Riehen, June 2017

Report "Sachham Nepal" spring 2017

The main purpose of Sachham is to provide guidance and financial support for graduated male and female teenagers on their way through college education or vocational training as well as single mothers with children and interventions in emergencies.

Now, Sachham is supporting 15 teenagers, out of which 9 are female (2 resident, 7 non-resident) and 6 males (4 resident, 2 non-resident). They all come from very poor income backgrounds. The following education and further education are taking place: college +2 (after 10 elementary school years), 4-years preparation for bachelor of different subjects; accounting, managing (hotel management), social work, medicine and technical subjects. Every student has a very individual program and a corresponding individual budget that sometimes varies very much. The support of these students is therefore very individual, challenging, differentiated and sometimes very time-consuming. The challenge is even bigger considering the difficult circumstances in Nepal.

2 mothers with their children as well as 4 children from the village of Kalikot are currently living at our house in Kathmandu. Furthermore, we are taking care of a young single mother, who doesn’t live at Sachham house. Her boyfriend left her just after she got pregnant. Even her family sent her away, once they found out, she wanted to get an abortion. There were moments, when she didn’t want to live anymore. But once she delivered the baby, everyone, including herself, loved it. The young woman managed to get back on track again. Next month she is even going to start a hairdresser and cosmetician education. It’s a 3-months course after which she is working as a trainee for 5 months, before she can graduate and receive a certificate valid abroad as well. The course costs CHF 40.- per month. We are going to support her until she can stand on her own feet again. Luckily, her mother is babysitting her newborn for her to be able to study.

Our trip to Kalikot

After my arrival in Kathmandu on April 6th, 2017, I didn’t have much time before we left again for our long journey to the village of Kalikot. Until then I still had a lot to get done:

4 siblings have been dropped off at Sachham house under very dramatic circumstances. 3 years ago, their uncle, a 21-year old student, left them in front of our door. They are his sister’s children. She wanted to kill them after their father committed suicide. Until today, she is mentally very instable. Her brother took the children to Kathmandu, where he lived in a room. When he contacted us at Sachham, he was desperate, because he couldn’t find a children’s home. He worked at a shoe factory during the night, having the youngest of his nephews, 1 1/2-year old Kiran, tide to his back.

We took on this long trip to Kalikot for these 4 children to meet their relatives and to finally see their village, just once. It was part of their healing process of traumatic experiences back in their young life’s. The bus ride to Kalikot was exhausting and took 3 days from 7am to 7pm every day. At the end of the drive, we even had to hike up to the village, where they welcomed us with music and Tikas (red sign of blessing on the forehead).

On day two, we climbed up to an alp, where their mother and grandmother live. Ramita, the eldest one of the children, who was the only one to grow up in the village, seemed to know every little path and every little stone. The mother was extremely happy to hear her children calling for her all day long. Grandmother and her 4 grandchildren visited the animals in the barn. And even though they enjoyed their days at the village with their family, it was clear to everyone there, they couldn’t live at the village ever again. There were simply no jobs available. Most of the young people there move abroad.

After two days in Kalikot, Malika and myself drew a positive balance: We would go on this trip anytime again. It was a perfect length of stay, as we all needed time to cope with what we experienced during these days. On the long journey, back to Kathmandu, the children started telling us what they experienced and how they felt about their relatives and friends. It was very important to us to show them they are part of a family, which they now even got to know, thanks to our visit at Kalikot.

During our trip back, we stopped from time to time at a river to take a dip into the fresh cold water. After every refreshment, we found ourselves left with a lot of wet clothes. But it was worth it; the children enjoyed it very much. We brought home good memories and it even feels like this trip bonded us forever.

Sachham House

In May, we visited 3 children, named Sonam, Sandish und Sony. They all used to live at Sachham house with their aunt and mother (27-years-old). At that time, she found a good job at a monastery and grew to be a big help at the house, as she knew all rituals of our daily life and helped carrying them out correctly. She also started playing with her children instead of being busy at her cell phone, like she used to at the beginning. After a while, we rented a room for her outside of Sachham House and let the children stay with us while their mother was at work. So far so good.

The situation got worse a while after they moved to this room. The mother didn’t take care of the children’s school uniform anymore, didn’t’ pick up the children from Sachham house after finishing work and from time to time we even found the children all dirty hanging out in the streets. We found out, their mother had a boyfriend and got pregnant again. We had tried to find a way together to solve this situation. But shortly after we found this out, she left her children, only leaving their clothes behind. The mother was gone and so was her boyfriend. The rules didn’t allow us to take the children back to Sachham house permanently. I had tried to find a good children’s home, but after the earth quake in 2015, all the homes were full. An old friend of mine promised me to host the 3 children in spring 2017. Until then, we could make the children feel like they were safe and sound. At the beginning of 2017 we were indeed able to bring the children to the newly built home. Even though they have a new place to live now, they still spend their vacation at Sachham house, if they wish to. They seem to be happy and comfortable at their new home and I truly hope, we will be able to reunite them with their mother – one day.  

Cvds – Conflict Victim and Disable Society

On day two of my trip to Nepal, I already visited the Cvds, a home for disabled people. I didn’t want to let them wait for my visit for over two weeks, until after I got back from Kalikot. Juna, a girl I took special care of, had passed away in the meantime; an unexpected heart failure. Even a boy passed away at the hospital, shortly after he was brought in. So obviously, there has been a lot of changes at the Cvds. Thanks to a medicine donation all patients’ scabies could be treated successfully and the entire home was being cleaned thoroughly. I’m very thankful we got to solve this problem, as everyone was always itchy and therefore had to scratch themselves. Sachham supports Cvds further with nappies, massage oil and my personal visits.

School in Halesi

Another project, which we have been supporting briefly, is the school in Halesi. Thanks to a well-known and project-related donation we can now support this school further. Therefore, a friend of ours is going to travel to Nepal this autumn to organize an English school for students as well as for teachers and to build a hostel for girls and boys. Having a hostel saves these children an everyday 2 ½-hour walk back and forth from home to school, which is especially though during the rainy season. Another plus side is, we get to send more children to school. This spring Evelyne Wernli, a Sachham Nepal board member, has already started to teach English conversation to the teachers at Halesi supported by a student living at Sachham house. Our plan for this autumn is to visit Halesi once again this time with an experienced school architect, a teacher from Basel and possibly with Susi and Robi Groeli. 

This was a little wrap up of my intense time in Nepal. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. I’m happy to talk to you anytime.

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart, dear friends of Sachham Nepal, for the support you have given us already and for supporting us further in our cause.

I wish you a beautiful summer and am looking forward to hearing or even seeing you again soon.

Warm regards,

Kathrin Baumgartner

President of Sachham Nepal