Blog 2020 | Change for Hope

December 2020 – From the Top of the World

December 21, 2020

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and financial support for this village of Kalitar and its wonderful people whom we wish to serve.

December has been another busy month in the village of Kalitar.

In the last few weeks the village people came together – with smiles on their faces – to help build this outside kitchen while paid workers did the walls, cement and finish work.

“To see a village of people come together to bless others when they themselves are so very poor – is a cry for our souls.”

An outside kitchen 10×12 was built for the pastor of Kalitar. He and his wife and three children will live in the back of the church in a 10×18 room. We were convinced that it would be better to build a small kitchen for her on the backside of the water station we built last month. We were able to pipe in water from the water station directly above a sink. I specifically had two windows put in so that there was an abundance of light as most Nepali kitchens in villages are dark or outside. We also cemented all the dirt area in front of the church building ( also used as a shelter during inclement weather) . Many women labored alongside the men and after 4 days of labor and love the work was finished . The kitchen is very modern compared to what women are used to in the village and all the women will be blessed through it. The picture here is of a typical cooking area for village women…not by any stretch of the imagination a kitchen.

A team of 4 men and 4 women are in Kalitar, today after a 12 hour trip. Much of it was in the dark due to transportation lock downs. They are going to dedicate the kitchen, distribute toothpaste and toothbrushes, have a festive Christmas meal and thank all the people who worked to accomplish these things.

Blankets will also be distributed to the most vulnerable of the 24 homes, if not all of them.

We began sewing classes for 6 women from Kalitar, this in the future will allow them to sew for others in nearby villages and earn an income for their families.

At this time we will also measure out the land that we will build a small house on for the abandoned woman an her 7 children.

We have previously distributed food to her and purchased a Water Buffalo for her last year. She also takes care of an aged parent who will sleep in one of the rooms.

Her land is “wonky” and so we need to shore up the sides slope with stone walls before we can build . There will be 3 -12×12 rooms. I often think of 9 people living in under 500 sq. feet and know that I am blessed to facilitate this work with the generous donations of everyone.

The future plans for Kalitar are more buildings, roofing, a chicken hutch with 20 chickens( for eggs and meat), more goats ( at least 15), 4 fruit trees ( and a fig tree) and other projects to help sustain them and provide future incomes for these wonderful people. We hope to continue to help the local school ( about a 20 min Nepali walk away thru the river) and a medical clinic near the school are out other hopes.

Please continue to donate if you can as the work is not completed.

More information will come the first week in January….

November 2020 – From the Top of the World

On November 12 we completed the delivery of needed supplies to Kalitar.

There are 24 homes in this village with over 100 people. The situation is desperate in these small villages due to covid. Villagers are unable to travel down the river for “day work” to earn funds to supply their families with the food they need to live and grow so they are forced to scrounge for food in the nearby hills.

We decided to deliver blankets, floor matting, rice, and to build a washing station for the women to wash clothes.

The church building will also be a community center for training and classes.

The only accessible water in the village is good for cleaning and washing but must be boiled before consumption.

One of the main killers in Nepal is dysentery.

Our goals for next year are to run a water line into the village from a spring source up in the hills, this will provide clean water for the village people and bring in more goats and water buffalo which will help the villagers become more self-reliant. We also hope to build an outside kitchen for the minister and his family who plan to move into an 18×12 room in the church.

Everything one does in Nepal helps to encourage people that God wants them to belong to Him and to find that people do care.

April 2020 – From the Top of the World

In April the Corona Virus began to hit Nepal. Everything closed down the first week including

all transportation, traffic between cities and villages and it was prohibited for people even to visit village to village. We heard the cry from the villages we had worked in in March as many day laborers travel into Makwenpur ( 2 hrs ) for their daily wages and food purchases. With no transportation allowed in Nepal and all the food stores closed the people were in a desperate situation.

We quickly mobilized a team – as the government was starting to shut down anyone other than themselves in the distribution of food, which is highly limited in items. We supplied, 60 pounds of rice, ghee, two or three types of lentils , soy beans, tea, salt, and sugar Our first distribution was in the village of Kalitar that we worked in in March, and some of Prashansa attendees who are day laborers and very poor. We supplied several of these families in Kathmandu with gas for cooking as that is the only way to cook in the city.

ur next distribution was also put together by my project manager, Sandip. We knew some officials in Makwenpur and they allowed us to hire a driver to supply a months worth of food in the hills villages along the river to Kalitar who also were in need of supplies. We fed over 600 people in the surrounding hills and mountains. This distribution took place along the river as flooding prohibited us from reaching them in the villages. The men who distributed were able to park on sand bars and people scrambled from the hills to collect their food and then back up the hills carrying their precious items. There were a few distribution sand bars

Altogether we fed nearly 1000 people a months supply of food last month.

We are following up this month with another distribution as soon as we can connect with the “officials” in Makwenpur and the river subsides. There as been unusual rain this year and the river seems too high to even transport as we did the last time. We are checking on this weekly. This distribution will feed another 1000 people another months supply of food.

In the near future, when travel is allowed for everyone, the team including men from Prashansa Church, will be giving each home in the Kalitar village foam mats ( used normally under rugs) to sleep on ( most have dirt floors) and mosquito nets. The team will also build a cement area for washing and water distribution ( currently done in the dirt). This will allow more women ease to wash clothing and themselves without having to go down to the river.

