As I prepare to return to Nepal at the end of the month I am amazed and grateful at how well we all came through the worst of the last 18 months. Our students dealt with difficulties of online schooling, yet two managed the highest results I have seen in 20 years. Some job losses of parents and some  older students forced them to return to their villages indefinitely.  Two were unexpectedly married in the village and will not return to their studies.  Several old students also contracted the virus and one was hospitalized.  All are fine now and many have been able to move on with their lives.  A few were finally able to marry this year, and we have two new babies that I am excited to meet. Two businesses have expand, another opened and several have started college.
The biggest festivals Dashain and Tihar are just finishing up and schools will finally open back up to in person classes and hopefully a sense of normalcy for our younger students.
I would also like to thank all my friends and family who have kept us going over the last year plus. A lot to be grateful for.

Fall 2018


I am happy to report on our many successes this past year.  Sanjeev and Kundan opened “The School of Coffee Beans” a barista training center.  Their target group is students going to study abroad.  The aim is to provide students with a skill before they leave Nepal.  They have also been very helpful in providing many of our students with free training.  Ram Chandra took the training and is now working at Coffee Beans the coffee shop Bishal, Kundan and Sanjeev opened last year.
Kundan has also opened Projectile Creations with his art school friend Saurav.  They do everything from logo design to photo-shoots. They are very active in branding Coffee Beans coffee shop and School of Coffee Beans.
Bishal and Safal have also opened a new business “Global Journey Education Services”.  They advise and help with all paperwork and English language classes needed to apply and with visa paperwork once accepted. This is big business in Nepal as education and work opportunities are limited.
Three of of our girls are teaching Montessori.  Gita has two children of her own so teachers hours are working out very good for her.
We also had two weddings this summer. Sisters Anju and Manju both got married in separate Buddhist ceremonies. We wish them all the best in their married life.
On a sadder note, we lost 3 parents over the past year. We have been able to give some extra support to these families and help cover some of the death rite cost.  We lost one father to suicide. He felt so defeated because he could not provide for his family. He was rejected for a job outside Nepal and that was just too much for him.

Summer 2017
 
Manoj our former student currently running a government Health Post in Bhusapheda put together a team and ran a health camp at a children’s home in Kathmandu.  They conducted 119 exams and provided medicines as needed.  We will continue to support Manoj and other locals to help each other.
 
Sanjeev, Kundan and another friend have just opened The School of Coffee Beans, a barista training center. Their main target group is students going for higher education abroad.  Students are looking for skills that will help them gain employment to help offset their expenses.
 
This is an exciting time as our students are gaining meaningful employment and starting their own enterprises (Coffee Beans Coffee shop and The School of Coffee Beans).  Manoj and his Health Post are expanding to include a birthing center. Sukumaya is in her 5th year of teaching Montessori in Bhaktapur, Anju is learning the legal ropes of Non-Government Organization with Nepal Art for Education. Manju is working as a dental hygienist; Sano Sumitra is working in the same educational consultancy office as Bishal. They are both in college earning Bachelor degrees.

Summer 2017
 
Manoj our former student currently running a government Health Post in Bhusapheda put together a team and ran a health camp at a children’s home in Kathmandu.  They conducted 119 exams and provided medicines as needed.  We will continue to support Manoj and other locals to help each other.
 
Sanjeev, Kundan and another friend have just opened The School of Coffee Beans, a barista training center. Their main target group is students going for higher education abroad.  Students are looking for skills that will help them gain employment to help offset their expenses.
 
This is an exciting time as our students are gaining meaningful employment and starting their own enterprises (Coffee Beans Coffee shop and The School of Coffee Beans).  Manoj and his Health Post are expanding to include a birthing center. Sukumaya is in her 5th year of teaching Montessori in Bhaktapur, Anju is learning the legal ropes of Non-Government Organization with Nepal Art for Education. Manju is working as a dental hygienist; Sano Sumitra is working in the same educational consultancy office as Bishal. They are both in college earning Bachelor degrees.

Our partner in Nepal, Art for Education lost their major donor just 6 weeks before the new school year. We have managed to work with the schools and will be able to keep all 39 students in Tinpiple and the 6 children living in the hostel in school through the next year. Art for Education Nepal is restructuring and we will try to support it as best we can without neglecting our other projects.
 
Manoj has been running his own government health post in Bhimphedi, Dolakha, his home district.  We have supported him with medicines and medical equipment and a local expat friend of Giving Asha Michelle Bostic bought him a refrigerator to store his medicine and vaccinations in.  We are so proud of him.
 
In the next few weeks we will be opening a library in a government school in Magapauwa, which is the next VDC over from Manoj. He visits there monthly for a meeting so he will monitor this project.
 
