Sanu Maya Thapa

Sanu Maya Thapa in front of land

Meet Sanu Maya Thapa. 

Behind her, you can see part of her land.  She has seven kathas (or about 7/10s of an acre) where she wants to grow organic vegetable in partnership with the women in her village of Odera. She plans to call the cooperative "Three Angels Organic Farm" after her three daughters, the oldest of whom is attending college through a scholorship with WELNepal.  Sanu Maya and her group took a 16-week organic vegetable training course four years ago.  There, women from three different villages met once a week in the field and grew, with training through funding from WELNepal, a crop of vegetables that saw neither pesticide nor insect spray.  Soon, Sanu Maya and her group will take a three-day refresher course through WELNepal and its partner organization Ecocentre and begin growing organic vegetables all year round. With the proper training, the women should have no trouble producing three crops of various vegetables a year. Because Sanu Maya is one of the area's most active women in the community, we feel that with her leadership and motivating skills, a successful project is almost certain.

Sanu Maya in her home

Another plus for Sanu Maya's group is the village of Odera is very close to some of the better lodges servicing tourists who come to visit Nepal's beautiful jungle in the Chitwan National Park.  We're certain these lodges would see no reason not to pay a little more for organic produce when they can advertise "Some of the vegetables you are eating are grown organically by local women's groups" at their dining tables.  Sanu's groups will now join 13 other women's groups, all organized and funded by WELNepal, in growing, eating,and selling organic vegetables.  Since more and more Nepalis are becoming aware of the negative effects  of commercial sprays, our women's groups will  work with Ecocentre to create a large co-op through which organic vegetables will be sold at commercial outlets.

Good luck Sanu Maya!

---David

P.S. If you want to learn more about day-to-day life in Nepal (and there's a lot about it that's guaranteed to make you smile as well as think), please follow us on Twitter @WELNepal (https://twitter.com/#!/WELNepal)

My Village

SAURAHA

Sauraha

My village of Sauraha is a tourist town.  It sits on one side of the Rapti River.  On the the other side is the jungle, home of the one-horned rhino and the tragically endangered Bengal tiger, along with other assorted jungle creatures who live free and protected in the Chitwan National Park. Up until recently, protection has been somewhat spotty. Poaching has taken too many of these endangered and magnificent animals.  But last year, not one rhino was slaughtered for its horn.  Good for them, but not so good for the middle-aged Chinese men who will now have to rely on good old-fashioned Viagra to get them through the night (rumour has it that some believe powdered rhino horn is a natural aphrodisiac, though it's often used--with no scientifically-proven effect--to treat illness).

Sauraha, located in the flat lowlands of Nepal, is where I spend my days.  Yes, there is much work do be done with the women who live in "them thar hills", but unfortunately, at my tender age, I'm not up to walking up and down the Himalayas to visit women's groups. Besides, bouncing around on the back of an old motorcycle (whose shocks have seen better days) down rough back country trails takes enough out of my back to keep my keep both my chiropractor and yoga guru busy.

Some traditional Nepali transportation

A camel waiting for a rider

More  traditional transport

Sauraha is a tourist town for both Nepalis who wish to escape the noisy, polluted, chaotic, and overcrowded Kathmandu for a few days, and visitors from abroad who need some warm weather and flat land after walking around the snowy mountains up north. Yes, there are some t-shirt shops and restaurants featuring the "best pizza in Nepal" but Sauraha still has a "sleepy" quality. A few years ago, during the political turmoil here in Nepal, Sauraha was more than sleepy--it was in a coma. Nobody  came here.  For many days I was the only "stranger" in town, which made negotiating a good price for the best room in town a relative snap.  But that was the bad, good old days.  Now  the "insurrection" is over and the rebels have joined the government and all are at peace, and the tourists are coming back.  "Main Street" has been paved, more hotels and lodges are popping up, and electrical wires have been strung.  That said, most times of the year service is somewhat irregular.  These days we are limited to eight hours of power a day, half of those hours coming between two and six in the morning when many students do their homework.  For many here, it comes down to buying candles or buying food.  One would think that all those rushing torrents of water coming down from the Himalayas could produce enough power to light up all of Nepal.  Indeed there is, but it's used to light up all of India instead. 

And yes, the paved roads and a bridge over the Rapti River has brought both prosperity and motorized vehicles to Sauraha.  But I've included some of the more conservative modes of travel that still can found in my little village.

