A stressed-out rental car driver, a disarmingly open policeman and a foundling in need of care
Michaela and Michael Rebel as well as Maria Hundsdorfer from the team at Nepalhilfe Beilngries spent nine days in Nepal in October. They were joined by Betina Wanner and Stefanie Rebele for a schedule crammed with dates and destinations as evidence of how far-flung this organisation has become.
Whether it was laying the cornerstone for the new school complex in Sangachok, the inaugurations of the schools at Sanosiruwari and Gothatar, talks with sisters of the Congregation of Jesus, visits to schools being renovated in Sindhupalchok District and government representatives in the region, or add to that a visit to Midpoint Community Memorial Hospital a Nawalpur/Terai or the little orphanage of Lila Devi in Dhapakhel.
Not to mention the handover of two new ambulances worth 10,000 euro apiece and of course calls at the Shaligram children’s home in Lubhu and the Siddhi Memorial Hospital in Bhaktapur.
A stressed out rental car driver and school inaugurations
It is 90 kilometers from Kathmandu to Sindhupachok District northeast of the capital. There, widely dispersed mountain villages had been hard hit by the 2015 earthquake. Because the roads were totally wrecked in some places, the driver of the party’s rental 4x4 eventually announced that proceeding any further would be “too dangerous” and that he would rather head home. The visitors from Germany made it to their destinations after all, among them the “LOWA School” in Falate, which is especially dear to Betina Wanner, wife of LOWA’s head of sales for Germany, or the newly built home for the blind in Chautara, which Sanjay Sapkota, the engineer in charge, says will be finished in May 2018. Then, the 14 boys and girls will finally have a new house worth calling home.
Special memories remain of the cornerstone-laying ceremony at Sangachok, where construction has begun on the first of three building units. The school there had been totally destroyed, but the guests found it hard to believe a healthy birch fig tree which had been providing soothing shade need to be cleared away by mighty excavator shovesl.
Ram Prasad Dhital, a disarmingly open politician stepped up to the microphone during the inauguration ceremony at the school in Sanosiruwari, reminded listeners that after the earthquake, the local population had pleaded to the government for help, but it had been Nepalhilfe Beilngries that had arrived instead. The ceremony closed a loop of sorts: after all, Michaela and Michael Rebele had laid the cornerstone here almost exactly four years ago. This time, the visitors had brought with them a symbolic cheque for 10,000 euros. The money will be spent on furniture, a library and computers for the school.
Four years was also the time it had taken to completely finish the Shramsheel Vidyapit Higher Secondary School in Gothatar. This will be cheered by the students at the middle school in Oberhaunstadt near Ingolstadt, who have been canvassing donations for ten years under the heading “School for school”. The impressive building now stands six stories high and can accommodate up to 800 children. Kamal Prasad Dahal, former headmaster and long-serving coordinator, was positively bursting with pride as he showed the guests around the building.
New ambulances handed over
Two more ambulances bearing the Nepalhilfe Beilngries logo will drive on the roads of Nepal. One of them will be based in Kawasoti/Terai not far from the Midpoint Hospital. Maria Hundsdorfer and Michael Rebele handed the vehicle over at a small celebration. As the head of the local Red Cross explained, the car features air conditioning and a powerful light and horn, both a boon in the lowlands that can often be hot, humid and fogy.
Another ambulance will be stationed in Namjung in Gorkha District. Its sourcing had been a project led by Honorary Consul General Ram Pratap Thapa, a resident of Cologne, an old friend and supporter of Nepalhilfe Beilngries. The new 4x4 will be serving his home community.
Caring for a foundling – Tihar festival at the children’s home
A foundling only a few weeks old was one of the centres of attention during the visit to Siddi Memorial Hospital in Bhaktapur. The child had been found in a road ditch in eastern Nepal and had reached the hospital via a kind of odyssee. There, little Kanja is now being pampered and lovingly cared for by the finder’s daughter, whose family intends to continue looking after the little one. The guests from Germany had brought warm winter clothing, and financial help will also be available if it should prove necessary. A fixture of the schedule was of course a visit to Shaligram children’s home Lubhu, where the children and the staff exchanged gifts and had their foreheads adorned with the artfully crafted tika. Of course, the guests from Germany arrived with suitcases bulging with clothing, shoes, sports gear and of course sweets. It is perhaps fitting to close of this rundown of a travelogue with the words of thanks coming from students at one of the schools that has already been completed. This perhaps best reflects the importance of the work being done in Germany and Nepal: “We heard that God will come to us in different guises. He came to our community to rebuild our school and thus also our confidence. We sincerely thank those who had a heart for us. They have strengthened our hope and our dreams of a better future.