Newsletter 28 November 2017

Dear all,

Time for an update of the Laxmi Support activities:

Fundraising:
Our market stall will be up for a couple of times in the festive month of December. We will be present at the community markets of Landscove and Staverton and also at the annual Christmas Fair at Stover School in Newton Abbott. We hope to raise some generous funds, which will go directly to our projects supporting the children in Nepal.

Warm fleece jackets and stationary:
In November we purchased 165 fleece jackets and stationary to be distributed to the students of three schools in the district of Nuwakot in Central Nepal. In the coming months temperatures will drop and without central heating it will stay rather cold in the class rooms, even when the sun is out. We hope that by providing the children with warm fleece jackets we not only motivate the children to attend school but also improve their health.

The travel to the villages was rather difficult. Road conditions were extremely bad due to large stones blocking the road for many hours. Ram hired a jeep for the day and departed Kathmandu at 6am, together with his wife Saraswati, only to arrive at the Rakula Primary School in the village of Old Budhasing around midday. The school has 30 students all from the lower caste. After the 2015 earthquakes Laxmi Support supported a couple of families in Old Budhasing by providing tin sheeting for temporary housing and roof repairments. We are delighted to return to this village and provide extra support to their village school.

In the next village on, called Newarpani, is the Saraswoti Lower Secondary School with 90 students. Laxmi Support is well known in this village, as we provided many families with tin sheeting after the earthquakes. Also at this school we provided fleece jackest and stationary, like copies, pens, pencils, etc. The welcome ceremony was amazing, many people from the village had turned up and of course all teachers and students from the school were present. Ram and Saraswati received many colourful flower necklaces. It was a wonderful event for everyone.

The return journey was again a tiresome adventure. Driving the roads of Nuwakot in the dark is not easy and they experienced many hours of delay due to the bad road conditions. Ram and Saraswati arrived back in Kathmandu at 10pm, tired but extremely satisfied by their days work bringing joy and happiness.

A week later Ram and Saraswati travelled by jeep to the village of Narjamandap in the Eastern part of Nuwakot to distribute the final fleece jackets and stationary to the 45 children of the Suryamati Primary School. Two years ago Laxmi Support has provided the children with blue school sweaters, hats, sandals and stationary. It was about time to return and extend our support. Also here the welcome ceremony was heart warming and the warm fleece jackets were very much appreciated.

Great thanks and appreciation goes to our sponsors. Thank you very much for your continued support.

To Nepal:
Samantha and Alex have plans to travel to Nepal at the end of March. We haven’t yet booked our tickest…still waiting for a miraculous price reduction…but plans have been made and we look very much forward to visit this special country, the schools and the orphanage Hopeful Home.

That was it for now. Check out our website www.laxmi-support.com for photos and stories (English translation button available) or follow us on Facebook.

Namaste,
Samantha
Laxmi Support