Terry's Travel Log (Blog) Vl - Dhikurpokari, Nepal
From Dhikurpokari near Pokhara, Nepal
This community Dhikurpokari, (meaning Love Bird Pond) sits at 1470 meters above sea level. It covers 2,317 hectares and has a population of about 10,000 people. In 2001, 120 people formed 5 groups to form a Municipal Development Organization. Their membership included 68 women, 36 dalit (or lowest cast) and 25% were physically challenged. Their group success has allowed them to expand their activities into 4 other communities. They now have 8 paid staff and 14 regular volunteers. Their goals are simple and straight forward. They work for an Equitable and Just Society and for Social and Economic Development. Their list of objectives gets a lot more detailed. These people are serious. They have had a long list of training and workshops to achieve their successes. Their youth development strategies include computer skills training. But it is their farming and marketing skills enhancement that has ramped up family income.
SAP Nepal used World Accord funding to train and develop their leadership of adults and youth. They took a delegation of trainees to other communities who were successful in doing what they wanted to do. They chose a model they liked. SAP and World Accord then provided loans to construct the first 10 "tunnels" or greenhouses that stand about 3 meters (12 feet) wide at the bottom and 3 meters high and about 8 meters (24 feet) long. It is the community group's intention to help every family in their community to have a model farm. They are using the "tunnels" or green houses, compost, trickle irrigation and a common marketing warehouse to improve quality, reduce costs and increase profits from organic vegetable production. These subsistence farms that used to yield little or nothing more than the family needed to eat. With an investment of 4,000 to 5,000 Rupees ($66 to $83 CDN) per family, they are able to net between 20,000 to 25,000 Rupees ($333 to $416 CDN) per season and there are 3 seasons per year.
This community group includes their physically challenged members too. They are helping these people get the treatment and care they need and training that will help them earn a living and participate as fully as they can in society life.
The armed conflict that raged for 10 years in Nepal affected this community. They organized and hosted Peace Camps and marched in protest of war and encouragement of Peace.
Women face some systemic and traditional prejudice. The youth group formed a street theatre company, wrote and performed street plays to challenge discrimination against widowed women. They challenged the tradition that prevented widows and unmarried women from wearing red.
The community has formed 3 cooperatives and committee lead by 2 young women to bring clean drinking water to over 100 families and organized the irrigation water system. Their list of achievements goes on and on. And it all started in the Program of SAP (South Asia Partnership) Nepal and World Accord. New opportunity. New resources. New actions. New initiatives. New Hope!
The country is now at Peace. This is the nation's opportunity to start anew. If there is opportunity for enough people like these, Nepal has a bright future of Peace.
Near Pokhara, Nepal
Terry Fielder
Executive Director
Terry's Travel Log (Blog) V - Progress in Gunte Csaur, Nepal
They said it would be warmer in Pokhara. It is. About 1 degree! I am certainly glad I threw a wool sweater into my suitcase at the last minute or I would be in real trouble. It is damp and cold with regular rainfall. The clouds prevent the sun from warming things up during the day.
We arrived late late into Pokhara. I have been here before. It is the main tourist area. From here, the trekkers depart on everything from short walks of a few hours in the "hill country" to long excursions that can last weeks into remote valleys in this magnificent land.
When I woke up this morning, the sky was clear. From inside the city, one can see the majestic mountains between the 3 and 4 story buildings. They tower above the 1 story building right in front of me. Majestic white fingers and fists reaching into the deep blue of the sky. It is amazing how fast and how far these mountains rise above this valley floor.
After a local breakfast, we were off to the project areas. We cleared the city traffic congestion in a few minutes and began to climb. For 20 to 30 minutes we drove up the paved highway and then turned onto a gravel and mud road. Another half hour of climbing in low range and low gear and we arrived in the village of Gunte Csaur in the municipality of Kaskikot. You would not believe this place. All the way from Kathmandu over 200 kilometers away, there are terraced farms carved out of the most impossibly steep mountain sides. But here, the terraces are stack upon each other like a fan of cards that rise about three thousand feet vertically without interruption. Rain water drains from one terrace to the next. This has to be one of largest and greatest wonders of the world created by humanity. What incredible beauty.
