Susmita Rimal

The Rimal Family. From left to right, Ashok, Asmita, Ram Krishna, Guyatri and Susmita

Sometimes it's hard to feel deeply about a cause until you see how the gift of education affects, in a profoundly positive way, the life of a real person. Here's a story about one such person, my bahini (little sister) Susmita Rimal. 

During my first visit to the little village of Sauraha in Nepal, I found a local restaurant that served a very good dal bhat at a very good price.

The husband and wife team who owned the place, Ram Krishna and Guyatri Rimal, were very happy to have a tourist come for dinner. But their little girl, then four-year-old Susmita, was not accustomed to white faces and kept her distance and let me know that I was not welcome.  That was 19 years ago in 1995. I have been going to the Rimal’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner ever since. The Rimal family has since grown to include Susmita’s sister Asmita and her brother Ashok.

The more young Susmita and her sister and brother saw me, the more they warmed up to me. They are now my Nepali family and people I take visitors to see almost right away.

Mother Guyatri was always adamant that her children get the best education possible, even her girls — something many Nepalese villagers don’t think is necessary. The financial burden of sending their children to private schools was oppressive and they sacrificed a lot and made do with very little.

Over the years, I watched Susmita grow into a beautiful and well educated young woman.  The Rimal’s went into debt to send Susmita to nursing school — a debt they’re still paying off despite the fact that Susmita received her degree a few years ago. After graduation, Susmita worked in the palliative care ward in a local hospital and tended to dying patients who needed comfort and support in their last few days on earth.

This year, when I go back to my little village and drop in for dinner at my Nepali family’s restaurant, I won’t see Susmita.

After trying for a number of years, Susmita finally won the right to study and work in Australia.  She is there now, sending me emails, wondering at the beauty of the ocean and the size of super markets and the use of credit and debit cards. Susmita tells me that she is having some trouble with both the Aussie accent and their expressions. She’ll get the hang of it sooner rather than later.

Susmita will, in all probability, stay to work in Australia.  And, knowing my Young Sister, she will be sending money home to her family to pay them back for all their sacrifices to ensure a successful life for Susmita. 

Good for my Nepali family and good for my bahini Susmita.

Susmita in Australia

Now, here’s Susmita talking about her Australian experience and the wonder, excitement and, yes, homesickness that it entails. She one day wants to return to Nepal to help other women. We couldn’t be more proud of her.

"My parents are my inspiration, especially my mum. I was born in a poor family. My mum and dad are uneducated, but they did lot for our study. David Daai is also an important part of my life who was with my family when they were unable to pay my school fee and who encouraged my family to send us to school. Finally after a lot of struggle for my parents, I am able to achieve success.

Now I am here in Australia. I am getting a golden opportunity to learn. I am happy here even though it’s very foreign, but more than this I am missing my family, a special DAL BHAT cooked by mum and our beautiful Sauraha where I used to have lots of fun with my sister, brother and friends. I have already enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing program at Charles Darwin University in Darwin. After completing my study, I will be a registered nurse of Australia. After that, my plan is to do welfare work and to become a skilled person in the nursing profession. When I earn money, I want to do a lot for my family and go to Nepal and work in maternal and child healthcare. Those are my future plans. I wish my dream will come true one day." 

We're Thankful

As this year slowly draws to a close, we’re reflecting on how fortunate we’ve been in 2014. We have now — thanks to your generosity and support — given over 5,000 women in the rural lowlands of Nepal the opportunity to learn to read and write in their own language. We have expanded our project area to include the district of Madi and have created, with the help of the incredible women we work with and our Nepali team, vegetable outlets, sewing machine training classes and candle-making courses.

We are able to help the women we work with because we are fortunate enough to receive loyal support and donations from our good friends in Toronto and beyond.

Speaking of those supporters, we are proud to announce that we had two very successful benefits this fall. The first was organized by our good friend Diana Balogh-Tyszko and her incredible belly dance troupe Tribe MayaFire.

Invoketress performs at the Autumn Spice benefit

Earlier in the fall, the wonderful, talented and passionate women of Tribe MayaFire arranged a spectacular belly dance benefit for WELNepal at the historic Staircase Theatre in Hamilton, Ont. Tribe MayaFire’s Autumn Spice fundraiser featured spectacular performances by local troupes and dancers. We also got to show our first professionally produced video — a documentary about WELNepal’s very own superstar, Sharmila Timilsina. The documentary, made by actor and long-time WELNepal supporter Barry Flatman, can be seen here.

