Life out of the Cage

Her family had no land of their own. She had no choice but become a Kamalari because her parents were bonded slaves themselves. Born in Hapur – 2 Basantapur VDC of Dang district in western Nepal, Bimala Chaudhary spent her entire childhood in slavery. She had to leave her parents at the tender age of 10 and move to another landlord’s house to work on her own. Having lived as a Kamalari for three years in Kathmandu and another three years in the city of Butwal, she was eventually rescued and freed by Nepal Youth Foundation in 2009.

After her rescue, she was directly admitted to grade nine in school. So much was her desire to study that even during her time in Slavery, she had pleaded with the landlord to admit her in school. She was not allowed to attend school, except during the exams, during which her parents substituted for her absence at her owner’s house. But her schooling was cut short when her owners moved to Butwal and her parents could not afford to make frequent travels to free her up for the exams. Even her 40 dollars yearly salary was denied to her at Butwal. She was given scrapes to eat and rags to sleep on. She wasn’t even treated as a human being.

After her freedom, she worked hard in school. She also inculcated a desire to become a civil leader at school. She used to represent her class in her school and fellow Kamalaris during their protests and civil movements. Recognizing her potential, the Freed Kamalari Development Forum nominated her as their Central President in 2013. 20 year old Bimala is now leading over 12,000 freed Kamalaris across the districts of Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur in the western Tarai. This is undoubtedly a big challenge for a young girl, but Bimala has shouldered the responsibility with remarkable ease and courage.

She says that she sees her current life as an opportunity for a second start. “I would have never had this opportunity to fight on behalf of the entire community of freed Kamalries had I not been rescued into this life of freedom,” she says, and adds, “I used to feel that I was living inside a cage. But my life has changed beyond my imagination.” She now commands respect in the society. Her parents are amazed at her success, but express sorrow at having had to let her become a Kamalari as a child.

Her older brother Pradeep had also worked in bonded labor as a Kamaiya. Her younger Chirbahadur is studying at Grade 12 at the moment. Her young brother was one grade behind her when they were living in the village. But as a result of her stay as a Kamalari, she is now behind her brother in school. When her father was a Kamaiya, their owner had allowed them to live in a small house on his land. But later they were forced out of the house when the Kamaiya System of bonded labor was abolished, and they had to then take refuge at the homes of other people. Eventually, they were able to save enough money to afford a small piece of land of their own.

Her father and brother are now working aboard and have made enough money to buy some more land in the village. Now they are able to afford to lease more land for farming too. Earlier, you had to send your daughter to become a Kamalari to secure a lease,” she reminisces, adding, “The times have changed. The compulsive environments that force people into slavery have begun to disappear.”

Warmer in Nepal, Earthquake Support Brings Joy to People in Nepal

In December, NYF staff made winter a little warmer for some earthquake survivors in Sindhupalchowk with a big delivery of blankets and warm clothes. The knit caps were very popular with the children. Please continue to keep Nepal in your hearts.

Nepal situation update

Dear Friends and Donors of NYF around the world,

This is to give you an update on what’s happening in Nepal, how it is affecting our lives and also to alert you if you are planning on visiting Nepal in near future, including, to attend the inauguration of OLGAPURI Village in April 2016.

1. New Constitution: After eight years of effort, Nepal got a new constitution on Sunday, September 20. The constitution was voted for by 90% of the members of the constituent assembly. It has divided Nepal into seven federal states declaring Nepal as “Federal Republic of Nepal”. There are spaces for improvement in the new constitution, but in overall, this is very good constitution. A large majority of Nepalese people welcomed it, so did the countries around the world, except for India.