More interesting transport

---David 

Time to go to Work

Namaste,

Meet Jagganath Mahato (above).  

We call him Jugge, and he's the coordinator of WELNepal's literacy program.  He's responsible for meeting the women who want to learn to read and write in their own language for the first time in their lives.  Jugge helps select a relatively educated woman in the village to be the teacher.  He also arranges training for all those women will teach their villagers the Nepali ABC's.  He arranges the purchase of the text books, work books and teaching materials. He is also responsible for visiting all the classes on a regular basis to ensure that the program is running as smoothly as possible.

This year, Jugge presented WELNepal with a list of 40 women's groups who want to start our eight-month Basic Literacy Class.  WELNepal's budget will NOT be able to fund half of those groups. The rest of the 600 or so women in the other 20 or more classes will have to stay illiterate for yet another year.  As the Nepalis would say, "Ke Garne"....What to do?

After Jugge ensures the completion of the women's literacy classes, Harimaya Bhandari (above), takes over to continue the education and growth of the women. 

Harimaya has been coordinating projects for WELNepal for the past six years.  We realized that teaching a woman to read and write is only the first step.  For example, a woman can now read, but what is she going to read? Harimaya has built fourteen libraries, so that as many of our graduates as possible have access to interesting and educational books.  Harimaya arranges lectures on health, women's rights and empowerment, and ecology.  She also arranges for organic farming training.  Land is rented for the the women's groups to grow organic produce for home consumption, and much to the women's delight, sale. The women also grow mushrooms as part of an income generating program.

Harimaya also oversees our scholorship program, which funds those young girls who are scholastically gifted, but come from families whose parents are either too poor to pay the school fees or are too disinterested in educating women.  I have added a photo of two of our "bright lights", Samjhana and Suraksha (below).  Both girls would, in all probability, been married off by the family without our sponsor's help.  There is no sense in having an extra mouth in the family to feed. 

Between our two coordinators, Jugge and Harimaya, we now have to decide which 15 or 20 groups of women will receive literacy classes this year and which 20 or 25 groups of women will have to wait. Believe me, it's hard to tell some women that change will have to wait. 

Time to go to work.

Going to Nepal

Well, the new year has arrived! That means that I'm about to set sail (well, I won't be sailing, but you know what I mean) for Nepal in the next few days.  I plan to spend the next 12 weeks in WELNepal’s target area making sure all the money collected is well spent.  I'll also be able to get away from the freezing cold weather here in Canada. 

Happy Monica, second from the left

Our silent auction, just beginning

Despite the downturn in the economy and predictions of “tough times” ahead, our donors were, once again, very generous.  WELNepal’s main event of the year, Monica McKenna’s Annual Benefit Bash for WELNepal, was our best yet.  We held the event in a new venue  last year, something that can sometimes spell disaster.  But once again, Monica worked overtime to make sure her party was the best it could be.  And folks did come from miles away to enjoy the food, the live bands, the silent auction and good company.

George and Eva, way in the back, in Nepal with their class.

Last year also marks the year I was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of social networking.  We debuted a great new website put together by Anneli and Ashley;  we plan to keep in touch with our donors by electronic newsletters; we are tweeting, and look - I’m blogging!
  

WELNepal’s good friends George and Eva were, once again, wonderfully generous. And not only with their donation, but also with their efforts in getting the word out to their friends, who added to WELNepal’s coffers.  Along with being kind and giving people, they visited Nepal a few years back and have seen for themselves what we are doing for the women.  They also fell in love with the Nepali people, as most visitors do. We are going to try and get more of you to visit us in Nepal and to take a walk in the beautiful Himalayas.

But, as usual, I’m leaving for Nepal with too little money.  We have learned that we cannot abandon the groups of women that finish their literacy classes.  Literacy is the foundation of their growth and we must keep working with these women before their Nepali ABC’s are forgotten.  The more women’s groups that complete their literacy classes, the more money we need to keep funding training and money-making projects. This year, there will be 15 groups added to our list of those in need of continuing support.  That means there is less money to start new literacy classes for those groups of women waiting impatiently to begin learning.  Telling the women that there is not enough money to pay for a literacy class this year hurts me almost as much as it hurts them. 

It will take me a little over a day to get from here to Kathmandu, a day and a bit to recover from the flights, a few days before I get to my little village of Sauraha in the south of Nepal, and a few more days to see what is going on with WELNepal’s work.  


More from me then.


---David