Back to Work....

I'd arrived in Nepal ten days before the start of my job in the Monastery started. Part of the 'selection' process to be a volunteer with VIN, is that you supply a copy of your CV and a couple of referees. Bhupi, executive director of the charity was quick to recognise the fact that the charity could utilise some of my business experience. There is a shortage of volunteers generally but a significant shortage of volunteers with business experience and I'm bow working in a couple of things that hopefully will help. Not surprisingly, most of the financial resources go into the various programs that VIN are involved in. These leaves very little to fund things like marketing and business plan writing. My little task is to use my experiential and educational past to create some marketing collateral for the next project which is due to be launched on 26th August. The building of a 50 bed orphanage on the outskirts of Kathmandu. At my first meeting with Bhupi we went through the objectives and during the week I have created a mock up document. My meeting today was to agree some of the content detail and fill in the gaps.

Most of existing orphanages run by foreigners. VIN want to create a Nepali model for an orphanage which uses the successful model they currently deploy in their other programs of sustainability. A significant challenge. As I'm writing this blog, sitting in a small cafe, one of the very people the charity is hoping to help, one of the unverified thousands of street kids of Nepal is begging just outside the entrance. It's a moving and pitiful sight. Not surprisingly one of the customers, puts his hand in his pocket and thrusts a 100Nrp note into the dirty outstretched hand and the child, no more than ten moves on to the next potential donor. The 'gift' is a natural reaction, yet, it is that very action that perpetuates and makes the problem worse. Impressionable youngsters, many orphaned, living a miserable existence in the rural parts of the country see the freedom of the big city as inviting, add to that the fact that willing tourists are often easily parted from their money, it would seems a more attractive proposition. Unfortunately the donation is more likely as to be spent on solvent abuse as a square meal. Hard as it may seem, that donation is making matters worse not better.....




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Location:Chaksibari Marg,Kathmandu,Nepal