May God bless everyone abundantly that reads these blogs and know your help is immeasurable and to know…so little helps so much.

Pam

Feb, March 2020 – From the Top of the World

Our first excursion in Nepal was returning to Shree Majhi Prmary School after working there last year. We delivered teaching tools for the children, books, playground equipment and a snack for the day. We also supplied the school with a much needed printer and paper and teaching CDs for the staff to use. Our biggest goal was to paint the outside of the school which was a drab white and brown. The schools bench/table combinations were falling apart as was the front gate and so we hired a welder to fix these things. We had also noticed last year that there was an indentation in the yard where water accumulated along with mosquitoes and so we also filled this in with dirt. We were so excited to know that there was an education strike the day we planned on painting…so we did not have to worry about children. Two men I have worked with for more than 12 years Sandip and Chandra a new member to our group, Jit and our driver painted for over 9 hrs. But we got it done. I cannot express to you the tears in the teachers eyes the next day when they came. Normally in Nepal the schools are a lime green color and white….and so we decided to do something so different. The teachers were really not expecting this and when the children came…squeals of joy could be heard as they played and looked at their new school, new books and the hope we would return next year for more work. These children live in tiny homes and are very poor and subsistence farmers children. We hope to encourage them to grow in their education.

Our second phase of work was in a village called Kalitar. In order to reach the village part of Kalitar ( all villages in that area are called this) we had to travel by minivan ( 8 of us and a driver) piled high with rugs,equipment to build with, books, computers and resource materials for the school, and an inverter and battery to store electricity and 15 squawking chickens!!! We began this journey at 6am in the morning…as the men piled all the things in, under and around the mini van and on top all the rugging to be put into a church building..and huge pots and pans to cook for the village. We left squeezed into the mini van…and for 6 hrs down winding roads in and out of peaks until we reached Makwenpur and emptied the contents of the minivan onto the side of a market area. We four women sat and sat and sat waiting for the men to find a bus that would take us down the river for another two hrs. The bus finally arrived packed with others and now our things added…across the bridge we went and then down into the river …bumping bumping…I was not sure any of my bones were still attached when we finally arrived at the “town” of Kalitar at around 7 at night. We then had a hike to do. We got the schools Science teacher to unlock the office so we could store the computer things in to present to the school the next day. Chickens were let out of the hull of the bus…and off we went as it was getting darker and darker. We had to go thru the river a few times and climb over rocks…as I was the oldest I had great men holding my hand to make sure I did not slip. By the time we arrived at the village part of Kalitar it was dark…a villager was making us a rice dinner and we women were exhausted as the men began to lay the rug in the church- where we would all sleep for the next few nights. We ladies laid down in the old church which was bamboo sticks with plastic around the bottom half of the shack..we fell asleep quickly. Around 11:30 we moved into the church building and promptly fell asleep again. Last year Changeforhope roofed this church and now it was ready to use.

The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and the chatter of children. Cooking began for over 120 people and we never saw those chickens again! That day was filled with singing and dancing and a huge meal for all the people. Children ate two and three plates of food…and all was well and the first service began in the new building with more singing and dancing. WE played with the children, distributed clothing and set up for the next day.

The next morning we distributed medical kits to each homeowner and explained what different salves were for. The women were thrilled to have this. We took the girls down to the river and gave them baths as we watched the bugs crawl in the hair…something to think about for next year! The men were shaving the heads of the boys and then they came down to bathe. We returned from the river bottom to inspect the goats and water buffalo that had been purchased for people there. The water buffalo was purchased for a women with six children who had been abandoned by her husband. The goats were also given to widows , both of these types of animals provide an income thru meat, labor and milk. Sandip and Vijay went to the school in Kalitar town as I was too tired to walk up and down again. The whole school lined up and they presented the Computers, books, CDS – computers were loaded with English, Science and other subjects to enhance the young men and women that go to this middle school. They were thrilled to say the least. The science teacher said we were an answer as they had just gotten electricity to the town ( none in Kalitar village) but it was only on at night…with the inverter and batter they would have hours on the computers during the day.

The next morning we packed up to return to Kathmandu and looked at the many homes in Kalitar. Where the woman that got the goat, which we named Brenda, lives with her children on a dirt floor. We provided her with some of the rug padding and another very large thick blanket. She had been sleeping on the ground near a small fire. The roof had had a tarp put over it a year back but the walls are not secure.

WE said our goodbyes and know there is much that can be done in Kalitar. More goats and water buffalo, securing homes, teaching the children to desire school and to teach about nutrition and sanitation. We distributed exercise toys, jump ropes and balls to the children and gave them all oranges and bananas..the children ran into the field to play and then we went on our way…down the rice paddies, thru the fields, across the river twice, hopping boulders and then up the long hill to find the local bus by 8am…

The final projects for Nepal this year were the purchase of 3 new sewing machines and a surger to help women start their own businesses. They are taught by a professional seamstress and are learning wonders from the three machines ChangeforHope purchased last year. We also purchased and installed a water filter system in the building where the sewing classes are held. In Chitwan we purchased windows for a local church. We distributed seeds to a local small childrens home. There were other goat purchases for widows also….

We also purchased musical equipment for Bina who runs Orchid Garden Nepal, little pianos that are air controlled, drums and pom poms for dancing and music classes.