A great experience ! Testimony of our 3 volunteers in Nepal

participants making organic manure

After spending the first two months learning about the culture and our environment, we used the month of February to mainly focus on the projects of our different organizations.

Catherine mainly organized monthly workshops and a two-day recreational camp in March for the beneficiaries of the Hakuna Matata project. In addition to the workshops, she also worked with the Awasar project instructors from Janakpur, for whom she prepared online English lessons and embroidery courses.  This means that she had the opportunity to work more closely with the beneficiaries and trainers of the different SAATH projects this month.

 

Zoe started to organize English classes for the beneficiaries of the Chautari Youth Club. These are daily classes where the basics of the English language are taught and reviewed. Most young people learn English at school. However, the level of public schools in Nepal is not comparable to the level of public schools in Luxembourg and they find it more difficult to use the language in everyday life. The English classes have allowed Zoé to get involved in the organization and develop a project that is part of the Chautari youth club. 

 

Tamara had a very varied month. She participated in two school visits from Kathmandu at the Bottlehouse, inaugurated the digital room at the Agricultural Education Resource Centre (on 11 February - International Women and Girls in Science Day) and did some work at Shikharapur Community School, where she offered guided meditation classes and gave a presentation on Luxembourg to several classes.  She also had time to start her own small projects at the Bottlehouse, a plant stand made of bamboo and recycled bottles and made a birdhouse.

 

Apart from our projects within the various ONGD-FNEL partnerships, we spent the last weekend of February together in Pharping. The first part of the weekend was spent visiting Tamara's project. She showed Zoé and Catherine the different programmes and buildings of SCLC, the main office, the open school, the agricultural learning resource center, the community school and the bottle house. The short walk across the fields to the Bottlehouse amazed Zoé and Catherine. To end the weekend on a high note, all three went to visit the Asura Cave, a sacred place for Buddhists, and together they hung a prayer flag on a hill behind a famous monastery.

This little excursion allowed Zoé and Catherine to escape the urban chaos of Kathmandu and to discover the diversity of SCLC's projects. Moreover, all three of us took advantage of this weekend to exchange and share our different experiences.

Happy Holi !

Tamara, Zoé et Catherine