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| Mandira and her daughter creating a mandala |
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| Decorated furniture store |
Dashain festival is spread over 10 days celebrating the goddesses Durga and Laxmi. Families celebrate in their homes as well as at their local temples. People travel many days to get together with their families, the older members of the family give their blessing to everyone.
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| The completed mandala |
Part of the festival is completing a Mandala in the front of people houses or business with different coloured powder. Tea lights are placed around it and coloured lights are strung from the houses. We enjoy walking around our area looking at these colourful decorations and enjoying the music and dancing.
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Our flat is on the top floor of this building
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Each year NAFA and our Nepalese partner , Joy Foundation Nepal, co-sponsor a remote
cataract eye camp conducted by Tilganga Eye Hospital. These eye camps are
conducted in remote villages where the Tilganga bus can get to with all the
medical equipment and staff.
This year the
camp was in a village in the Gorkha district which was badly affected by the
2015 Earthquake. Four Joy board members
and Ross from NAFA attended this 2 day camp.
The Tilganga team set up a surgical theatre in a school room
to start operating on people who had been screened for cataract surgery - the
removal of their damaged cataract and the implant of an Intra Ocular Lens
(IOL). The success rate for these operations
is very high and so most people who were
either ‘blind’ in one or both eyes were able to see again and become a useful
member of their family.
The patients in these remote areas are mainly subsistence
farmers so are not charged for this operation as the main costs are paid for by
the donor which in this case was NAFA and Joy Foundation Nepal.
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| JOY Foundation members |
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| Ross, Agreni and Pratika in the JOY office |
JOY rents a small office for their administration staff which
they share with us while we are in Nepal.
Ross spends most days in the office, it is a good meeting place when
interviewing students and meeting with village co-ordinators.
These villagers come in the Kathmandu to submit applications to NAFA for funding, collect funds when they are approved or to collect bags of jumpers for the
village school children which will later be distributed when we visit the
village.
NAFA has assisted the children living at Prisoners
Assistance Nepal (PA Nepal) since 2003 through education sponsorship. Soon after we
started this program Brenda began teaching craft to the children at the home,
mainly knitting, crocheting, sewing and beadwork.
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| Beaded bracelets |
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| Handing out wool |
14 years later Brenda is still teaching - each year
more young children start at the home and they are eager to learn these skills. The older children help Brenda to teach themare assisted by the older ones who
have learnt from the skills Brenda taught them.
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| Boys also enjoying making things for themselves |
Saturday is the only day the children have off from school
so Brenda packs all the wool and other items in a couple of bags and travels the 2 hour
journey to their home in Sankhu, outside Kathmandu. Once there she inspects
their work and hands out fresh yarn so they can continue with their projects.
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| Ross helping to make earrings |
Over the years the children have made various items from bed
covers, pencil cases, ponchos, slippers, gloves, hair scrunchies and patchwork cushion covers and different
beadwork items. They get to keep everything they make. Many of the items they make are for gifts for their teachers, friends at school and their mothers in jail.
In October we visited
the school of Shyama, a 8 hour jeep
journey from Kathmandu, to check the
progress of the 5 classrooms that were being rebuilt since the earthquake. Phurba, our friend and guide managed the
trip, organising the jeep and the lodge.
Sabin, our Nepali architect who
drew up the plans and Manish, our Nepali admin and financial manager, who got
the plans approved and has been monitoring the projects, accompanied us.
We paid for their wives, Rojita and Neva to join us, so it
was a fun trip as well as a bit of work.
Three classrooms had almost been completed and they were
starting on the foundations of the second block of two rooms. Our architect was pleased with the work which
met the standards of his plans.
It was an enjoyable day at the school. We were given a very warm welcome with kartas
and garlands. The children sang their
national anthem and a few other songs and Rojita and Nea handed out beanies and
sweets to all the children.
That evening we celebrated in the lodge with a delicious meal
and a few drinks. It was lovely to spend
time with Phurba Sherpa and the group. The
following day we arose early for our return to Kathmandu.