New Toilets Improve Sanitation in Jitpur

Posted on July 24, 2013 by friendsofvinusa

To date FVIN has provided grant support to VIN to build 4 toilets and provide water catchments systems. Sadie Green, FVIN Vice President, visited the village where the toilets were constructed and reports that mothers were seeing health improvements in the area. See Sadie’s video blog at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUJFrS8VVZU

*The funds for the toilet construction was raised by a former VIN volunteer ,Susan Zoë Greenwald using the onnline fundraising tool at Crowdrise.com 

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Women and Girls Matter! By Sadie Green

Posted on July 24, 2013 by friendsofvinusa

“What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well.”–Secretary of State and former First Lady Hilary Clinton (adopted from her 1995 speech at the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, China) 
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The truth of the matter is, that there are so many issues we are facing in the world today, its overwhelming.

War, poverty, AIDS, global warming, and human rights violations, just to name a few…

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 A mother carries her son up the mountain in a basket Mustang, Nepal

So where do we start?

By protecting, educating, and nurturing girls and women. 

Why?

Because, around the word, women and girls continue to be disproportionately disadvantaged and discriminated against,

and providing them with equal rights and opportunities – educationally, economically, and socially,
 

is the most effective and powerful tool we have for creating sustainable, and peaceful, global development.

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A young woman washes clothes and bathes her son at the community water spigot in Fishling, Nepal, along a popular White Water Rafting route along the Trisuli river

Some Facts:

Compared to her male counterpart, a girl growing up in the developing world is more likely to die before her fifth birthday and less likely to go to school.
She is less likely to receive adequate food or health care, less likely to receive economic opportunities, more likely to be forced to marry before the age of 16, and more likely to be the victim of sexual and domestic abuse.
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In the Nuwakot region, Nepal
Two-thirds of the nearly 800 million illiterate people in the world are women (In Nepal, girls are often forced to stay home from school and work)
Five-hundred-thousand women die every year from childbirth complications— that’s one woman every minute (Nepal’s maternal mortality rate is among the highest in the world)
Women are denied property rights and inheritance in many countries. Worldwide, women own only 1 percent of the world’s property (women were not able to own property in Nepal until recently)
Women work two-thirds of all the world’s labor hours but earn just 10 percent of the world’s wages.
– World Vision Magazine – Spring 2007, via Women’s Rights Worldwide 
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On a weekday during school hours, in Beni, Nepal Beni was a military stronghold for the Maoist Army during the 10-year civil conflict (1996-2006), that “has left its mark on Nepal’s female population” – UNESCO
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On the steps of the Swayambhu Temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal, a girl with a baby in her arms begs for money
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Women and girls gather outside their school (Astha Women’s School) in Gatthaghar, Bhaktapur.
In Nepal, more than half of women are illiterate – Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal
 
Learn more by watching these videos:
 
Birth In Nepal
Sex Trafficking
Climate Change
Education

The impacts of education for women:

According to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan: “No tool for development is more effective than the empowerment of women.”

When  girls are educated, their income potential increases, her children are more likely to be immunized, the birth rate decreases, maternal and infant mortality is reduced, and infection rates are lowered.

When girls are educated, they are likely to acquire skills to improve her family’s economic stability, and more likely to ensure that her children also receive an education.
(http://womensrightsworldwide.org/)

Women and girls in Nepal Matter. They matter because they deserve to matter, and because they are perhaps the greatest change-makers in the world today!
Aloha and Namaste,
Sadie Green, FVIN Board Member
To learn more about the work of VIN, or get involved with FVIN, visit our website, follow us on facebook and twitter, and check back on our blog!

To join our current fundraiser for girls education, please visit www.crowdrise.com/sponsoreducation

 
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Why I Volunteered In Nepal, Dee Chapon, Board Member of FVIN

Posted on July 23, 2013 by friendsofvinusa

I want to talk to you about why you would want to go to Nepal and volunteer some weeks or even months with an organization called Volunteers Initiative Nepal.

I love traveling but have found going to foreign countries and staying in hotels while traveling around from city to city or countryside is just not a satisfying way to really get to experience the culture and meet with the people I was traveling to see.

When I decided to visit Nepal, I decided to take advantage of volunteer travel, or voluntoursim as some people call it.  After searching on the Internet, I decided on one organization in Nepal for several reasons.  This organization is locally run which means that all of the volunteer fees that are paid by international volunteers stay in country and go towards local programming.  The other main reason for picking VIN, as it’s called, is because it is an organization with grassroot initiatives and has a sustainable model for effecting economic and social change – in this poorest of poor countries.

While I was in Nepal, I lived with a local family and taught English at an elementary school in a small rural village outside Kathmandu.  I regret that I only volunteered for 3 weeks as the experience was so rich and I would have loved to contribute more.

However, whether short or long term, this is an excellent way to travel.  You get to support great projects and initiatives, experience what it is really like in the country you are exploring and contribute something in the process.  I would highly recommend this type of volunteer travel.

And if you are going to Nepal, I would encourage you to check out VIN.  The staff of VIN will make you feel welcome, provide all your in-country support and housing and welcome your contributions toward health, education, women’s empowerment, teaching in a Buddhist monastery, or many other  rewarding programs.

Contact Dee Chapon at dee@deechapon.net for more info.

Posted in Teaching English In Nepal, Volunteering with VIN, Voluntourism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment