Ms. Jan Pryor came back to volunteer in Nepal within 10 weeks
”WHAT EVER YOUR AGE VSN NEEDS YOU” -Jan Pryor
Everest loomed hauntingly above the Himalayan Mountain range as Silk Air began its descent into the smog laden Kathmandu Valley. Do I feel like an unconquerable mountain or was my perception of life clouded like the smog of Kathmandu Valley?
Four hours later, I was lying on the floor the children’s home, after we had shared and devoured a kilo of chocolate Easter eggs. Twenty four loving hands were rigorously attempting to massage life back into travel weary body. This is it and this is where I am supposed to be.
I first came with my daughter Misty to volunteer in Nepal, with Volunteer Society Nepal (VSN) for five weeks in December – January 2010, where I built not only a wonderful relationship with my host family but I believed in the ideologies of the organisation. So to see Tej (the Director of VSN) waiting at the airport to greet me was like coming home and hot Nepali tea was brewing when I walked his all familiar Nepali home. Most of all I had an over whelming anticipation to once again see those darling children at the New Life Children’s Home. I had wondered whether, what I considered to be a very special relationship with the children, was going to be reciprocated. To my heart-felt joy, it was. When you consider how many volunteers pass through their lives, to hold a place in their hearts is overwhelming. I feel that because of my mature age, I can offer the children a very special, unconditional love. A grandmother type of love. (I don’t like to use the word orphan as I feel these children have a very special life. I know that they are in the exceptional care of the Everest Foundation Nepal)
The afternoon of my arrival, I met with the children. It was a very austere and formal Hindi presentation of a flower and welcome greeting from each child and I reciprocated with a kilo of little chocolate Easter eggs. On my second round of offering the chocolate delights, Sushil,l who was second last in the line, could not contain himself any longer, eggs went flying, as his huge over-excited smile erupted, into a huge leap up into my arms, choking me with the tightest hugs and kisses. Chaos overruled orderly etiquette and the rest of the children followed. All clambering for that special attention that I feel only I can give to them. Well, that is how I perceive the situation.
As on my previous trip, I once again, had collected second hand clothes to bring and my work place, donated a series of science text books for the school that is sponsored by VSN. Thankfully, Singapore Airlines sponsored my trip with ten kilos of excess luggage. Before I can I also did some simple fundraising. I invited friends for a Nepalese banquet and in return for the hospitality they gave a donation. I obtained the fantastic recipes from the net. Other friends also made financial donations. My second fund raiser came with the realisation that the children did not have any personal toys, so I purchased a small cuddly toy for each child and sold them for an inflated price and the purchaser had the incredibly difficult job of choosing which toy was to go to which child.
So off to Pepsi-cola, Kathmandu, Nepal I headed with AUD$700. Yes, our suburb is called Pepsi Cola due to the fact that there is a Pepsi-Cola factory there.
Working with VSN allowed me to consider how I would like to invest my donated monies. After a few very serious discussion with Tej and other members of the organisation we decided to take the children on a holiday, regardless, of the opulence and extravagance of the project.. We concluded that it is once in many years that someone, will arrive with cash and say…”lets go on a holiday”.
So Pokhara it was. We hired a van, booked some lovely accommodation at Lakeside and headed off. Apart from the car sickness, it was so much fun for the children to escape the heat and smog of the Kathmandu Valley. To travel across and see their land, to follow small rivers, that grew into beautiful raging rapids. To see rafters and kayakers , mountains strewn with farmlands and small villagers with only paths and no roads. Everything was a panoramic vista for their little eyes. We arrived in Lakeside, a destination that abounds in the beautiful Annapurna Mountains, which cradles a lake. They had never seen a lake and to make it more fun, they got to ride in a row boat. They strode the sidewalks like confident travellers and blended into the peaceful ambience of the lakeside holiday town. What they all considered to best experience of all was the visit to another lake where they got to see the see fish being cleaned at the fishery and the best of all they got to wade in the water. A experience they had never had before. The squeals of laughter as they splashed and played on the waters edge was also the highlight for me. It was a simple holiday, filled with much fun and laughter and the photos that now host the wall of their living room will remind them for a long time of their holiday in Pokhara.
The rest of my fundraising has been spent on having wardrobes built that will be placed into their bedrooms of their new house. Each child will have their own section with a lock in-order to place their personal items such as their new soft toy.
It did not take much effort to raise $AUD700.00 but it has definitely gone a long way and is being spent on projects that I have personally instigated. Projects that I feel will enhance the life experiences and living conditions of these lovely sweet children whose destinies were out of their control.
Volunteer Society Nepal is a wonderful organisation that is rapidly growing to provide service to support this desperately poor third world country. The stats include:
- 42% of the population is unemployed
- 51 % of the population is illiterate
- 54% of the population is malnourished
- 15000 orphans in Kathmandu streets
- 42% of the population live below the poverty line
Therefore, the objectives of VSN is to ; provide a safe and nurturing house for our children, improve the education and health standards in Nepal, empower women, improve literacy in both Nepali and English and provide skills training in the poorest communities.
Ironically, in the two weeks of my visit, VSN was in the process of employing a master seamstress to teach local women to sew. VSN’s objective was to sponsor a percentage of underprivileged and lower caste women into these classes. Rupa, Tej’s wife, who is now the director of this program, and I further, developed the plan, with our aim to empower the women of Nepal. Ideologically, to support women in their struggle to become independent and promote self-worth. So we aptly called the group “Women 4 Women Nepal” (W4WN). Our objective is to employ the women from the sewing class, on a fair and equitable basis, and they will manufacture their first production line which will be very “groovy” aprons. These aprons, will be sold internationally through past and present VSN volunteers. All profits will be re-invested back into W4WN to create further manufactured lines and develop new incentives through research and development. Recycled plastic initiatives are also high on the agenda for research and development. Any ideas are welcome.
Whilst living with my host family, there was a passing parade of volunteers young and mature who were all working on a vast range of projects. From the Dutch family, who had raised a great deal of money and who were personally involved in the construction of their projects. This included building a new school in the Everest region and a medical centre in the hills outside of Pokhara. There were the young travellers working within the school and The New Life Children’s Home at Pepsi-Cola region. The was a young Dutch man who has gone home to raise funds to feed all of the orphanages in our region so some of those children do not have to ask the neighbourhood for food. New arrivals were undertaking their language and culture lessons before heading off to work in one of the many orphanages in the Pokhara region.
Regardless, of your age or gender, when you volunteer with VSN, your placement helps to breakdown the poverty cycle of Nepal. Whether it is in the field of education, health, the women’s group, orphanage support, manual labour or business management. Whatever your field, there is always some work to be done. Or, you could just be like me and be a grandmother to a lot of very beautiful children who love a cuddle and like all grandchildren to be told unconditionally how great they are.
VSN is a non-political, non religious Nepali organisation run by Nepali people. The staffs are very dedicated not only to their responsibilities to the organisation but also, to the well-being of their volunteers. It is such an honour to be a part of VSN’s growth and support them in the development of new projects where the sky is the limit.
Jan Pryor/Australia
Further information about VSN can be found on
www.everestfoundationnepal.org
For further information, I can be contacted on janpryorvsnaustralia@gmail.com
Posted: May 18th, 2010 under Uncategorized.