Speckled all over the mountain side are small clusters of tiny homes. They are made of mud and many have slate stone roofs. The elevation in this community ranges from 795 to 1,786 meters above seal level. At close to 6,000 feet, I run out of breath quickly as I walk up and down the mountain trails in the community. A woman at least 20 years my senior passed me with big basket on a tump strap across her forehead carrying firewood. Being twice her size does not help but I suspect these people have incredibly strong hearts and lungs.
About 11,000 people live here. Three thousand students attend the 8 Primary, 1 Intermediate and 1 High School in the municipality. The Kaskikot Community Development Organization that is assisted by World Accord's local partner, SAP Nepal, has 204 members. It was formed in 2001. There are 4 men and 5 women in the Executive Management Committee. They have one staff member and the people the group seeks to assist are women, dalits (lowest cast), ethnic minorities, children and the poor. Twenty people met with us to tell us their stories.
What an amazing group of people. This collection of families living in the same area have formed community. The had jointly agreed on 6 clear objectives. They wanted:
- alternative income sources to their subsistence farming,
- a survey to identify resources and the local market,
- advocacy on social issues,
- a gender friendly program plan for all sectors of society,
- capacity building training to address community issues and
- institutional development for long term continuity of their local organization.
WOW! They have systematically planned and launched a series of activities and interventions to achieve their goals. They are intentional and they are happy with their progress. Over 30% of the families have now been able to access the loan fund to raise goats. Typical interest on a loan here, if you can get one, is 36% but their own Savings and Loan Micro Enterprise Loan fund charges only 14%. To really increase their income, the community markets their goats together and are getting a much higher price. The loan repayment rate is high and the family income is up.
They credit their success to several things including the training and exposure to other villages who are successfully launching the same projects under the World Accord and SAP Program. The project is not without problems but the people were very determined about their desire to work together to solve the issues. They are cooperating like never before. In addition, their success has been noticed. Local government agencies (and even another foreign funding agency) have begun to help deal with other poverty issues.
In terms of long term sustainability, they are doing some incredible leadership training and development of community youth. They have taken training and mobilized the youth in community clean-up of roads, public areas and temples. They have begun HIV/AIDS education, erosion control, journalism training and started a quarterly community newsletter. And they have a long list of plans.
I asked the community how they got started. It was SAP Nepal with World Accord funding that offered training. They managed to form the 5 groups of 20 members in each group with at least 60% women members to qualify as a Community Based Organization. They have worked hard but they are proud of their increased family income that gives them new choices for their lives including advancing the education of their children.
The SAP and World Accord training prepared them to do research that told them they could be successful with goat production and marketing. They have a lot of challenges yet to face but they have plans they are committed to and a track record to say they will be successful.
From Nepal
Terry Fielder
Executive Director
World Accord.
Terry's Travel Log (Blog) lV.V - The End of Armed Conflict, Nepal
Greetings from Nepal
I have grown up in a nation and culture that has shielded me from many of the effects of armed conflict. I know my father was seriously damaged by the war beyond the bullet and bomb inflicted wounds to his body. It was the terror that affected him psychologically. All the years we shared, from my birth to his death a few years ago, I know he never slept through an electrical storm. The lightning and thunder was so much like the bombardments he faced in Great Britain and Europe. I do not think I ever knew the man he really was or could have been. Now my nephew is in Afghanistan with the Canadian Armed Forces and I desperately hope this cycle does not start again.
As I experience Nepal after a 7 year absence, I am seeing the effects of the armed conflict that raged among these people all across this ancient nation. All of my colleagues were affected, as was their work. But now, the armed rebels have turned their guns over to the UN and they did so to enter the political theatre of dialog and conflict resolution. There is excited hope among the people in the city.
