The chairman of SVN, Henk Caminada and his wife Maria from the Netherlands recently paid a visit to SVN’s projects. It was great to see them here in Nepal and to show them around. We would like to thank Henk for coming to Nepal and for all the great work he does for SVN. We also thank Maria for her ongoing support. It was really nice for the Nepal team to be able to meet you “live” .

On 28 February 2011, SVN and the accountancy office SDPJ & Associates Nepal organized a workshop on manual accounting for our seven partner NGOs. This was an important workshop as not all the partners were familiar with the government rules and regulations on accounting. The participants learnt all the ins and outs of manual accounting. Our accountant, Santosh Basyal is in close contact with our partners to make sure they implement their newly- learnt knowledge and skills accordingly and to assist them where necessary.

Over the past three months, Cross Borders volunteer Els de Rooij from the Netherlands paid the children of Mero Niwas a visit almost every weekend. Els is very creative and the children always looked forward to her visits. They did all kinds of games and activities together, such as making diaries and friendship bracelets, enjoying a disco dance evening, baking bread and going on picnics etc.  The children had a wonderful and unforgettable time with Els.

Thanks to Cross Borders volunteer Kalpana Eshuis, the children at the contact center in Balaju also had a great time these last couple of months. Kalpana did many creative and fun activities with the children and even took them on a school outing. We would like to thank Kalpana for her positive energy and the wonderful memories she gave to the children.

This time it was the turn of the playground and the scary little stairs of the Nava Indradhanus School to be renovated.  Cross Borders volunteers Rens and Luka from the Netherlands worked very hard to give the playground a makeover and to make the stairs safer for the children to use. We would like to thank Rens and Luka for their great effort, donation and fantastic result!

On 29, 30 and 31 March, SVN in cooperation with WHR’s Single Women Group organized a goat keeping programme for 30 women (widows). On the final day of the programme 25 women each received two goats (five women had already received goats, but had not done the training).

In the last couple of months, thanks to the new donors,  SVN/EFF has been able to enroll new students into the scholarship programme. We now have 152 students in our programme who are sponsored by 60 donors. EFF is slowly growing and Gautam, the programme coordinator, and Abhsihek, the fieldworker, are getting more work by the day.

The six-month Early Childhood Education course for the teachers of the day care centers in Dhading has finished. The course has been very good and effective and the teachers are using their newly- learnt skills with confidence. It is great to see the teachers at work and even more to see the children so motivated and eager to learn.

Het niveau van de gezondheidszorg in Nepal loopt ver achter bij de standaard in het westen, wat ook veel ziekte en zeer met zich meebrengt en het voortijdig overlijden van de bevolking om vaak eigenlijk onnodige zaken. Zo is er een groot sterftecijfer te zien van mensen met een aanvankelijk onschuldige diaree. Maar het niet of niet goed behandelen daarvan leidt in Nepal vaak tot de dood. 

Thank you for all the support and interest in SVN. Without your help SVN is unable to support the women and children in Nepal. Please let us know if there is anyone able to support the two Thapa Magar siblings.  That would be fantastic. I am also looking for a donor who can support me with the windmill I am planning to build at Hamro Gaun….who can help me out?

Thanks again and many greetings from Kathmandu, Rene Veldt and team.