Saimarang

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Saimarang is a small village in the centre of Nepal. Pro Nepal has been helping this village to build a water main by assuring financial support. Shortly before the beginning of the construction of the water main, the government announced that it would build the water main not only for Saimarang, but even for other villages close to it. Since ProNepal was asked by the school of Saimarang for help to support the construction of a classroom containing a science laboratory.

Because there was no science laboratory available to the students in Saimarang, it was necessary for them to go to Pokhara by taking a bus or walking great distances. Due to the absence of a laboratory in the village, both teachers and students were forced to spend much time and money to attend the school in Pokhara.

In December, 2015, the village sent us a proposal for the project estimating 7.000 €. Work started after our financial support arrived in January 2016, and, in March 2016, part of the building was completed. The size of the classroom was increased, and Pro Nepal approved of what was decided. The final cost of the labour was 10.000 euro.

Project Drinking Water Supply Tipchok

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In January 2016 Pro Nepal had the support of additional contributions in order to carry out a plan for a water supply network in the village of Tipchok – Kavrepalchok in Nepal.

Unfortunately, after the earthquake, springs dried up and the village waterworks almost disappeared. Women are forced to carry water 400 meters away from the village unless this project is completed. In August 2015 a member of Pro Nepal visited Tipchok and the people explained the situation to him.

There’s a school centre, which is supported by Pro Nepal, that needs another waterworks project to build three additional classrooms to replace the ones which were destroyed by the earthquake.

Pro Nepal asked our local partner, SEO Kathmandu, to create a proposal which would be presented to the Region.

(to be continued…)

Letter by Aruna, Head of the Home Sahayogj

Here things are getting back to normal considering the earthquake even though the aftershocks are being felt. But we are now used to the aftershocks.

What is not normal is the current blockade caused by India to Nepal. Things are weird over here. The greatest problem is caused by the shortage of fuel. It has been so long that we have been running out of fuel, so much that government has stopped giving fuel to any private vehicle. Now the streets have been empty as there is no fuel, as well as no gas to cook. We are managing with the induction cook-top but since load shedding is there, we have to manage our time table as per the load shedding schedule to cook food.

Market is suffering from a serious shortage of food. The condition is worst than the time when we were recovering from the earthquake. Everything is having a huge price hike these days, and even after the price hike it is very difficult to find commodities. For eg, onions used to cost around 60-80 per kg now it has reached up to 220 per kg.
Petrol was priced around 103 per liter which is now not available at all and some people are ready to pay 500 per liter and still no sign of it. Same is the case with cooking gas, it was priced 1415 per cylinder, now people are ready to pay 5000 per cylinder but is not available.

People are found either walking or cycling. Some are carpooling, some hoping to get public transport. Government has imposed the system of even and odd i.e. on even date, vehicles with even registration number are allowed to be operated and same in case of odd dates.

Schools are being shut down showing the reason they can not operate school buses. Even the banks are giving service only when there is no load shedding.

It is so frustrating for us to live in a situation where nothing is available and we can not compromise in anything when it comes to our children. The government agencies and bodies are continuously inspecting the situation and they are ready to take action in case they would find anything below the set standards. They are not considering the current situation at all.

Our biggest festival Dashain is almost here, starting from October 13. And this time we think the festival will have no charm at all.
Our children await the festival but they are unaware of the situation outside. It is the festival where we enjoy new clothes, good food, swings and kites along with the rituals related to gods and goddesses. We are hoping things will get back to normal before the festival would start so that we could actually celebrate the festival nicely.

Take Care,
Aruna
Namaste!