Strange though. In every other country and area of war I have visited in the past 25 years, the war has sapped the resources of the nation, halted progress or even created serious deterioration. Haiti, the Philippines, El Salvador, Guatemala and Sri Lanka. But Nepal, at least the capital city of Kathmandu, appears to have had an economic and development serge despite the Maoist revolution and civil war. I wonder about the the rural areas. I will soon find out.
The conflict simmered at a low level for several years until it fully erupted in 2000, just a few weeks after a World Accord Discovery Expedition that ended in December of 1999. It was a Maoist revolt. Nepal sits nestled up against the south side of the massive Himalaya mountain range that includes Mount Everest. It is the buffer zone between India, the world's largest democracy and the world's largest communist (cum industrialist state), China. So I naturally expected the Maoist ideology had come out of China. Wrong! It came from India. It started as a group of activists struggling for the rights of the poorest. It may have become a genuine social revolution because it was supported by a large segment of the society. The exciting thing is that the armed conflict has stopped.
I look forward to seeing the people in the country side and how their well-being has been affected by conflict. Our Parter agency, SAP Nepal (SAP means South Asia Partnership) has been telling us for the seven years of the conflict that they have been able to keep working despite the violence. All this time, World Accord staff have been telling donors and funding agencies like the World Hunger Fund of the Community of Christ that this was not a time for us to abandon the poor of Nepal. The next few days will tell.
Stay tuned. If the power is on when I am near an internet site, I'll keep you posted.
Terry Fielder
Pokhara, Nepal
Terry's Travel Log (Blog) lV - Pokhara, Nepal
Greetings all!
It is the evening of the 12th here. We arrived safely in Pokhara in west-central Nepal today. It is a spetacular drive twisting through the mountains. The pace is slow and there are a lot of trucks and busses. It is about 200 kms and usually takes about 5 to 6 hours. About 40km's out of Pokhara, the timing belt broke and the engine stopped on a corner on a hill. The driver and I took the engine apart on the side of the road. When we took off the timing belt covers we found the 2 broken belts. Lots of burned knuckles on hot engine parts. We then took off the valve cover and we found 2 tappets broken in lttle pieces which likely means those 2 valves, the 2 pistons and likely the crank shaft are broken or damaged. That was the end of the road side repair hope. The 3 program staff and I went on to Pokhara after we pushed the truck around and coasted down the mountain into the regional capital town where the driver can get food and hotel until another truck can tow him back to Kathmandu. Lots of excitement.
It was long after dark when we crawled into Pokhara. The mountains are close here but the altitude is actually lower than Kathmandu so it is a little warmer. It is raining, cold and very damp. The temperature feels like about 5 or 6 degrees now.
I met witht he local SAP Nepal staff. They are our partner counterparts here. They have a full itinerary planned for tomorrow beginning before sun up and we will get back to town after dark.
The growth of the local village groups under the training and group formation experience of SAP Nepal has been tremendous. It sounds like tomorrow will be an exciting time. I have some pictures with me on my computer from Nepal back in 1999 when I was last here. I am going to try to find some of those people if I can and ask them what difference the project has made in their lives. This will be the kind of test we can only get from long term partnership like World Accord has with local agencies in Nepal, India, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Haiti. After 26 years in Development, World Accord has been part of a significant transformation in the lives of tens of thousands of people. Amazing!!!!
Good night, all!
Terry's Travel Log (Blog) lll - Rural Nepal
Greetings from a cold and damp traveler in Nepal
I made it through the first night and day. The night ... my friends are taking good care of me. The bought me a big warm comforter type bed cover that is at least queen size. There is no heat in the homes here. The floor in the home I am staying in is either granite or ceramic and not very sock feet friendly. Everyone takes their shoes off at the door here.
