Newsletter January 2010

Namasté!

First, we wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR! May Love & Joy enrich your days!

At this moment, Nepal is starting to celebrate its festivals again. The last month, called “POUSH” (from half December until half January) is determined as an unholy month. In this month the religious ceremonies are forbidden.  

On January 15, the first day of the new Nepali month “MAGH”, we had a little festival called Maghe Sakranti. Magh is the name of the Nepali month and Sakranti is the first day of the month. Families gather and eat together on this day.

We believe that this day is the coldest day of the year. In these winter days, you will find citizens, peasant women and village housewives sitting in their gardens soaking up the sun, their only source of warmth.

It is one of the most important months for holy bathing. It marks the changing of the winter and welcomes the long warmer weather.

Situation in Nepal

It seems that the ministers and constitutional members of the government in Nepal are mainly busy with their own things as usual. Still no constitution has been made! Maoist parties are doing their demonstrations against the government. We had to deal with strikes all over the country and shortages of petrol. The lucky news is that they called off upcoming strikes.

Another bit of bad news is that in December 2009, 13 people lost their lives in a big bus accident in Sarangkot. It happened near our Day care centre. Two Sarangkot girls (around 20 years old) are still physically disabled.

Meanwhile, still no bus is driving up to Sarangkot. The people are demanding a better road.
Unfortunately, while they were making the road wider, they also broke the septic tank from our school.

Projects QOLN

1. Day Care Centre (DCC)

Slowly the building of the new DCC is in its ending process. You can follow monthly reports on Sabine’s Blog at www.qolnsarangkot.org.
By now, the wall plaster is finished and they are fixing the railings. We hope to open the new building at the Nepali New year (April 2010)!

The toddlers from our DCC just had their winter vacation. They enjoyed a lot with their parents at home.
Special news is that our teacher Chitra gave birth to a beautiful daughter on January 7, 2010.

Nepal House organized a Teacher Training in our centre, with the subject:  “Children who experience trauma”. The teachers learned more about how to deal with traumatic problems with toddlers and how to find better solutions to help them calm their mind. 

We would like to thank our sponsors Theo Hulshof & Ingo Beenen for their patience and support. Also thank you to Nepal house Kaski and other individual sponsors.

These last months we were blessed again with our volunteers Andrea and especially Bobana. She has been helping a lot with taking photos for the sponsors, and helping the teachers and the toddlers by doing different activities. Their joy and energy is giving our teachers a lot of support!

Andrea, Bobana & the teachers of DCC

2. Nepal Child Plan

Our sponsor program is going well. All 73 children now have finished their third term examinations. Now they have started their last semester of this school year.

3. Click click program

Our program for disabled kids can only start when the building of our DCC is finished. Meanwhile our principal Goma went with Shoba to the eye hospital and she got a pair of glasses. Unfortunately, the glasses broke already several times. Next month they will discuss again with the doctor if an operation is necessary soon. We also came to know that Shoba and her little brother Kumar are suffering from malnutrition. Their father is mostly drunk and crazy and the mother doesn’t care enough, so these kids even don’t get enough food every day!

We are grateful to donors who already sent some money for the eye operation.

4. Buffalo project

This project is running well. The beneficiaries are continuing in paying their partial loan. In February, we will continue to organize meetings with them and talk more about their experience with their buffalo.

QOLN expresses many thanks to Olivier Toulemonde and D.E.P.A.R.T.S., who donated again 5.000 euro for this year’s new beneficiaries.

5. Government school in Bhanjyang

Finally, from January, the school could start proceeding the finishing of the building. Due to the bad road condition, they couldn’t bring up all the materials in time. Now the season is dry and they can bring up cement, sand and rod.

Another problem is to find workers. This is becoming a bigger problem in Pokhara and surrounding villages. There are too many constructions going on and lots of good workers have already got jobs. The building will be ready by the Nepali New year.

6. Health post Sundar Pokhari

This year QOLN would like to help the health post in Sarangkot, Ward N° 3. The building of this little medical centre is too old and the roof is leaking everywhere. This health post is providing services as polio & vitamin A programs, pregnancy & delivery assistance, dental care, family planning programs and general medical support. It is a benefit for 550 households. Every day 15 to 20 people are treated.

We are very grateful for the donation of 15.000 euro by Ben Caerts and the doctors of Turnhout, Belgium.

7. Pakha

QOLN will start to renovate the old building in the new school year in the beginning of May. We offer our excuses to donors Michaël Rummens and the Military School in Brussels for not being able to start earlier. The village committee of Pakha has to process the paperwork to renovate this building and to make a compound to protect the toddlers from falling of the hill. From last year, rules and regulations concerning building and supporting schools within each NGO (non-governmental organization) changed.

8. Hostel

All the hostel kids had good results in their 3rd Semester. They had a nice winter holiday with their family in the village.
Now they start their last semester. Stephanie, Vicky & Mike are our new volunteers helping.

Volunteers Mike, Vicky & Stephanie

9. Remarks

QOLN thanks all the donors, sponsors & volunteers who show their enthusiasm and support!

Please have a look at www.loekatjoe.nl , the website from Ingrid Candel. She sells Nepali products and supports our DCC with the profits.
Through her website, we also look for private sponsors to help children in better education. These children do not have a father or a mother.

Also, you can find us on Facebook for the latest reports and photos.
We have up to 18 hours of power cuts EACH DAY! Sorry if my replies are getting late.

10. New Blue Planet Lodge

We are still working hard to finish our new building. Meanwhile we are busy with the interior. We hope to be ready in the new season in April.

Sunny greetings from Pokhara
Sabine, Ram & Tara

“Direct your heart continuously to the good.
The bigger your kindness, the bigger your luck!” - Dhammapada