Fundraising and a bit about Nepal

So while I was in Bangalore I was also fundraising for school in Nepal. Since this was my first time fundraising, I was a bit shy and therefore didn’t go wide into my network (which I regret now). However, I am so grateful for my close family and friends who donated for the cause and supported / motivated me to take part with sincerity and a sense of responsibility. I was so surprised that with little effort on my side, I managed to raised more than $4,000AUD in a month from 14 donors before my trek to Nepal.

This was not just another travel experience.. It was my experiment on travelling with a purpose in mind.

Nepal as a country for me had always been associated with the mighty Himalayas. Never did I expect to see a completely different side of it.

On 27th November I landed in Kathmandu, Nepal and spent a couple of days hanging out with some locals and travellers before meeting my team for the Trek to village where the school is being built.

About Nepal…

Nepal is a landlocked country with China and India sharing most of its borders. Most of the basic goods are imported from India or China hence expensive due to import duties. Nepal recently had a major earthquake in 2015 that resulted in approx. 8500 casualties and huge devastation of properties. Wherever I went I heard stories of the impact to lives of families due to the earthquake. Farmers had to sell their farm to rebuild a house and leave their village to find jobs in big cities like Kathmandu (like the driver I met on my way to Pokhara) or somewhere in India (like the community members I met in the village where the school was built).

Nepal is not all mountainous. The “Terai” region is a lowland flat region which makes up approx. 23% of Nepal and is largely bordering with India. The school project I was part of was in a village called Banjariya in the Kailali district in Terai region. Nepal is also a very ethnically, racially and culturally diverse country with many types of cuisines, more than hundred languages spoken by its people. Nepal has many beautiful places to visit ofcourse starting with the great himalayan peaks of Mt Everest, Annapurna ranges.. but also beautiful cities such as Pokhara, Bandipur. Nepal also has many wildlife sanctuaries such as Chitwan, Bardiya whereby you can spot the Bengal Tiger if you are lucky! And my favourite of all, Nepal is such a spiritual place to find yourself in. Whether you are in Thamel or in Pokhara or in some buddhist monastery, you cant help but grab your attention towards the buddhist chants being played. These sounds are so soothing to the mind, body and soul. I have been addicted to it since I returned from Nepal.

While there is so much Nepal has to offer, it also has some major challenges it is grappling with and making slow and steady progress. Nepal recently became a secular republic in 2015 under the constitution of Nepal. It has suffered from political instability and undemocratic rule for much of its history. There is a lack of access to basic services, people have superstitious beliefs, and there is gender discrimination. It is ranked as 155 in the list of worlds most economically poor countries.

Access to education is also a major challenge especially in rural Nepal. When I started fundraising for the school build in Nepal, a lot of my friends and family members in India asked me why Nepal and moreover why not India as India also has many similar challenges. It was always a difficult question to answer. In an ideal world, I would have loved to build a school in India as well but then you don’t get a platform like “buildOn” and an opportunity like the one Linh introduced me to every now and then. It was a rare opportunity for me to join Linh’s team to build a school in Nepal as part of “buildOn” movement. When I came to Nepal and experienced the level of poverty, state of public infrastructure, socio economic challenges of most families where the bread winner (usually men) is almost always away from home (most of the times I heard them working in India) – I realised that challenges in Nepal overall are far greater than in India and education would be a major catalyst to lift the major chunk of the populace out of poverty just like what happened in India a few decades ago. All of this convinced me even more that coming to Nepal to build a school was the right decision in many ways. While I don’t believe in geographical boundaries, it is hard to explain to people who do on why it is equally satisfying to contribute to education anywhere in the world. It doesn’t have to be the country you are born in or where you live.