Volunteers and their activities during July 2015

We are very much excited to have numerous emails from new applicants after the earthquake. It proves that the interest and dream about volunteering in this beautiful Himalayan country has not been shattered by the aftermaths of that catastrophic seismic activity. All the applicants hold a strong belief that Nepal is safe to travel and also show that they are tied to something which they are passionate about.

The volunteers who came in June are still helping at Volunteer Society Nepal different charity projects. With so many people volunteering in so many different ways, the individual reasons for volunteering are almost endless. Helping others by making a difference and giving back to the community is truly a noble reason.

Tony Ayres from USA arrived on 10^th of July and helping at Tri-Ratna Secondary School in landscaping, construction and recycling building materials.  The school at Bungamati was severely damaged by the recent earthquake and several aftershocks. Volunteer Society Nepal has been supporting this school by placing its volunteers and also raising donations for the construction of earthquake safe classrooms.

While walking around Bungamati village, Mr. Ayres saw the women working very hard at collapsed building rubble, carrying water, washing, working at the fields and numerous household works. He came to know that among those women, there are many suffering from Prolapsed uterus, hernia and lower back pain. He decided to set up & provide simple machines for the comfort of those women. Early marriage, unattended home deliveries, heavy work after childbirth, improper nutrition and lack of rest after childbirth causes uterine prolapse. Uterine prolapse  is very common health problem in villages of Nepal. Most women continue to hide the problem and hesitate to seek treatment because of social stigma.  It is estimated that more than 600,000 women in Nepal suffer from uterine prolapse, making it one of the leading causes of morbidity among lower caste and rural women.

He is also working hard with crowdfunding to set up a brick recycling project at Bungamati which will recycle all the bricks from collapsed and damaged houses.

Laura Geerits from Belgium arrived on July 4^th and volunteered for 2 weeks at an orphanage and Centre for Children with Intellectually Disabled.

Tim de Pauw, a medical volunteer from Belgium arrived on July 4^th and conducted health checkups and health lessons at Career Building International Academy (CBIA), orphanages, Centre for Children with Intellectual Disabilities, and Women centre. CBIA School was established in 2006 by VSN and since then has been supporting it. Centre for Children with Intellectual Disabilities and Women Centre are also other charity projects run by VSN.

Yang Jiashu from China arrived on July 4^th and volunteered at a school in Pokhara.

Feng Jinyue, Xu Mingyao, She Zhangcong, Wang Yumeng, Xi Chengjie and Yang Yinjialei, student volunteers from China arrived on July 7^th and volunteered at different schools as Chinese Language teacher and also helped at the orphanages.

Florence Vandenberghe from Belgium arrived on July 9^th and volunteered at women centre for 2 weeks, where she taught Basic English language to the women.  

Ms Victoria Jones from UK, PE teacher at Doha College, Qatar, arrived Kathmandu on 12th July 2015 as a volunteer PE teacher at Enshrine National English Secondary School. Despite of minimum resources and lack of proper play ground at the school due to recent devastating earthquake, Ms Jones with energy and enthusiasm coached the children with a range of games and general fitness sessions. She encouraged the Nepalese children to take part in sports activities and taught the importance of Physical fitness and exercises. . Ms Jones taught new games to the Nepalese children. She organized Cheerleading competition at the school. Cheerleading competitions are not usually organized in educational institutions in Nepal. The students, staff and Ms Jones enjoyed the program. The students also had some opportunity to practice their English during her presence. She found the children fun-loving, cheerful, eager to learn and her work very challenging. She helped at the orphanage at the afternoon as well. On her own word “The whole experience has been memorable. I particularly enjoyed the teaching and seeing how schools are set up in Nepal Mr.Rens Kok and Ms Roos Nap from The Netherlands arrived on July 23^rd and are helping the children at New Life Children Home (orphanage) in Pepsicola Town Planning, Kathmandu. They help the orphaned children for their homework, studies, hygiene and also at the kitchen.

Shanshan Ke, Zhang li, He Tianhao, Wu Huize, Wang Dai,  Qi Yue, Wu Yuezhou, Zheng Yingjie & Yang Qingyao student volunteers from China arrived on July 26th and volunteered for 2 weeks under Chinese teaching program and school rebuild programs. They taught Chinese language to the Nepalese children at different schools in Kathmandu. Under school rebuild program, the volunteers helped in applying fresh paint in the newly built earthquake safe classrooms at CBIA. Mostly the volunteers from China are graduate and undergraduate students, pursuing their higher studies & career in universities of USA, Australia, Canada & UK.

Angus Edwards from UK arrived on July 30th and will move to Pokhara on Aug 1st after some Nepali language/culture training and sightseeing in Kathmandu. He will start volunteering in a school as a teacher.

Hou Ningzhe, student from China will arrive on July 31st. He will be introducing Lego Robot Toys and its systems to the school children at CBIA.

According to him, “The Lego Mindstorms series of kits contain software and hardware to create customizable, programmable robots. They include an intelligent brick computer that controls the system, a set of modular sensors and motors, and Lego parts from the Technic line to create the mechanical systems. The educational version of the products is called Lego Mindstorms for Schools and comes with the ROBOLAB GUI-based programming software, developed at Tufts University using the National Instruments LabVIEW as an engine.”

Robotic toys are very new to the children in Nepal due to its unaffordability. We hope that working & playing with Mindstorms kit help the children develop their skill and knowledge in Math, Robotics, Mechanics, Physics and have fun as well.