Response to a Heartache

For the most part the sighted children are willing and able to help the challenged ones and they seem to be well assimilated. Subodh, one of our sponsored kids, placed 1st in a class of 185 8th graders and last year he placed 4th. He understands that education is his ticket to opportunity despite his blindness. He knows his strengths and has harnessed it to excel. He won 3 awards this year: one in speech, the second in poetry and a third in quiz competition. He has won cash prizes and medals and trophies to prove his achievements. The sad part is that these awards seem to have disappeared from the Resource Room the teachers have told him they were going to store them. Are they worth any money? Could they have sold them? That’s only one of the questions we began to ask this evening as Subodh began to tell us about the injustices that have befallen these visually challenged students.

We had invited Subodh to dine with us that evening and here is shared the pain and heartache he has stored in to his giving heart. He belongs to a school that has been part of an inclusive program supported by the government. Hostel accommodations are provided to the school plus 3 resource teachers who would teach the students braille and support them in their integrated study with sighted children. We have come to find out that the resource teachers are not teaching braille but teaching sighted students other subjects. They hardly receive their braille paper and rely on their sighted friends to read to them. The older students have taken it upon themselves to teach the younger students braille and together they try to make their tests and homework with whatever is provided to them. If this was not horrible enough, he had also revealed that some musical instruments donated by some foreign visitors to their hostel has been taken away and provided for use by sighted students.

Something definitely must be done about this!

We are back in Kathmandu at the NAWB (Nepal Association for the Welfare of the Blind), a non-profit organization that has the support of INGOs from Germany and Japan, trifc.org, government ministries of Nepal and a host of local foundations to provide resources, education, vocational training for the visually impaired children and adults. NAWB operates in 7 districts which serves 5500 children. They had estimated that there are 30,000 visually challenged school aged children in the country.

We were there to check on the 200 boxes of Braille books we had shipped from Seattle to build the first National Braille Library of Nepal and plan the project to catalogue the Books and ensure that these are disseminated via a Mobile Library to the districts that NAWB covers. There are plans for India to donate the vehicle for this purpose.


We had brought our concerns to Rajan Raut, Immediate past chairman of the center. He's a Rotarian and passionate supported of this organization, he will follow up on the goings on at the Sanjuwani School Blind Hostel and Resource center with the help of the Rotary Club at Dhulikhel. It is a start in the correction of practices that have harmed the blind students’ progress. It is encouraging to note that despite the seemingly unjust society, that when good people are asked to do something about an injustice, there are Rotarians who will stand up and take the challenge, work in their environment and ensure positive change for the students and the future of the inclusive program.

On our part, Sita Gyawali, our volunteer will continue to keep in touch with Subodh and the other students on their progress and needs and relay conditions to Mr. Rajan Raut for continued action and support.

Guest post from Rose Stevens - TRIFC Program Coordinator

We arrived in Dhulikel in the late afternoon after driving thru
pouring rain. The hotel is perched high on a hill but with the rain
and fog there is no view and no heat. We sit huddled around a
kerosene heater in the bar area drinking hot tea and talking. Ashok
Shrethsa arrives with my sponsored child and a young man who has been
a recipient of a small micro finance loan to start a fish farm in his
village.

My sponsored child had been burned in a forest fire near his village.
He is 8 years old and quite small. After the fire he had been unable
to walk as his legs were badly burnt with a lot of skin contraction.
After several surgeries and physical therapy he is now able to walk
and is doing quite well. He has been attending a local school but will
soon be returning to his village.

The young fish farmer was wrapped under a blanket which he used to hid
the deformed side of his face. He was born with a very dramatic birth
defect which drew his head and face down to his shoulder. He had never
left his house as his face was scary to other people. Several
surgeries later his appearance is greatly improved and he is able to
be social settings.

He was very shy and self conscious of his appearance. I imagine his
shyness is due to the many years of isolation due to his appearance.
His fish are growing and will be ready for harvest in the near future.
He is also raising pigs as a cash crop. I admire his courage in moving
forward with his life and for being willing to take a chance on the
surgery.

We were joined for dinner by Bethany and Eva, both Fullbright
scholars, and Ashok and Annu as well as Rob, Sandie, Rose, Balram. We
discussed our agenda and logistics for the training program the next
day. We went to bed in chilly rooms with Hot Water Bottles to warm our
bed! Hot water bottles were a thing of my parents and grandparents
generation. I have never used a hot water bottle for warmth. I am
moving backward in time!

The next day we awake to sunshine and a view of the Himalyan
Mountains-WOW. The snow capped mountains above a sea of puffy white
clouds with small islands here and there. This is the Nepal you see in
photos.

Today is the first day of handicraft training. The suitcase is packed
with all the materials and we squeeze into the car for the trip to
the Kavre Barnape Deaf School. Although it is only a short distance
away it takes some time to weave around the potholes in the dirt road
and the motor bikes and pedestrians.

