Monday, June 29, 2009

Bio-gas at Marybert Orphanage


The biogas project lead by MSH member, Raju for installation at the Marybert School has been approved by Sabina Thapa the schools principal and MSH member. This will help the school minimize fuel costs making funds available for the children. The project will start when the funds are released.

Why is bio-gas so important for the school?
Marybert orphanage has 24 orphans living and studying at the moment. A significant amount of fuel (LGP gas or cooking gas) is used to prepare food everyday. Orphanage expenses are very high and therefore detrimental to educational funds. Once biogas is installed at the school, the gas produced can be stored and used as a fuel for cooking allowing more funds to be available purely for teaching all students. Nepals government encourages renewable energy projects and may also provide some of the materials which hopefully will lower investment costs as well as assisting MSH in managing the project.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mysmallhelp Documentary


Hey hello everyone,
Mysmallhelp is very please to inform that Gopal Koirala, a documentary film maker as well as Mysmallhelp member, is making a documentary of MSH project as well as a documentary for MSH. We really appreciate Gopal help. This was successfull all because of you and your support. So please please keep supporting Mysmallhelp, only your support can help the poor children to have a better life.

We are really looking forward to showing this documentary in different places which will not only help them know about Mysmallhelp and its mission but also help them know about Nepal, children. We can create a beautiful world just joining each other hands. Let your small help keep going. We all can make it possible.

Love
Mysmallhelp

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sports equipments for Bhattedanda School

Mysmallhelp has been a constant supporter for Bhattedanda School which is situated in one of the remote area of Lalitpur district, Nepal. On this part of project, now we are donating sports equipments which is worth of 200 dollar which includes skipping, badmintons, chess, ludoo, footballs and many more.

Soon we will be updating more on this project with more photographs of distribution.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

School bags for all Bhattedanda School Children

The above shown bags will be distributed to all school children of Bhattedanda School. MSH has received all the ordered bags. MSH is waiting for th right time for distribution.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Bhattedanda School update


T1. The principle was very happy with MSH for providing school uniform and sweater for all 44 students. Because of this the school found 18% increase in student admission in this year 2009.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Villagers discussing about the Budget


1. As we all know the villagers are mostly from the Tamang family. Tamang family are most of the backward ethnic group of Nepal.

2. Their main occupation is agriculture. Each home has number of chickens, goats and atleast one or two buffalo.

3. The village lies in the hilly area has one has to walk atleast 2 hours to reach the main road where one can catch the local transportation.

4. The village has the road which is being recently built. The vehicles like truck pass by occasionally to supply their daily needs

5. Villagers are very much united and are helpful to each other

6. Villagers are much aware of the village, school and the budget that arrives for the village

7. Villagers have also chosen certain people as president, treasure who look after the budget and the project. However, equal participation and acceptation was needed to conduct any type of work to be done. Without the equal participation and acceptation, villages donot accept any work.

8. This clarified MSH that the budget which MSH has provided will not be mis-used by the people or the villagers.

9. Villagers trust MSH more in this recent visit and they want further project to be applied

10. When any member from the villagers get sick with major problem than lack of transportation, one has to carry to the top for treatment. Because of this problem, villagers have appealed for atleast 3 stretchers to provide. Which MSH thinks is a good idea

11. The Brahamini School completely lack proper furniture and the school principal appeal for MSH to provide furniture.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Mysmallshop donats all profit to Mysmallhelp


A fair trade shop and bafts recognised importer Mysmallshop ( www.mysmallshop.org ) donets all its profit to UK registered Charity and registered NGO in Nepal Mysmallhelp ( www.mysmallhelp.org )




helping hands


Children of Chatturle village trying to make Mysmallhelp logo. Helping Hand 

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bhattedanda Project


Construction of the blackboard for Bhattedanda School is on the process  .

Monday, June 15, 2009

Mysmallhelp Member back from Chatturale village





Mysmallhelp members Gopal Koirala, Raju Maharjan, Sanjay Shrestha, Hari Rai and 2 other friends travelled to Chatturale village, Nuwakot district for Toilet and water project on 12th June 2009 and returned back on 14th June 2009. During the visit, Gopal Koirala, Project manager and documentary film maker, took lot of video clips to make the documentary and for project report. The visit was very helpful as MSH was able to understand the villagers, school more. We will be updating on the project in coming days. Here are some of the images which i think you will like to see. 

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Study on Maajgaun Chatturale Village





The journey to Chatturale village started from the Heart of Nepal, Basantpur, at around 10:30am on 4th February, 2008, Wednesday with three friends, Gopal, Raju and Sambhu. A half an hour walk from Basantapur to Balaju chock, we were able to catch a bus to Rani Pawa which was about 30 km and took us one and half hour. After having some food at Rani Pawa we started our walking journey at 1:10 pm. Stumbling and rushing down the stony and dusty mountain was not an easy journey for all of us. 2 hours walk down the hill reached to our destination.