WELNepal would love to thank Tribe MayaFire, Ariella, Invoketress, Wild Orchid, Ala Nar, Shades of Araby, Amal, Elizabeth Gomez, Ishra, Jackie Pullar, Nuwayrah, Valizan and Joharah for their incredible performances and support for us and the women of Nepal.

Later on in October, WELNepal hosted its 13^th Annual Benefit Bash at the gorgeous Steam Whistle Roundhouse in Toronto. It was our first — but certainly not our last — benefit at our most spacious and elegant venue yet. We are incredibly grateful to everyone at Steam Whistle for giving us their beautiful space to raise much-needed funds for our women’s groups.

Our education table

Aryan and Band

This year, we did things a little differently. For the first time ever, we hosted a live auction for two one-week stays at an Amsterdam apartment (donated by Liza Smaller, who owns Eye of Shiva, a wonderful shop selling Indian and Nepali clothes and kick-knacks in Kensington Market) and two sets of hockey tickets. To the winners of those incredible prizes — thank you and congratulations. We also set up what we called our Education Table. There, we offered guests the opportunity to fund entire classes or sponsor a gifted girl so she may pursue a higher education. The table was a great success. Thanks to everyone who donated, many more women and girls will receive an education. Your generosity will change lives for the better — thank you.

Nepali Dance Due

Our benefit would never have been successful without wonderful musical performances by talented local artists. We would like to offer a sincere thank you to Uttam Makaju, Pradeep and Aryan Banskota of the Nepali drum and flute group Aryan and Band, Nepali dance duo Swarnima Gurung and Nishma Nepal, tenor Paul Williamson (our special and surprise guest!), and Start the Car (a super fun and talented band that kept people dancing with their eclectic mix of cover songs).

Tenor Paul Williams

To everyone who came to our benefit — thank you. Whether you donated $50 at the door, spent $10 on a necklace sold by our good friend Shelley Snow of She Sells Sanctuary at the front or put up $1,000 at the live auction, your donation helped a woman (or many women) obtain an education. To everyone who came to Tribe MayaFire’s benefit — thank you as well. You have no idea how far just $30 goes in Nepal.

Thanks to all of you, 2014 has been an incredible year for us and our women’s groups. Let’s make 2015 even better.

Namaste

Our Benefit is TONIGHT

WELNepal’s 13th Annual Benefit Bash

Monday October 20, 2014

Steam Whistle Brewery: The Roundhouse
255 Bremner Blvd.
Toronto, Ontario

Festivities begin at 6:30pm! There will be live entertainment, delicious food and great bargains at the silent auction.
There will also be a live auction for two one-week stays in an Amsterdam apartment.

Reserve your seat at VIP tables of 8 for $125 per seat
by emailing eva@lanworks.ca
(a partial tax receipt will be issued)
or
Buy individual tickets online at the
WELNepal EventSpot or purchase a $50 ticket at the door 

We are absolutely thrilled that the amazing band Start The Car will be performing. Their music covers current & classic hits that will be sure to have you up on your feet! 

A Little Update!

Some of us more mature folk might remember our elders complaining about walking miles in the snow to the old school house, but I’m betting that all of them had the luxury of walking on a bridge to cross rivers!

Earlier this year, we told you about the projects we initiated this year in Nepal. We are happy to say those projects are going well. Unfortunately, for every group of women we help, there is one that we cannot because of lack of funds.

For this reason WELNepal has added members to its board of directors.

WELNepal's New Board of Directors

Sadly, we have said our goodbyes to Diane Hanson, WELNepal’s first treasurer. Diane helped make WELNepal a charitable organization and kept all aspects of our organization running smoothly. We missed Diane before she even left.

Shortly after Diane’s departure, we welcomed Suzanne Campbell to the board.  Suzanne, a very busy and successful project manager and interior designer, is generously giving her valuable time to WELNepal

George and Eva Kostiuk, WELNepal’s most generous donors, have also joined the board. Both bring years of experience from positions at other boards and will help us better the lives of women in Nepal. 

Jennifer Stephenson — who traveled to Nepal earlier this year to visit Everest Base Camp and some of WELNepal’s projects — has also joined us on the board. I always knew Jennifer to be a most capable and tireless volunteer at our benefits. What I didn’t know was of her years of experience working on boards of other charitable organizations.

Bonnie and Jerry Good, although not board members, have agreed to act as wise council. Bonnie and Jerry have organized the support of many young women’s educations at the Mary Ward School in Kathmandu.