We are greeted by Krishina the school principal and several deaf
children. We set up the materials and the women start to trickle in.
First in Bandana who is in her early twenties and very outgoing and
friendly. She is a crafty young woman who had made several other paper
products which she proudly shared with us.

I decided to give her a preview of the finisted product…. HER EYES
WIDENED AND HER SMILE GREW BROADER..as she was astounded by the beauty
of the samples. She signed her happiness and utter amazement and how
thrilled she was to learn this craft. I was very happy to have this
project so well received by the first participant.

The ladies continued to arrive and finally we had 17 eager
participants. The smiles were broad and the excitement contagious.
Introductions of our team were completed and the program began. I
spoke of our principles: commitment, pride and partnership; and our
goals: empowerment of women, to become strong women, to create
community and to improve the life conditions of their families and
themselves.

Many of these women came from outlying villages where they were the
only deaf women. Within just a few hours I could see the ladies
bonding and communicating with each other in ways they could not with
others. To finally meet with others who spoke the same language was
very empowering for them.

There were four women who were illiterate. It had never been so
apparent to me the benefit of literacy in a persons’ life. Although
deaf, the literate women had fine motor skills, the ability to measure
and cut paper and to read simple directions. The other women tried so
hard but even cutting paper with scissors was difficult.

These four ladies also had eyesight problems and I am investigating
the possible need for glasses or cataract surgery. They came back for
second day of training and my heart broke as I saw them struggling and
trying so hard. Those who have the greatest need and desire are going
to find this the most difficult.

This is one of the most satisfying projects I have completed. The joy
on the faces as they completed the card is indescribable. The joy in
my heart to witness this opportunity of community building and skill
building is overwhelming. I see brighter futures for these women
thanks to TRIFC.

Rose Stevens
Program Coordinator
TRIFC

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A New Day

February 23, 2011
Dhulikhel, Nepal
Himalayan Horizon Hotel
6:30 am

The plan was to wake up to catch the light the sunrise casts over the Himalayan range, to marvel at the beauty only nature can stage! You could make out the varying degrees of blue gray shades that marked the many layers of mountain’s skyline. I caught view of fog rolling in low below the tree tops. The haze over the mountain range stayed as the sun rose at 6:40am yet despite that, witnessing the sun rise today as quickly as it set last night. In a few minutes, it shown in all its glory, the yellow orange orb that we rely on each and every waking day.

Bobbie and I stood there recording the scene via video and photo and felt the warmth it brought our faces. Mornings are precious, I thought! Here we are at the beginning of a new day! All the possibilities become evident, become hope, become a vision of what the day could be! We stood there shoulder to shoulder to face the day together!

The day will be a fun day of art! We’ll visit the blind students as the Sanjiwani School who board there and create personal boxes that they will paint and decorate with ornaments and jewels we brought over from home. There’ll be a box lunch and some presentations of presents and games. I’m sure it’ll be a fun day!

Sanjiwani School Art Project

February 24, 2011
At Sanjiwani School


There are 14 visually challenged students who live in a hostel in the grounds of the Sanjiwani Model Higher Secondary School in Dhulikhel, Kavre District, Nepal. 4 of these students have sponsors who pay for their hostel and tuition fees. We always plan a special activity here to benefit all the visually challenged students. They range in age from 6 to 18 and attend the school with all the other 1000+ students from class 1 – 10.

Bobbie has suggested a “treasure Box” art project wherein the students would decorate wooden boxes with objects of many shapes and sizes and then the volunteers would help varnish these boxes so they would have their personal treasure boxes to keep as a memory of our volunteer activity. RR had the boxes made by a local woodworker and we brought the plastic jewels of all shapes with adhesive backings to make the process a little easier for our students. Each volunteer partnered with a student to assist and interact with them while they decorated their boxes. Each box was labeled with their name and the name of their volunteer. We had boxed lunches brought in and gave out goodie bags we brought for each student too! We also got to buy each one a shirt, underwear and socks from the local market.

A good time was had by all! The students had fun being out of the classroom for a few hours (who wouldn’t?) and created their treasure boxes and just chatted with us about their families and favorite things! I just felt really warm inside as I saw their smiles light up their faces as we joked around. They don’t care what we looked like or how we dressed or why we were there. They just enjoyed our company, received our presence and felt good that all eyes were on them that day!

Namaste from Nepal

Today we visited the building site for the Disabled New Life Center. It is a lovely three-story handicap access building overlooking an agricultural valley. The valley has fields of potatoes now, which will change to rice during the rainy season.

Sita accompanied us on this visit and she was impressed with new building. This was my first opportunity to act as her guide as we traversed the construction site. I have never been a guide for a blind person and I relished the opportunity to share the colors of the tile and the view from the verandah as well as avoiding piles of gravel and pieces of cement. She seemed to sense many things before I spoke any words. I cannot imagine living in a developing country without being able to see!