 

As we were entering the village, we walk by a school which was named Shree Brahmayani Primary School. Since Gopal had already been to the village before and knew couple of friends made us easy. We stayed one of the Gopal’s friend house. The house was typical village house with domestic animals and chickens. After resting for about half an hour, we decided to visit school to know more about school’s condition. As we enter the school’s area, we say a small dusty ground. One of the teachers could see us entering and asked us for the reason. Gopal introduced himself as one of the member of Mysmallhelp and we have come to understand the school. The teacher introduced himself as the principal of the school and welcomed us into his office.

 

As he started talking, he sound frustrated with school condition and Nepal’s political condition. Few things which he pointed us were, the school is run by Nepal Government and they have grades from 1 to 5. Only 3 teachers were being allocated in the school where they need at least 5 teachers to run the classes at the same time. He pointed toilet as the main problem. The badly build current toilet is very small with no proper water system and door luck. Though they have 2 small toilets but they were compel to use only one for the children because of the lack of cleaning and water. Even with the lack of door luck, 2 children need to go once for 1 child to use. The other child blocks the door so that no other children can open accidently.

 

Another problem was proper water tank as children hardly have any water to use. Badly build school building, class floor, furniture and worn out blackboard clearly showed us how bad the school condition was. The teacher suggested if we can build new toilet at different place with proper water system for the school. Raju noted all the problems and the suggestion principal was telling us. After taking few pictures and understanding the problem we head back to Gopal friend’s house where we were staying for a night.

 

The sun was setting down the hill, Gopal and his friend suggest Raju to buy a chicken for a dinner. We all found a good idea so we headed down to buy a chicken. Finally we got one at Rs. 500 which we thought was abit expensive. We had a good dinner with Dal, Bhat, fresh vegetable and children. After some interesting talks with house family we headed for a good sleep. We all three had a very good sleep.

 

In the morning, after having a good tea we headed down the village market to meet some of Gopal’s friends. After talking with his friend for a while we walked down to see a beautiful place where we could see high hills all round with big open space. Taking picture and listening to mobile music for an hour we headed to school to meet the principal. The principal had estimated the budget which he though could be helpful for us to estimate what we exactly can do and what not. Some of the villagers as well as constructor of the village joined the talk. Along the talk they though it will be a good idea to see the water source. So we all headed up hill to understand how the water is being mobilized in village and how can the water can be used.

 

Understanding the water problem and predicting the solution we all walked down. We three headed house to have lunch. After having lunch, it was time for us to leave the house and get back home. We entered the school to say good bye to the principal and children and convinced the principal to see what we could do for the school.

 

Climbing high up to reach the bus stop was not an easy task for all three. Finally we reach the bus stop climbing 2 hours of steady hill and reach our home at around 5 pm in the evening.

 

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

She gave up everything to make orphans happy







She gave up everything to make orphans happy

When Leander Hollings first volunteered to help at an orphanage in Nepal three years ago, she embarked on a mission that would see her change the lives of scores of children beset by poverty. At the time, Leander was 27 years old and living in London.

She had a nice flat, and a well-paid job with everything she could have wished for – yet there was something missing. A slight medical condition, brought on by stress, prompted Leander into taking some time out from her busy schedule.

“As I learnt more about their living conditions and their world I was able to see just how difficult life was for them and I wanted to help. So when one of the girls eventually confided in me that she was being beaten, I knew I couldn’t just walk away.”

Leander Hollings

So with no great aim in mind other than to do something useful with her life, she placed an advert on a goodwill website offering to carry out some volunteer work with children.

Within days she was asked to buy a few items from women in Nepal who were working round the clock to sell their goods for very little profit in return.

But Leander went one step further. She held a party and raised over £1,000 for the cause. Such was her dedication that when a friend suggested she fly out to the Himalayas to help children in a Nepalese orphanage, Leander took the suggestion seriously.

So seriously in fact, that she handed in her notice and booked a flight, intending to stay in Nepal only for a couple of months.

Three years down the line this inspiring young woman, who has lived in Ilkley for the past couple of years, has dedicated her life to helping orphans as well as adults who are fighting poverty and oppression in Nepal.

She said: “I was so touched by the children I met during my first visit there that I knew I had to help in any way I could.

“They had been given away by their parents and were being mistreated by the owners of the orphanage who had no interest in their wellbeing and I found it impossible to turn my back on them once I realised the truth.

“Nepal is beset with social problems and the children I met I later found out were being beaten and physically abused.

“They had very little in the way of food and possessions but despite that were always smiling and were really lovely children. On the day I arrived in Nepal they greeted me with smiles and flowers and were incredibly warm and loving.