Last week we handed over two new school rooms to Mahendrgram Secondary School in Bhaktapur for the use of children of brick makers. The rooms were built by JRM Foundation for Humanity and we gave furnishings. The children need their own space as they are on a different schedule than the rest of the school. The brick kilns are only open from October to June and then close for monsoon. The families migrate back and forth from their various villages to Bhaktapur for this seasonal work.  

 
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We have had a busy summer with several major medical issues, but also one happy ending in the wedding of one of our girls. Although her own blood brother was out of the country working Bishal and Kundan stood in for him and us as her family. As reconstruction of government schools is getting into full swing we have been receiving many request for educational materials and story books. Visiting and working with these organizations and villages will be one of my main focuses when I return.  We will also continue our work with Art for Education in educational support and guidance revamping our continuing education program to better meet individual needs of past, present and future students.
 
A brief recap of the medical crisis we have had to assist with this summer. One student was attacked by a gang with machetes, due to a school yard dispute with one of the member’s younger brothers. He is currently undergoing post-operative physiotherapy in the hopes of regaining the use of two fingers on his left hand. The prognosis is not good.  Two of our girls lost their mother to AIDs related illness.  She spent her last days on a mattress on the floor in Janna Women’s prison in Kathmandu. We tried to get the authorities and doctors to allow her to spend her last days in the relative comfort of the nearby government hospital, even offering to pay for additional police guards. Because of her advanced condition and lack of any additional treatments they declined.  In the end we were able to bring the girls and their brother together with their estranged father and mothers relatives in a hotel for the last week of her life and hopefully reestablish relations within the family. The week after we lost this mother one of the fathers slipped off a muddy bridge landing on large rocks and braking his back. He had back surgery and is now confined to a wheelchair. Nepal terrain is not conducive to those inflicted with physical disabilities.   

August 2015 Earthquake Recovery Update

Bishal continues to work with our partners Art for Education, Saarathi, Kathalaya Publication and Eutai Mala Nepal in bringing resources to those in need.  He has been focusing on education and distribution of education materials and books to government schools. Please follow our partners on Facebook and their webpages to keep up on what they are doing.  Anuj and Nima of Eutai Mala Nepal have been doing an amazing job of fundraising to rebuild toilets, temporary shelters and moving on to long term projects such as schools.  Rajeev and his crew at Kathalaya came up with the mobile library concept, Anuradha has reached out to children through art & games and the Art for Education team continue working with our children and their families to make sure they are managing through this difficult time.

Nirnaya Nsk is a Nepali rapper who has been organizing work crews every day since the earthquake. His focus is on a few old villages on the outskirts of Kathmandu.  We (15 of our children and myself) volunteered with him while I was still in Nepal. He is now building temporary schools which we are supporting with mobile libraries.

Bishal has also visited many different internally displaced camps. Camps set up for those individuals made homeless due to the earthquake. These camps are home to 1,000 of children living in temporary shelters while they attend school.  Schools running in temporary buildings/tent are not actually conducting regular classes as they lack the basic facilities of a school.  Textbooks have been destroyed and are yet to be replaced, teachers are not returning due to their own losses (family, home etc.), many structures do not have walls or chalk boards.

It will be a long road to recover to pre-earthquake facilities. The government continues to be ineffective and actually an obstacle to recovery through constant strikes and disruptions to daily life. Our hope is that through innovation, motivation and mobilization of young people such as the ones we are working with a better safer Nepal will emerge.

Thank you for your continued support.

I have arrived back in Connecticut, but our work in Nepal continues. Bishal is handling things for Giving Asha since both Parvati and I are in the US. Our partners Art for Education (AFE) & Eutai Mala Nepal (EMN) are keeping busy with their post-quake work and daily activities. AFE has a lot of work with construction starting on the new house in Tinpiple, making educational and training plans for our SLC passed students (Tuition for the one that did not pass in preparation for a re-exam in two weeks), plus the launch of their new website: http://www.nepalartforeducation.org.np/.

Nima, Anuj and the Eutai Mala team are working on the needs in Gerkhu, Nuwakot district.  Bishal has visited the village and meets regularly with the team to plan for our contributions to the educational needs of the children. Please follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eutaimalanepali.

Unfortunately the needs continue to be great. Children have gone back to school, but need textbooks, bags, stationary and uniforms. Many farmers have not planted their rice crops that need to be in the ground now before monsoon. They have lost their food stock, seed stock and tools, plus irrigation systems are damaged, farmland lays under rubble and hillsides are too unstable to plant on. These conditions will lead to food shortages and sever impact on farmer’s livelihoods. Over 70% of Nepalese are involved in the agricultural sector and it is critical to address these needs as soon as possible.

In the coming days I will update you on the relief work we have already carried out and our future plans. Thank you for your continued support.

Beth Brewster