We visited the Disabled and Helpless Children Newlife Center Nepal run by Amrit Pususainee. He has worked many years with disabled children and has just created his own NGO. He currently has 13 children at the home. Some are disabled and some are from homes of severe poverty or have been abandoned. They all attend a regular school and are socialized in a normal manner.

They are renting a lovely three-story house, which is likely to be the best living conditions these children have ever seen. The walls are all pink with cheap vinyl imitation wood flooring. All very clean and the bathrooms have clean green and white tile. The boy’s bath has a western toilet while the girl’s bath is the traditional squat toilet. There are two bunk beds in each room and they are requesting funding for dressers and bookcases as currently their belongings are on the floor. We arrived on Saturday which is their one free day each week. The boys were upstairs playing Monopoly and the girls were sitting on the patio playing Uno. Everyone seemed very happy and content.


Armit lives at the home and is not paid a salary. There is one staff person. The children all seemed very happy and I was impressed with his dedication and concern for the children. Although they have funding from several sources they are short $430 each month. We discussed some fundraising ideas and his plans for the future. I was very impressed with his goals and with his values.

We then went to lunch at The Bakery Café. This is a chain here in Nepal and they employ the deaf as waiters. The service was excellent as was the food.

Now for the adventure. We needed to find a cab to our next destination. We are standing there on the side of the road one tall white man, two blond white women and a blind Nepali woman with a cane. This is Saturday, a holiday, and every cab had passengers. Two buses stopped and we waved them on as we had never taken a Nepali buss-a minivan with as many people as possible inside.. both sitting and standing. Finally when no vacant cabs appeared Sita said lets take the bus. We squeeze inside having no idea of the fare or where we are going… trusting only in Sita to guide us.

Luckily everyone was very helpful and we were able to get off at the right stop. Now we had to walk half a mile. Sandie is guiding Sita as the sidewalks have steps up and step downs and there are building supplies here and there, trash and mud puddles to avoid. Finally we decide it would be easier to walk in the street and face down the motorcycles, buses, cabs and rickshaws rather than deal with the sidewalks.
At least the street was a relatively smooth surface! People were staring at us and we just smiled and said Namaste.

The next facility reminded Sandie of hospitals back in the 50’s and 60’s in New York City. The conditions were “tolerable” with spacious rooms but they were rather dark and dank. The patients had the freedom of the open grounds but the disability level was profound. We meet with Rakesh Gwachha, who is diagnosed with brittle bone disease. He is about three feet tall at age 24. He was living with his family on the third floor of the house with no access to the outdoors. He could only watch life go by from his window. His sister carried him to school when they were younger but she is now married with a child of her own. His father is alcoholic and Rakesh was not receiving the care he needed.

He is very happy at the home and has a small wheelchair which provides his with independence. He is still attending school and TRIFC will be funding his English classes. He really wants to learn to speak English to communicate with his benefactors. He was thrilled to see Rob and wanted to know when he and Gina were going to visit again.

We move on to the Disabled New Life Center ( DNC ) to visit the children for a second time. They were watching a Hindi film and insisted we join them for this special time. We played games with them after the movie and generally just spent some quality time. The kids are truly happy here thanks to the house mom/director Shanti. She lives full time at the home (except for Friday when she is off from 9-4) and sets a gentle, loving tone to all the activities. They are all very anxious to move to the new facility, mentioned earlier, which is much more spacious and light. The children learn English in primary school and our conversations were meaningful and enlightening into their thoughts and feelings.

This being only my second meeting with these children I already feel connected and very concerned for their well being now and in the future. Such potential. Such love.

Touring the new Disabled Newlife Centre - Kathmandu

Rose, Sandi, Sita and Amrit (in the back) at the new DNC (Disabled Newlife Centre) building

Rose, Sandi, Amrit and kids at DHCNLC in Kathmandu

Mr. Rakesh Gwacha

Santa from DNC with kitty cat!

DNC's Saraswati with cat

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New X-Ray machine

Because of the past success of our Bellevue Rotary Auction we have been able to fund an x-ray machine to replace the antiquated one you see in the photo. In addition, we are proposing a project to put in a 2-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

This is an urgent need at this hospital. The types of cases that the hospital treats are difficult and complex requiring not only medical expertise but also post-operative, specialized equipment that the hospital does not currently have.

This hospital does surgeries and procedures that cannot be done anywhere else in the country. Currently, prior to a difficult surgical procedure they call other nearby hospitals and confirm that an ICU bed is available.

Only when that is confirmed can they start the surgery, otherwise they have to postpone. If, in the case of an emergency the patient needs to be transported to the other hospital’s ICU, patients must be moved in a delicate, precarious condition over terrible, bumpy roads to the other hospital’s ICU.

Transporting children in this way, who have just had spinal surgery is not advisable. Having an in-house ICU would remedy this problem.

The children you see

The children you see in the photos are receiving treatment at HRDC Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in Kavre-Banepa, Nepal (near to Kathmandu). This is a wonderful institution where families only pay what they can afford for orthopedic surgeries large and small.