2. Indian displeasure and unofficial border blockade: India made repeated request to delay the promulgation of the new constitution, stating the need for Nepal to hold discussions with political groups opposing the constitution (the madhesi parties who share ethnicities with people in India) and make amendments in the constitution to address their demands. India even made seven point recommendations. Political leaders as well as general Nepalese populace reacted to this as an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country. Therefore, Nepalese constituent assembly went ahead with the promulgation ignoring Indian ‘advice’. The dissenting Madhesi parties were already launching protest in the southern region, and immediately from the next day of the promulgation of the constitution, India too imposed unofficial border blockade, stating security reasons. It has stopped vehicles carrying fuel (petrol, diesel, cooking gas, kerosene, etc), food and vegetables, construction materials, medicines and hospital supplies, raw materials for industries, and so on, from entering Nepal. Since this border blockade was such an unexpected and abrupt act, nobody, including the government, had maintained stock of supplies including essential fuels. In less than a week, the entire life has crippled throughout the country. Only less than 10% vehicles are on the street, the government is giving only 10 liters of petrol to per vehicle per week and even with rationing in such a micro level, they have fuel enough only for 9 more days. The government has ordered to run vehicles on alternate days, those with odd numbers on one day and with even numbers on the other day . Cooking gas is in severely short supply. Food price has soared up. People cannot commute to work, half of the schools in big cities are already closed.

3. Effect on our operations and measures taken: None of our vehicles or motorcycles are running as we have run out of fuel. We bought 15 bicycles for the essential movements of staff at different projects inside the Kathmandu valley. We held an emergency meeting of managers on September 28 and came up with following emergency plans until the current crisis persists:

• Gradually shut down NRH and New Life Center by sending home ‘out of risk’ babies and their mothers.
• Gradually suspend the ongoing earthquake relief activities such as community kitchen, Skills for Reconstruction training and school rebuilding. It is very sad to do this, especially as people are living in dire conditions, and with winter coming, families need warmer homes and school kids need warmer classrooms, which is what we were working on achieving.
• Scale down the size of the transit home operation (for earthquake survivor children) in Gorkha and Kavre by sending the kids to families or relatives as far as possible. Since there are quite a few kids who have no place to go back, we will continue running the transit homes for the remaining few.
• We had mobilized a dozen staff in Rebuild Projects from Western Nepal (Freed Kamlaris Programs) who had been unable to work due to strike in the region since last 45 days. We have now pulled them back and sent them home.
• We are taking the same measures to send home NYF students in colleges or vocational training schools throughout the country. As we have been maintaining food and cooking gas stock at J and K House enough for two months, (we have been doing it mandatorily since several years), we are fairly safe for J and K houses for the moment. Youth hostel kids will be brought to J and K House when the youth hostel gets closed due to shortage of supplies, which may happen in a couple of days. We have purchased firewood stove for all the places where we run kitchens. There is plenty of firewood at Olga’s compound, we will use them as the last resort.
• The OLGAPURI construction is already slowing down. The Vocational Building construction work is severely affected due to shortage of steel and cement required for RCC works.
• We have given staff the choice to work from home if they cannot commute to office. Since Dashain festival is starting in two weeks, we are encouraging staff to take early leave and go home if possible, before it gets too late to find bus tickets to travel. Life is less stressful in villages because of the nature of subsistence living.

Let’s hope the current crisis is resolved at the earliest, but it is always good to be well prepared for the worst.

NYF Disaster Relief Response update as of September 2015

(Click on the picture to view the PDF file)

NYF Disaster Relief Response update as of July 3, 2015

(Click on the picture to view the PDF file)

(Click on the picture to view the PDF file)

NYF establishes Day Care Centers for earthquake affected children

We are rapidly expanding Day Care Centers for earthquake affected children in worst hit areas in Kathmandu Valley. Eight centers are already running in full swing benefiting over 600 children between the age of 2 to 12 years. We are working on running altogether 20 centers in the next few days. Children are provided with education, recreation, nutrition and psychological counseling at these centers. With more than 80% of schools damaged by the earthquake in the worst hit areas, it is uncertain how long it will take for over 1 million children to be able to go back to school.

This program is lead by our ECD Manager Sachita Suwal who is running the centers with help from dozens of volunteers. We would like to thank our entire team for their tremendous work and we would also like to thank our generous donors who have made this possible.

