Newsletter September 2009
Namasté!
As Nepal is a country of many traditional festivals, we started celebrating most of them from the end of July.
I would like to enlighten just one of them: GAI JATRA, "The procession of Sacred Cows", which was celebrated on the 6th of August.
The "Gai" refers to "cow" and "Jatra" refers to "gathering in procession".
In Hindu religion the God of Death, Yama Taj, decides at what level the souls of the deceased shall be reincarnated again on earth. When one’s time is up Yama sends a henchman (perhaps a black cow) to see that the released soul sets out for the judgement gates of the Underworld, to see his good and bad deeds. This gate only opens once a year, the day of Gai Jatra.
So this day families go out on the street with a decorated cow or a young boy in gorgeous costume representing a cow, with a family priest, musicians and a small boy in the guise of a yogi (a holy man) and continue their procession past temples and holy places to ask for peace for their dead family members.
This occasion is filled with songs, jokes, mockery and humor of every kind.
Also preparations are made for the biggest festivals in the year: Dashain & Tihar. These festivals bring the people and families close together.
Situation of Nepal
It seems that the ministers and constitutional members of the government in Nepal are mainly busy with their own things then drafting a constitution.
The formal Prime-minister Prachanda resigned at the end of April 2009 and the new Prime-minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is visiting other countries.
The people in the remote areas (far West region) are suffering from simple diseases which become big problems: f.e. diarrhea turning into cholera. More than 300 people lost their lives already, due to lack of proper health care and services.
Also in the South of Nepal (Terai), people are suffering from disastrous floods and many of them are homeless and their land and houses are destroyed.
Projects QOLN
Due to the rainy season and summer holidays, QOLN is not involving new projects. Our fixed projects continue day by day:
1. Day Care Centre
Slowly the building of the new day care center is progressing.
By now, the ground floor will be ready. The first floor will be cemented soon.
A special thank you to Theo Hulshof & sponsors from Holland, to Ingo Beenen and to individual sponsors for their patience and support!
At the end of July, the teachers were involved in a training to learn about speechless children, giving by Canadian Camille.
Also the Belgians Katleen & Kristof gave their time and knowledge to the teachers and the toddlers. They had lots of fun and played creative games with them.
On the 10th of September the Oral Health Program of Kaski organized a Dental program in our day care centre. All kids’ teeth were checked and the dentist gave good advice to them and their mothers.
2. Nepal Child Plan
Our sponsor program is going well. All 65 Nepali children have now finished their second term examinations. They have now one month holiday from the 20th of September till the 20th of October. In this month they will celebrate the festivals Dashain & Tihar with their families and also help harvesting rice in the fields.
On the 14th of September was "Children’s Day". The teachers organized a fun & game day with the smallest kids at our day care centre. The children from our sponsor program went for a trip to the Mountain Museum in Pokhara.
Small kid dancing 
Eating rice pudding
NCP kids at Museum
3. Click click program
On the 10th of September, we called all the disabled children at our day care centre. We checked them and saw that they were fine. We are searching for donations for Shoba, who needs an eye operation before she gets 7 (May 2010).
Shoba
4. Buffalo project
This summer, in June, our coordinator Madhu went to visit all the families of our new 2009 program. The 18 new beneficiaries all have their buffalo by now and are taking care of her. Madhu also had a meeting with the beneficiaries of program 2007 and program 2008. They are all doing fine and paying their loan regularly. To get as much profit as possible, everybody involved in this project does his best to take care of their buffalos.
The families of program 2007 are very happy to call their buffalo their own now!
5. Bamboo project
It is still too early to start the bamboo project. The landslides are very dangerous because they are too wet and slippery from the monsoon. Because there will not be enough bamboo available, QOLN sought & found another plant to prevent landslides, called "Amriso" (they make brooms from this).
Amriso
6. Government school in Bhanjyang
On the 18th of September Ram attended a special meeting for the construction of the roof of 2 new classrooms in the school in Bhanjyang.
They will start now with repairing the road uphill, because the monsoon damaged it with erosion.
From the 6th of October they will start the construction and promised to complete it within one month.
They will also make a water reservoir to store the water for the school. This year the village was lucky to get water from another source, so now there is no lack of water.
QOLN is very grateful for donors OLVI institute middenschool Boom, Berthoutinstitute Mechelen and their enthusiastic teachers Lut verlinden & Katrijn Schilders.
Also a special thank you to Carlo & Edith Peetroons and Altaïr for their contribution of 1.500 euro to the water project! You can look at their website http://www.altairvaarschool.be/nepal/nepalhome.html
New class rooms Bhanjyang
7. Government school in Bhakunde
With the money given by the German organization ALTERNAID, the SHANTA school bought 63 new school benches. They are now waiting for the Governmental approval to start class 11 and 12.
Benches for the smaller ones 
Benches for the bigger children
8. Day care centre in Pakha
QOLN is very grateful to Michaël Rummens and his project 5 SSMW to fundraise 8.445 euro for this little school. Ram had a meeting with the village leader Shiva and got the information that the day care centre had to close because there were no funds anymore to pay the teachers.
After the festivals (end of October) QOLN will start to re-install this day care centre and repair the class rooms, make a new compound for the children’s playground, install new play material (swing, cycles, seesaws), a medical centre, and make sure the teachers get a salary again.
Photos will be included in our next newsletter.
9. Hostel
In May and June the hostel kids were treated well by volunteers Ria & Nicole.
Now they finished their second term exams and are going to visit their families to celebrate the Dashain & Tihar festivals.
From the beginning of September 2 Belgian volunteers, Marike & Romy, are helping and guiding the kids.
Marike & Romy with hostel kids
If some of you have a wish to come and help in this hostel, we still need volunteers from December onwards.
10. Remarks
- This summer we modified our Belgian supporting organization Global Child Welfare into QUALITY OF LIFE BELGIUM. The articles will be published now in the State newspaper.
- A thank you to all our donors and supporters!
- A thank you for our warmhearted volunteers!
11. New Blue Planet Lodge
We hoped to be ready at the end of October, but the building decided otherwise! There are always reasons here for delay of materials and workers not coming! We do make progresses, but still all interior has to be done. We’ll keep you informed.
We wish you a HAPPY DASHAIN!
Sabine, Ram & Tara
"Go & awaken your luck"!
(Expression from Persia)