Once I jumped under my cover last night, I gradually got warmer. I was a little cool when I awoke at about 5:15 AM when the power went off and my CPAP breathing device quit working. When I got up and felt the real cold, I fell in love with my pink bed spread. They will have to pry it from my cold clenched hands when I leave.
The day was spent meeting with our PArtner SAP Nepal and Faruq Faisel, a long time friend and associate who is now acting in an advisory capacity for World Accord in some of our programs (especially in Asia.)
Faruq was born in Bagladesh. After graduating from University in journalism, he went abroad and eventually wound up in Canada. About 10 years back he went to work in Ottawa for South Asia Partnership (SAP). SAP is a consortium of development agencies like World Accord who work together and share resources and what we have learned with each other.
SAP Nepal is a counterpart agency in Nepal that World Accord still has a partnership and funding relationship with. SAP Nepal spent the day outlining their program, their various funding partners including World Accord. This agency has done good work for many years among the poor people here. Nepal is one of the poorest nations in South Asia.
In 1992, a new Director of SAP Nepal launched it into a new and creative direction. I liked it then and attended the inaugural meeting in Nepal. The program has contued to evolve and World Accord has been a funding partner, moral supporter and cheering squad ever since. The stage is set. SAP Nepal and World Accord can now begin to plan some new, creative and unproven strategies to help the poor and help relieve the tensions around the ongoing civil war and armed conflict.
Stay tuned for more news from the forefront of Peace in Nepal.
Houses For Health Update
So far we have received funds for 290 homes - what an outstanding contribution on the part of all the donors involved. Thank you so much. Construction has begun and over the months we hope to have photos from the field to share with you here. The one above is simply a truckload of cement bags.
Quite different from construction here when the concrete truck arrives ready to pour cement. In Honduras it is all mixed onsite mostly with a hoe and shovel right on the dirt with sand and gravel that also have to be trucked in from a river valley somewhere close enough to keep the trucking cost reasonable.
The truck itself belongs to our partner PRR and they will continue to use it, maintain it and repair it until they trade up to a newer model in a few month or a few years. Like everything else down there is it used until there is nothing left and then it is salvaged for every useable scrap. Our hope for PRR is that there is enough work for them in this project that they will end up with a newer truck at the end of it all.
Terry's Travel Log (Blog) ll - Kathmandu
I arrived cramped but well in India. The hour and a half on the ground in Zurich provided a welcomed stretch. My economy hotel was along cab ride west of the airport. The spartan room provided a few hours stretched out in a horizontal position. Comfort is a relative term. The taxi company tried to charge me twice. What a bunch of clowns!
Now I am on the Indian Jet Airways flight to Kathmandu. Wow! Now this is how to run an airline! Air Canada could certainly use a few lessons. Clean cabin and the cleanest washrooms I have ever had on a plane. Efficient. Friendly. A cloth napkin, metal cutlery and a hot meal on a 90 minute flight because it is lunch time! What a novel idea! And there is knee and leg room. Whoever manages this airline has actually flown on it and it shows. No wonder they are turning a profit. I rank them 5 stars with Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Jet Airways, everyone. Actual "Class" at an economy price. (Editor's Note: Nice Plug Terry. We should ask them to sponsor your next trip. LOL)
On to Kathmandu. If you ever fly here, try to get a window seat on the left side of the plane if you are coming from the west and on the right side if you come from the east. The Himalya Mountains are MAGNIFICENT! The wall of mountains are snow covered. They are bright and white standing thousands of feet above the clouds.
