly working on getting funds for those plans to materialise.

After our visit to the school, we had a little time so we were taken to a tourist attraction – where we saw a very tall monument of Lord Shiva – the biggest in Asia.  We had a late lunch of Kathmandu‘s famous “momos” which Kathmandu ladies insisted on paying for.  Back at the hotel, President Radha and Deepa said they will see us the next morning before our departure as they had a gift they wanted to give to SIROM as a token of thanks for our donation.

Meanwhile, our Malaysian girls, knowing that Soroptimists always pay for themselves, organised a collection from each of us, which was presented to President Radha.  She graciously accepted the envelope from us.   We were very glad we had the chance to meet with those hardworking and very vibrant members of SI Kathmandu who  are doing a truly marvellous job and who are so proud to be doing all they do, in the name of Soroptimists!

Dear ladies, there you have it – my story on our visit to Nepal.  A lovely memory of our experiences – meeting with the villagers, getting to know our lovely SI-Kathmandu sisters, seeing for ourselves the fantastic work they did with the funds donated to them, and last but not least – the wonderful fun and bonding I had with my sisters from Malaysia. The visit to Kathmandu was a very inspiring and humbling experience for me. I witnessed first-hand how very blessed we all are, in a thousand ways and more, as compared to the poor and mostly gentle people of Nepal.

You will all be pleased to know, SIROM was the club that donated the most towards SI Kathmandu‘s appeal for help.   We can be proud.  Well done my sister Soroptimists for being there when it mattered!

With warm regards,

Anita
More photos can be seen at our SIROM Facebook:

A day with SI Kathmandu