25 April 2015 is a date no Nepali will ever forget; the day the first of a series of earthquakes devastated the country. Tragically over 9,000 Nepalese lost their lives and millions lost their homes and livelihoods. Every day since, I have witnessed the communities I have been welcomed into rebuild their lives with an enormous resolve and determination, as well as the admirable outpouring of help from governments and charities around the world.
With a New Year looming my husband Simon and I have reflected on in the year gone, and I thought it fitting to share some of the individuals who have really stood out this year. Behold, my Christmas Champions.
Jessica Stanford
It’s been a privilege working alongside fellow VSO volunteer Jessica Stanford. Immediately after the earthquake struck Jessica changed her volunteering role from bio gas engineer to join a team coordinating the disaster response in one of the hardest hit districts in the country: Sindhupalchowk District.
Jessica in the tent she called home
Without complaint she then spent three months living in a tent and working tirelessly to ensure that international relief resources went to the right places and duplications across charities were avoided. Both my husband Simon and I helped Jessica by completing a ten day trek in our region of Lamjung to ascertain the rural schools and communities that really needed immediate help, which you can read about in my June blog.
Jessica has coordinated efforts across VSO and the charity sector with incredible professionalism; and she’s just 34. Recently the time came when Jessica could have gone back to her former placement as bio gas engineer; instead she has continued coordinating recovery efforts in a district so badly damaged that it will take years to rebuild. In her own words; “I’m in Nepal for the long haul and I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world right now.”
Kim West
Simon and I have been asked many a time by friends and family ‘how did we cope’ when the earthquakes struck? Whilst trying to formulate an answer to this, one of the first people that comes to mind is Kim West, the VSO Country Director for Nepal. She had been in her post for mere months before the earthquake.
Kim with some of our youth volunteers
Kim has had to struggle with all the challenges of re-orientating programme work to include an earthquake response, which has been scaled up massively by the enormous generosity from the disaster appeal VSO coordinated by the UK office. At the same time Kim has always had the wellbeing of her volunteers (which at the time included teams of our youth volunteers) and staff at the forefront of her work; the majority of Nepali staff were living in tents for months too.
For us as volunteers, being able to cope with the situation has been made much easier by Kim’s leadership and compassion.
Anju and Manoj
I am so privileged to be working alongside individuals like Kim and volunteers like Jessica. However, the real inspiration comes from the young Nepalese I am working with on the Sisters for Sisters project, who are so passionate about keeping girls in education beyond their early years.
Recently I went on a long clamber up the hillside to visit a particularly isolated school in the village of Khache. I went with Anju, one of our new Community Mobilisers and Manoj, who is volunteering for a couple of months whilst we are still in our emergency education phase following the earthquakes.
Smiles all round on the walk up
Luckily the school hadn’t fared much damage, and they had in fact reinforced their school building with more mud just in case another earthquake struck. Anju, Manoj and I then spent many happy hours helping the school teach a bit of science to the children; both student and teachers alike loved the song head, shoulders, knees and toes!
By the end of the day when we returned home Manoj told me today had been “the most interesting day of his life”, as he was full of admiration for this very poor school and the amount they were doing to keep girls and boys learning. Both of them have joined the project helping us straight from school, and are so full of enthusiasm. This Nepali generation certainly understands the value of education, which is so promising to see for the future.
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Becoming a VSO volunteer during this tough time for Nepal has certainly been a challenge. But reflecting on the strength of the individuals here working together to rebuild their lives definitely keeps you motivated to continue the hard work.
Thank you so much your wonderful support of VSO, and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Best wishes,
Judith
