By Sharon Saw, President SI Petaling Jaya, SI Region of Malaysia

 

Picture: SI Kathmandu and SIROM ladies with bags for
distribution to the girls.

"A few Soroptimists from Malaysia decided to
take a personal trip to Kathmandu, Nepal, to see how the relief work was going following the tragic earthquake of April 2015, which killed more than 9,000
people and injured more than 23,000.

At the time of the earthquake, SIROM club
members had raised a total of MYR58,880 for SI Kathmandu to help their
earthquake relief work and MYR12,000 towards a village called Sudal, which was
a pet project of SI Bangsar. SI Kathmandu had helped us facilitate the funds
for Sudal, which was greatly appreciated.

So in October 2015, a group of us decided to
visit Kathmandu. Our party included SI Region of Malaysia President Anita
Pater, who is also from SI Penang, SI Ipoh President Jean Chai, SI Ipoh IPP
Lanka Devi, SI Bangsar President Datin Indira Naidu, SI Bangsar PE Sally Beh,
SI Bangsar member May Lin Sun and I.

Sudal

During our trip, we visited Shree Mahendragram
Secondary School, Sudal, where we met with the Principal. The funds for Sudal went
towards building three temporary classrooms as the original school buildings
were completely demolished. We also visited Balmikeshwor Secondary School,
which was not as badly affected as Shree Mahendragram, but they were also
looking for funds to expand. SIROM ladies distributed stationery brought by SI
Penang and SI Ipoh, as well as panadol syrup and multivitamins brought by SIPJ
to the school children.

 

Picture: 

Shree Mahendragram Secondary School, Sudal,
was completely demolished by the earthquake. From the funds donated by SI
Bangsar and SI Ipoh, three temporary classrooms were built at the cost of
USD800 per unit.

In many rural villages, they do not have
access to bras and may only share one bra within the village so that they can
wear it for weddings or to go to the city. SICB’s Sally brought 72 bras which
were distributed to the women of Sudal village and girls in Bishal orphanage.

 

Picture: Bras, Panadol, Multivites, deworming
medication, stationery sets and games from SICB, SIP and SIPJ

 

Picture: SI ladies and items for Nepal. From left: Sally Beh, Anita Pater, Lanka
Devi, May Lin Sun, Jean Chai, Indira Naidu

Pioneer
Foundation

My friend Susan Lim, who is working at
University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC), and I met with one of the
directors of Pioneer Foundation, Mr Chet Batta. One of Susan’s colleagues at
UNMC had worked with the Pioneer Foundation to help rebuild a school in the
district of Gorkha, which was terribly hit by the earthquake. In fact, the
April earthquake is often referred to as the Gorkha earthquake. It was
interesting to hear from Chet about their work and the importance of developing
education and building schools to empower the people. Chet has offered to
assist SI Kathmandu on their projects so I will be putting them in touch with
each other.

A
Day with SI Kathmandu

On Saturday, we finally met up with SI
Kathmandu. I had met SI Kathmandu Secretary Deepa Khakurel at the SI Convention
in Istanbul earlier this year and it was lovely to see her again. Also we met
with President Radha Nepal and other members of their executive committee.

We were taken to Shree Jorpati Secondary School
in Kavre, where SI Kathmandu visit on a monthly basis and sponsor the education
of 11 girls. That day SI Kathmandu was holding a health talk on menstruation
for 92 girls.

 

Picture: SI Kathmandu and SIROM ladies on the stage
at the school 

Deepa briefed our group that SI Kathmandu
had used our funds to distribute school materials in four schools in Sindhupalchowk
and built temporary school buildings in Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha districts.
We learned that SI Kathmandu had rebuilt nine schools, seven of which were
constructed in collaboration with other NGOs like the Lions Club, and two were
built on SI Kathmandu’s own accord. In addition, SI Kathmandu had provided
food, such as rice, cooking oil, salt and cereals, to 166 families who were
affected by the earthquake in a very remote village in the Sindhupalchok
district. Unfortunately, during our visit to Kathmandu, there was a fuel crisis
in Nepal, so we were unable to visit these villages which are far from
Kathmandu. It was a miracle that we were even able to get a van to take us to
Kavre.

 

Picture: SICB President Indira presenting SI Kathmandu
President Radha with SICB’s manual for Training Trainers of AIDS Education
Workshop for Teenagers.

We were very happy to have met SI Kathmandu
and to have been able to participate in their service work. It was an honour to
see their dedication and have fellowship with them. In Nepal, they only have
one day off a week, which is Saturday. They work on Sundays and up until 3pm on
Friday. It takes them one and a half hours each way to go to the school for
their monthly service work at Kavre yet they manage.

Their immediate future plan is to build a
learning centre in Kathmandu to provide comprehensive education and personal
guidance to girls. It is a noble aim and we all wish them much success.

Within the challenging landscape of this
beautiful yet demanding environment, SI Kathmandu continues to prevail and
epitomises the powerful spirit of Soroptimism".