World Accord has been funding projects in Nepal since around 1989 or 1990 (if I remember correctly). The first projects were made possible because one donor made a major gift of 10% of his inheritance from his father's estate and that large block of funding allowed World Accord to access a $3 match to every dollar from the Canadian Government. Later projects were funded with regular donations and a long series of grants from the Community of Christ World Hunger Fund. The Canadian Government and CIDA canceled the matching grant program in 1995. A CIDA evaluation in 1997 recommended World Accord increase our funding support to the Nepal and Sri Lankan programs and to even cancel other long term programs in countries like Honduras and Guatemala to give us the extra money. If that evaluator had visited the Central American projects, he would have found what the evaluator there found in 2001. She liked our Partners and the Program, especially Mujeres en Accion , so she recommended we cancel all our Asian programs to provide more money for Central America. World Accord did not accept either recommendation because we knew the other programs and partner agencies were also doing excellent and effective work.
I am excited to see the apparent changes in Nepal, if any. The King voluntarily surrendered power to an elected government in 1990. A civil war spread across the country in 2000. The King was encouraging peace talks to end the conflict when he and his entire Royal Family was assassinated in 2000. His brother was crowned King and he was part of a military crack-down that escalated the violence. Now the rebels have set their arms aside and are seeking to enter the political process. These are exciting days. The SAP-Nepal organizations that are supported by World Accord have played a significant role in the Peace building process.
Now I get to go and hear from the people what the work of SAP-Nepal and World Accord has meant to them - how it has impacted their lives.
We are beginning to descend toward a solid wall of clouds. I can see Mount Everest far above us now. Amazing!! The range of mountains is off to the right of the plane now. We are almost to the clouds. There is one peak sticking just through the clouds just a kilometer or two away off to our right. I get nervous at moments like this. The clouds hide everything from view. Last time I was here just 7 years ago, Kathmandu airport had no radar.
We are on the ground now. After we broke through the clouds, we were over the Kathmandu valley. It is beautiful. And I saw a radar screen revolving off to the right of the airport as we landed. Nice to know!
I must close for now. Until tomorrow.
Terry
Terry's field Trip to Asia
As I struggle to sit in this extremely cramped Air Canada seat in "cattle class", I swear that they have moved the seats even closer together. The woman in front of me cannot recline her seat at all. It is going to be a long 17 hours to Delhi, India!
This is going to be the first in what I hope is a daily BLOG posting on this Asian program visit for World Accord. I have long since stopped month long project visits. I fall far too far behind in my office work. Sandra has to deal with my regular tasks and family responsibilities at home for too long. Yet, here I am on a 31 day international trip to Asia.
It has been 7 years since anyone from World Accord last visited our ongoing program in Nepal. That is where I will start. We have a lot of catching up to do and some long term plans are hoped for. After 10 days there, I will fly to the southern Indian city Bangalore to meet with an old colleague and several community group leaders there about some new initiatives they are trying to start. After 2 days in Bangalore, I will proceed west to the coastal city of Chennai, India and the CORDI Women's Shelter Program for 2 more days. The Kumar family that lead the CORDI Program, need to have some planning and program support for a new shelter building construction project.
The main reason for this trip at this time is what is called "An Inception Mission" for a new 2 year program in Sri Lanka. The people in the coastal areas who survived the Tsunami of December, 2005 are still struggling to restore normalcy to their lives. The "Aid" agencies have pretty well left. They provided emergency food, medicine temporary shelter and even some permanent new shelter homes because of the huge charitable response from all around the world. What World Accord is planning to do is join forces with another long term development agency to provide some support to restoring lasting family livelihood projects.
I will try to make a daily posting but I will not always have access to the Internet. Still... I will try. Watch for the postings.
Now I return to the problem at hand ... lack of leg and knee room on Air Canada! Who ever made the corporate decision to take leg room away from every passenger in favour of one more row of seats on the plane has caused me to look for another airline next time. What is that old saying? "Short term pain for long term gain"? Well, my new saying is "Long term discomfort for Last Choice Airline status". So it isn't a catchy and musically pleasing bit of ear candy. Neither are my thoughts toward Air Canada decision makers. Too bad! The flight attendants are all friendly and doing their part to make the flight pleasant. What were the bean counters thinking?
Until tomorrow!
Terry
World Accord