We know the support and expertise of our tremendously passionate and capable new board members will  help WELNepal flourish and continue to teach even more women’s groups how to read, write and be a force for positive change in the beautiful Chitwan region of Nepal.

Steam Whistle

Those of you who have attended our annual autumn benefits know that Steam Whistle has been providing us with their wonderful beer for the past eight years. This year, we are going to throw our annual party at the Steam Whistle Roundhouse. For those who have been there, you know what a great venue it is.  Those of you who haven’t taken a tour of the brewery or stopped for a beer are in for a treat.

More beautiful Steam Whistle

The biggest treat of all is that Steam Whistle has donated the use of their space for free.  We are extremely indebted to all the folks at Steam Whistle for their generosity.

I know it’s early, but please mark down Monday, Oct. 20 on your calendar — the date of our next benefit bash! Come to the Steam Whistle Roundhouse to enjoy wonderful food, great entertainment, good company and pride in knowing how much your attendance is helping women in Nepal.

Tribe MayaFire

Speaking of great entertainment, belly dance troupe Tribe MayaFire is holding their 5^th Annual Spooky Souk Benefit for the women of WELNepal on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the lovely Staircase theatre in Hamilton, Ont.  If you enjoyed being entertained by Tribe MayaFire at our last four benefits, you’ll really enjoy them and many other talented belly dance groups at the Halloween-themed Spooky Souk!

Also, while we’re talking about parties, all you GTA-ers should make your way down to Nathan Philips Square on Sunday, Aug. 17 at 2 pm for the Nepalese Canadian Community Service’s Himalayan Mela 2014. It’s a wonderful outdoor party that celebrates Nepalese music, food, culture and entertainment. We’ll be there— so come out for some sunshine, dancing and delicious chicken mo-mos!

Our A Team

Our A Team consists of Ashley, our copy-writer and blog master, and Anneli, our website designer and maintainer.

Both members of our A Team lead busy lives. Ashley and Anneli have careers that keep them very busy — sometimes too busy. That said, they take time from both their work and their precious evenings and weekends to maintain the website, manage our social media accounts and blog and design and send our mail-outs.

How does everyone at WELNepal make it work?  After we decide the content of a mail-out, I try my best to assemble coherent sentences. I send the first draft off to Ashley, who tears it apart and puts it back together in neat and clean English.  Sometimes Ashley needs to expand a thought. Sometimes she needs to shorten piles of messy words into something easily understandable. You really don’t know how much effort Ashley had to put into this dribble to make it read coherently!

Once Ashley is finished cleaning up my words, she sends the copy and any relevant photos off to Anneli.  Anneli wrestles both copy and photos into one of the few templates available for her use. Sometimes we decide that something isn’t quite right and needs some more tweaking.  That can send poor Anneli back to the drawing board, looking for a different template to accommodate another photo or an extra sentence.

The really wonderful thing about both Ashley and Anneli is their professionalism. Both are confident enough in their work to be able to make those changes when I get finicky without any attitude or hurt feelings.  “If you want me to change something David, that’s no problem! How’s this?”

Ashley and Anneli, I love you!!

--David Daai

Anneli West

Having over 20 years experience in the design and advertising field, Anneli started her career in design studios after graduating from The Ontario College of Art and Design. She worked with clients ranging from Mirvish Productions, Canadian Stage, Royal Conservatory of Music, Wellington Brewery, OysterBoy to more corporate clients, such as Canon, Laurentian Mutual Funds, York University, The Bodyshop and CIBC.

After seven years working full-time, she started her own design studio, Four Corners Communications which she ran for several years, ending with a bit of added education and traveling.

She then gravitated to freelancing in the advertising world with contracts at major agencies throughout the city such as Grip Limited, DraftFCB, Interbrand and Leo Burnett. In 2005, she went back to working full-time at Direct Antidote/AIR MILES (now called Squareknot) and is presently working full-time as a digital/print designer at Venture Communications.

On a personal note, she was born and raised in Toronto (minus a few years spread among Vancouver, Australia, India and Berlin - probably explains her love of traveling now). And she lives with her two cats and two roommates in the Little Portugal area of Toronto.

Ashley Newport

Ashley Newport is a Toronto-area freelance writer. After graduating with a professional writing degree from York University in 2007, she toiled away at a 9-5 before enrolling in the print journalism program at Sheridan College. Since graduating from Sheridan, she’s written about food, restaurants, business, trends, news and entertainment. If you look hard enough, you’ll find her work in Foodservice and Hospitality and Hotelier magazines, The Home Goods Merchandiser, ichilla.ca and insauga.com — an online suburban lifestyle magazine with major urban flair that she also edits.