“As I learnt more about their living conditions and their world I was able to see just how difficult life was for them and I wanted to help. So when one of the girls eventually confided in me that she was being beaten, I knew I couldn’t just walk away.”

Unsure of how she could help the orphans, Leander began visiting a cyber café in Kathmandu run by a young Nepalese man, Razoo.

She began to use his cyber café to encourage her friends and family back home to raise money to support the children of Nepal. Leander and Razoo soon became good friends with a shared interest in helping the orphans and set up an organisation which later became a registered charity, called Mysmallhelp.

Leander said: “Razoo was such a friend to me when I was out there and when I told him about the children I had been working with he immediately offered to help.

“He genuinely cares about children and wanted to meet them. He then offered to help me set up Mysmallhelp to raise money to support the orphans and help provide them with an education.”

At first Leander relied on the generosity of friends and family back home to provide support to the Nepalese children. But with Razoo’s help they set up www.mysmallhelp.org and the organisation soon became a success.

It now sponsors over 60 children in their education in Nepal. Over the years volunteers have provided school uniforms to children, text books and basic equipment.

They have also helped build toilet facilities and are currently working on a project to provide a renewable energy source to one school which will reduce fuel costs and in turn free up vital resources which can be ploughed back into the children's education.

Members also provide basic health care for children. Leander said: “MSH believes that providing education alone is not always enough.”

“Families often have more immediate needs that tend to overshadow a child’s education and force them out of school, so MSH conducts an initial interview with the parent/guardian of the child.

“After this assessment, MSH decides on a case-by-case basis if we can offer books, stationery, medicine, clothes etc. to help the family of the sponsored child.

“This alleviates immediate welfare concerns to enable the child to enter, and more importantly, remain in education. MSH monitors the attendance and progress of the children through direct relationships with teachers and schools, and also aims to go one step further by helping the sponsored children find a job upon completion of the school leaving certificate.”

In order to do this Leander has now set up a social enterprise scheme called Mysmallshop which sells fairly traded goods handmade by artisans in Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa and Indonesia. All profits are donated to the charity mysmallhelp.

“I wanted to make sure that once the children from the orphanages had completed their education there would be somewhere for them to work under decent conditions,.” she said.

“That’s what Mysmallshop is about. Any profits we make are put back into Mysmallhelp so the two in turn help each other. The woman who inspired the business had a jewellery workshop in Nepal and I was shocked at the story of her family business.

“She made very little profit at all although her staff did all the work. I began taking some of her jewellery back to the UK to sell it, with no experience in that field whatsoever but eventually I have managed to send over £6,000 back to her in Nepal. Mysmallshop aims to help people like this to earn a decent wage from their hard work.”

Mysmallshop (website mysmallshop.org) mainly trades in jewellery, blankets, scarves and children’s wear. Leander does her best to ensure that all goods sold are fairly traded. “At the moment I can’t guarantee that the silver and gems which are supplied to the women who make the jewellery in Nepal are fairly traded – that’s next on the list, to investigate how they are mined etc.

“But we try to ensure that the women who make the jewellery are given a fair wage, and I am now looking for a designer to provide new designs so that we can sell items of jewellery in more upmarket shops in order to get more money for them.

“Mysmallshop is vital to help ensure that the children we are helping to educate are not exploited in their adult lives and we are looking for all the support we can to make it a success,” said Leander.

So far she has held stalls at various events in the town, including Ilkley Carnival, The Clarke Foley Centre, Christ Church, The Happiness Centre, The Veggie Cafe, and Smooth cafe. Mysmallshop hosts fair trade parties and can provide stock for those wishing to hold a party of their own. But, as with any charity, Leander is always on the lookout for more helpers and sponsors.

She said: “Anyone who would like to get involved in any way is welcome. We are always in need of money and volunteers to keep the organisation going. We believe that the work we do is vital to ensure the basic human rights of these children are met.

“That has become my main mission in life and I want to continue helping poor children in whatever way I can. We are all part of the same world and I believe that a social enterprise scheme like Mysmallshop could provide a sustainable solution to relieve poverty in the developing world by creating jobs and demand in the West for products produced in Nepal and other poor countries.”

Due to the rapid growth and interest in the Mysmallhelp and Mysmallshop projects, Leander is in urgent need of more “my small helpers”. She is looking for talented and enthusiastic individuals to offer their time and skills to enable Mysmallhelp realise its full potential.

Leander said: “There is no cost involved in becoming a trustee/guarantor, we just ask that you let us know how much time you can realistically commit and how you feel your skills and knowledge can best be used.”

She is also looking for volunteers to help support the work of the Mysmallhelp through sales, marketing and PR, fundraising, accounts, book-keeping and budgeting, legal support and photography. Anyone interested should contact Leander by June 15. Possible new trustees will be interviewed before the middle of July.

Contact leander.hollings@mysmallshop.org or by telephone to 0771 726 3426.