Glimpses of Day Care Center activities

A Second Quake in Nepal Measuring 7.3 Jolts Further Destruction

Quake in Nepal

Last night, around midnight, the ring of my telephone woke me up from a deep sleep. I have been working non-stop since my return from Nepal two weeks ago to finish my book, “Olga’s Promise.” and had fallen into bed exhausted a couple of hours before. It was Som, calling from my garden in Kathmandu, the “go to” place for earthquake shelter. Another quake in Nepal, this time a 7.3! He wanted to reassure me that the staff and the kids at J and K House were all safe. But this is devastating news from a country that is still suffering from the previous quake in Nepal less than two weeks ago.

There are many houses damaged by the previous quake that are now totally demolished, further aggravating the lack of shelter for millions during the approaching monsoon season. The beautiful old house I have been renting for a dozen years and that was our shelter in the last quake in Nepal, is standing, but some of the walls are cracked, and it needs a thorough assessment before anyone can live there.

The psychological trauma for millions of people is severe. They were just beginning to get their lives back together when disaster struck again. At the Nutritional Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu, which we are using as a transitional home for hospitalized patients who were ready for discharge but had no place to go, the patients (mostly elderly and mostly disabled ) were panicked. Although the building is just a couple of years old and solidly constructed, they rushed down from the second floor to the ground floor, terrified. Half of them are sleeping inside on the ground floor, and half outside in tents. We have sent senior NYF staff as well as counselors from our Ankur Psychosocial Counseling Center to help with them understand and work through the fear. The NRH staff are all spending the night there to provide further reassurance. The high-school aged J House boys are also volunteering at the NRH to help with the elderly patients.

The three day care centers we have established in badly-hit areas of the Kathmandu Valley are overflowing with children who would otherwise have to spend their days playing in the rubble while their parents try to get their lives back together. We will continue to house them and provide nourishing meals, counseling, and instruction from volunteer teachers from private schools around Kathmandu. It is not clear when the schools will reopen.

Our staff in Kathmandu is working 16 hour days to provide relief supplies (tarps, tents, water filters, rice, etc.) to those who need it most and making plans, in conjunction with the School of Engineering at Kathmandu University, to supply inexpensive shelters with corrugated roofing before and during the monsoon. It is due in a few weeks, and will generate further suffering with mudslides, the spread of diseases, and general misery.

We need you as our partner, now more than ever. We are there, on the ground, procuring and transporting supplies, planning for the coming weeks of monsoon and we will be there long after the immediate relief efforts have waned… making a difference and helping people to rebuild their lives, their dreams and their futures. Your support makes this possible.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

NYF’s Disaster Relief Response update as of 8th May

Thank you for your tremendous support following the devastating earthquake in Nepal. We are grateful for the hundreds of emails, cards, notes, and calls from our well-wishers and for the outpouring of donations that have helped us reach 13,000 people in the days following the earthquake.

Here is the latest from Nepal:

• We delivered food, tarps, tents and clothing to 1,847 families in six districts affected by the earthquake.
• We purchased medical supplies and equipment for three major hospitals: TU Teaching Hospital, Patan Hospital and Dhulikhel Hospital, reaching more than 3,100 patients.
• We temporarily converted two of our nutritional clinics in Kathmandu and Pokhara into recovery centers and cared for 115 earthquake victims, including mothers and their newborns.
• We used school buses to transport 100 earthquake victims from area hospitals back to their homes.
• We delivered new sleeping gowns and baby clothes to 100 new mothers, and delivered used clothing to an additional 200 families.
• We opened a day-care center for 50 children whose families have been displaced by the earthquake. In addition to stories, dancing, and art, the children are receiving psychological counseling and a hearty mid-day meal.
• We delivered 35 water filters to families

For one of the poorest countries in the world, the needs before the earthquake were enormous. The devastation from the earthquake will pose staggering challenges in the months and years to come.

Our work will always be guided by our mission. We will continue to provide freedom, health, shelter and education to Nepal’s impoverished children. But our immediate focus is on providing relief and shelter to the thousands of families who lost their homes. The coming monsoon season makes the need for sturdy tents and temporary housing urgent.

Please help us continue our vital work.

Thank you and Namaste.

Olga Murray and Som Paneru

Some Glimpses of relief activities photos