Hello and welcome to my first update from Nepal! Firstly, thank you so much for choosing to receive my volunteer updates, by sharing updates on the work and progress I make I hope you’ll be able to see the amazing impact your kind gifts are having on people living in poverty. I will be using the skills I’ve learnt through many years farming at my home in Somerset, to work with local farmers here in Nepal to improve life for them and their communities. I know firsthand how there is no substitute for hard work and good people on a farm to really make it work and this is why I think volunteering is so important to really making international development work.
A country of extremes
Thank you for choosing to follow my volunteer adventure with VSO! Your gifts will be helping me to share my skills with midwives in Myanmar to save babies lives and give new mothers the support they need.
I have already volunteered in India a couple of times over the last few years; from providing education on health issues in communities, to caring for orphaned children, which should help me with this new placement. Now I have become a fully trained midwife I am hoping a year of sharing my skills will really help the community I will be living in. I’m so excited to start a new chapter in my life as I move away from my home city of Birmingham (and leave my dog Penny!) for the year.
Hello and welcome to my first blog from Tanzania. The last couple of weeks here have been a whirlwind. When I arrived I went to the VSO country office in Dar Es Salaam I met loads of other volunteers from all corners of the world; the Philippines, Holland, Quebec, Uganda, Kenya – a right international amalgamation. We received our Tanzania induction, which included getting a local Vodacom sim. Now we can make free calls to other VSO staff and volunteers, which I think will be invaluable. Steve and Roger, my co volunteers, came to pick me up from Mtwara airport and took me to Lindi which will be my home for the next two years!
My house is not quite ready to move into, though I have seen the outside and after its new paint job of lilac and green it is looking luridly impressive. Apparently the painters are from Dar Es Salaam and they have their finger on the pulse when it comes to the latest coloured masonry fashions. So, I am currently staying in a hotel around the corner, which is clean, tidy and air conditioned.
My new home
Meeting my new colleagues
With your support the Sisters for Sisters project is making sure girls have the bright future they deserve. So much has happened during my first few months in Nepal volunteering as an education adviser on the Sisters for Sisters project. I have been mentoring and supporting ‘Community Mobilisers’ and facilitating training – so there’s lots I want to update you on already.
One of first things that struck me on my placement is how far many of the children have to trek every day to get to school. On one of my first visits to a school I walked up the side of a mountain from about 700 metres to 1600 meters (the equivalent of climbing Ben Nevis perhaps!) in the steaming heat of 29 degrees, that’s in the shade, and nearly vertical in places. I was also carrying a pile of notebooks and pens as prizes for the children and a vital litre of water of course. It’s certainly more challenging than the school run at home.
After a two and a half hour long trip, up the side of a mountain, along a bumpy track I reached the District Livestock Services Office in Besisahar. After meeting the team we went to visit a local dairy. I was staggered to find out that any milk produced here will be transported using the local bus along the potholed road we’d just travelled on!
Having visited more than a dozen dairies since arriving in Nepal, my questioning process is pretty slick. It needs to be since we hurry along as the evening draws in. There are 17 cows in the herd, with 13 ‘in milk’, and daily production is just 70 litres. There is no lack of enthusiasm on this farm, which has been set up for just over a year, but as we talk I discover that many of the cows, despite their stage in lactation and low yield are not yet in calf. This is a very worrying sign for the future.
Thank you for your gift and for supporting volunteers like me in the fight against global poverty. Gifts like yours will soon be helping me to work with new mothers and babies in Ethiopia. I have always wanted to work overseas in a developing country and use my skills to help people; this will be my first experience of working and living abroad so I’m both terrified and excited! During my last day at work in the UK before leaving for Ethiopia, it struck me how different my working life is going to be and all the things like medicine and machines we take for granted here in the UK.
Why I’m sharing my skills
• In Ethiopia only 10.8% of babies are delivered by a skilled professional and only 34% of women receive antenatal care.
• The maternal mortality rate is 676 per 100,000 live births (compared with 12 per 100,000 in the UK), this is a shocking difference.
• The major causes of maternal deaths are obstructed labour, ruptured uterus, severe pre-eclampsia or eclampsia and complications related to abortion.
Simon with new partner Krishna
Firstly I want to say a big thank you for your generous support – I wouldn’t be here helping farmers in Nepal without you.
Meeting my placement partners
During my initial visits to farmers and processors we have identified needs and areas where change would be welcomed. My challenge is going to be making sure these changes are long lasting and create sustainable solutions. Krishna Olija (in the picture above) runs a small dairy and promotes organic farming, and he has strong links with VSO Nepal and has been instrumental in finding my placement partners. He has arranged meetings and added the essential explanations of VSO’s work and the role of the professional volunteer, which my language skills could not attempt.
Improving milk quality and quantity
Your gifts are going to help girls like Kamala here to get the education they deserve and the opportunity to overcome poverty forever. Your gifts really will change lives, so first of all, thank you.
Hello and welcome to my first blog post from Nepal! The sights, smells and sounds of life in here are truly extraordinary. In the cities the smell of cooking and spices fills the air and everything, from the clothes to the lorries, is an explosion of colour. And in the countryside, miles of green rice paddies blend into the slopes of the world’s tallest mountains creating some amazing views.
But beneath all of this, Nepal is struggling with some of the highest poverty rates in Asia. And across the country women and girls are disproportionately affected and at the heart of this difference is education.
Fighting gender inequality in schools and communities
Thank you for supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people and helping them get life changing support. Gifts like yours will very soon be helping me to work with an innovative project that is ensuring more girls in Nepal are staying in school and have the opportunity to build a life free from poverty.
There are a number of reasons why girls struggle to get a full education in Nepal. Child marriage amongst young girls is still wide spread with 40% married by the age of 15 and removed from school to start a new life as someone’s wife. Girls are also more likely to be removed from school in order to support their families with household chores. The result of this gender disparity has meant that across Nepal, over 60% of women are illiterate and are unable to secure a livelihood and break out of poverty.
I feel very privileged to be able to volunteer with VSO and use my skills to support young girls in Nepal, who are too often denied a full education. Through the Sisters for Sisters project I will be working with older girls, “Big Sisters”, who have completed education and will equip them with skills to mentor and encourage younger girls who are at risk of leaving school early. This is a really exciting role as these “Big Sisters” will not only directly support younger girls but will act as role models for whole communities so girls and their families can see the real value of schooling. I’ll be in touch soon with more details about my placement and life in Nepal.
Thank you so much for choosing to help some of the world’s most vulnerable people get life changing support. Gifts like yours will very soon be helping me to help farming families in Nepal find new ways to make the most of their resources.
It has long been an ambition of mine to put the skills that I have acquired over years of experience in farming in the UK to work with marginalised communities. We have access to all sorts of technology and equipment on UK farms, but wherever you are in the world there are simple things that all farmers need to run a successful farm.
Weather extremes and even slight changes in rainfall are some of nature’s biggest challenges. Around the world, even at home in Somerset, we have seen the shocking effects that unpredictable weather can have on farmers. Add to that the ever changing market place putting economic pressure on farmers and it is easy to see why those working on the brink of poverty really need our help to overcome these challenges. I’ll be using my experience to support farmers in one of the poorest countries in Asia, Nepal, where the majority of the population relies on agriculture for an income.
I’ll be in touch soon with more about agriculture in Nepal and what I’ll be doing to support communities here.
In the meantime, I'd like to say a huge thank you for your support; VSO couldn’t send volunteers like me without it, and I look forward to keeping you posted on my progress.
Simon