Ashley has been WELNepal’s resident copywriter and social media maintainer since 2010, and even visited Nepal and the women’s groups in 2013.

If you need more Ashley in your life (or want to get in touch with her for writing or editing help and expertise), you can email her anytime at ashley.newport@gmail.com

If that’s not enough, you can find and follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @theashleyn

Jennifer Stephenson

Jennifer Stephenson (third from left) with a WELNepal's women's group

I met Jennifer Stephenson several years ago when she volunteered to work at our annual benefit bash and generously donated items to our silent auction.

I knew Jennifer would help make our benefit a success. I also knew Jennifer was very interested WELNepal’s work, since she insisted on seeing as many of our projects as possible when she visited WELNepal’s target area during her trip to Nepal this past winter.

What I didn't know about Jennifer was that she has many years of experience in the charity world under her belt. She’s sat on boards, written proposals and overseen various projects. Jennifer’s observations and explanations and suggestions were prescient and valuable.

Jennifer Stephenson is a most welcome family member of WELNepal.

Please read what Jennifer had to say about her time with the women in our projects.

---David Daai

Jennifer (second from left) with the women

Fast forward time zones and nothing is new on the other side of the world. The surety of the rising and setting sun and the measured pace of the seasons are unchanged, no matter what continent you find yourself.

But, if you look and listen, there are subtle undercurrents of activity.

In between chores and daily survival, WELNepal is providing a lifeline for many women in Nepal.

In many villages, women of all ages are gathering. Not to fetch water or help with planting or the harvest or celebrate a birth or mourn a life passed. They’re gathered to enter a new realm of understanding; of voice, of empowerment. This is an opportunity not to be missed and one that I was very fortunate to share in March 2014.

I met some of the beautiful women from WELNepal’s programs on my recent visit to Nepal. I was graciously welcomed into their innermost circles — circles of literacy and small cottage house industries such as organic farming, mushroom growing, candle making, sewing projects and souvenir making.

But it is the ability to better communicate by reading, writing, and reasoning that is so very fundamental to this circle of women. I spoke no Nepali and they spoke no English, but that did not diminish the confidence with which they shared with me a smile, a cup of tea, an orange. There were elements of on-going successes, hope and value in self.

A simple life made simpler with WELNepal's gift of literacy.

To all of you that have gifted (and to those of you who may), please continue or start to give whatever you can to WELNepal's programs. 

I have seen, heard and witnessed the results of the investment. There is always more that can be done - a letter, a donation, one step, a shared dream.

Namaste

ASMAN and ZONTA

The women of WELNepal using their new glasses

We at WELNepal love to say women learn to read so they can read to learn.

Sadly, many women involved in our literacy program — there are almost 1,500 women currently enrolled in our Basic, Advanced and Remedial Literacy classes — cannot do this if they have poor eyesight. The lighting situation doesn’t help matters.

Even though southern Nepal sits at the bottom of the highest mountains in the world, there is not enough power generated from the rivers that flow south and down from the Himalayas to provide 24/7 electricity. The Nepalese have learned to live without electricity for many hours a day. As a result, many of the women’s groups have to study under candlelight or low-light battery power. That, coupled with the fact that many of our students are in their forties and fifties, makes it difficult for them to see the print in their text books.

WELNepal prides itself on doing its best to solve any problems the women may have (if it is indeed within our power to solve them!). One of our friends once told us “you have to give your projects every chance to succeed.” Taking that advice to heart, we decided to provide reading glasses to all the women who needed them.

We reached out to our friends and acquaintances in the big city of Kathmandu, looking for the best price on reading glasses. Our best quote from came from Kamal, one of WELNepal’s new friends.

Kamal is part of a group of women who could stay home and enjoy a comfortable life in the country’s capital, but instead started ASMAN (a non-profit that aids and supports underprivileged women and children in the country) and ZONTA (an organization that seeks to advance the status of women worldwide). These women are also working on developing their own type of “Make a Wish” foundation as well.

Not only did these women get us a great price on glasses, they went as far as purchasing over 200 pair of glasses and donating them to the women in our classes. Their generosity allowed WELNepal to help more women that would have otherwise had to wait until next year to begin reading to learn.

On behalf of all of us at WELNepal, and all those women who now can see their Nepali ABC’s clearly, many thanks to Kamal, Soni  Pramila, Neelima, Agya, Dolma, Moon, and all the women at ASMAN and ZONTA for their generosity.

Namaste,

WELNepal