Namaste family and friends,
It was fantastic to return to Kathmandu in April. The city is still polluted, roads broken and a lot of heavy traffic noise, but the people are just as friendly, the temples fascinating, the curries tasted fine and it was nice to see the great temples at Durbar Square completely rebuilt after the 2015 earthquakes. To top it off, by coincidence we saw the Kumari in person on our first day. She is not only a little girl, but is honoured as a living goddess of the Kathmandu city. Of course we have also successfully completed a number of projects, read more below:
Free Health Camp:
On Saturday, April 1, 2023, we organized a Free Health Camp in the district of Nuwakot. Beforehand we bought a large stock of medicines at a pharmacy wholesaler in Kathmandu. Paracetamol, cough sirups, eye drops, vitamin tablets, antiseptic cream, and much more. Early morning we drove with two 4×4 jeeps and a car to the district, which is about three hours from Kathmandu. Four doctors, three nurses and three pharmacists traveled with us.
We also hired a local bus to give people from further afield or with limited mobility the opportunity to visit the health camp. Upon arrival in the village, many people were already waiting in front of Shree Saraswati Secondary School. The school committee had kindly provided a number of classrooms to execute the health camp.
First everyone was registered with name and age after which a nurse measured blood pressure and temperature and wrote down physical complaints. Afterwards the villagers could take a seat in a classroom to wait their turn to talk to the doctor.
Many people complained of irritated eyes, fever, infection of the lungs, back pain and muscle aches. The doctor prescribed medicines and vitamins, which they could pick up in the next classroom. The medicines were pre-sorted and handed out through the classroom window with appropriate advice from the pharmacists on how to take or use the medicines. The health camp was a great success and in total more than 200 people received free health care that day.
Our project received the attention of two online Nepalese news channels. View the article by Hamro Health Nepal, and the article by Jalapa News. (You can find a translation of the articles on Facebook).
Distributing hats and babyclothes:
In the meantime, Anneloes and Juliette, the daughters of Alex and Samantha, handed out woolly hats, pens and notebooks to the children, who were also present at the Free Health Camp. The coloured hats were knitted by Harmiena from the Netherlands, a good friend of Samantha’s mother. The kids were delighted with this surprise and luckily we had enough things to make everyone happy. In addition to a bag full of hats, Harmiena had also knitted beautiful baby clothes, which we distributed to poor mothers with small babies in Kathmandu and the surrounding area.
Food supplies for Hopeful Home:
A couple of times we visited the children of Hopeful Home children’s home. It was nice to see everyone again after such a long time. On our first visit we brought bananas and a papaya as an extra snack. On April 11 we went with Gopini Wosti from Hopeful Home to the market in Bhaktapur to stock up on food.
The shopping list was long, but we managed to buy it all at the wholesaler. We’ve purchased 40 bags of rice with a content of 25 kilos each. In Hopeful Home, rice is eaten twice a day, so this supply will be finished after just two months. Fortunately, most other products will last longer.
We also bought many litres of mustard oil and sunflower oil, 25 kilos of red and 25 kilos of black lentils, 25 kilos of green and white beans, 50 kilos of sugar, soap, washing powder, tea, noodles, biscuits, coriander herbs, and more. At least they don’t have to worry for the coming months, food supply will be plentiful.
Sponsoring two brothers in Chitwan:
At the end of April the new school year started in Nepal and this year we decided to sponsor two brothers for school fees, school uniforms and teaching materials. The brothers live in Chitwan, a district in the south of the country, and they are the nephews of Ram, who works for the Laxmi Support Foundation.
Biplab is 6 years old and is in class 2. Sulab is 11 years old and is in class 7. The education at this private school, called Panchakanya Vidhya Mandir, is of a better quality than at the nearby government school. The brothers are very happy with this opportunity and have promised to do their best. We plan to continue to support the brothers in the coming years.
We would like to thank all our sponsors for making these projects possible. The gratitude is great with all the villagers of Nuwakot, Gopini Wosti and all the children of Hopeful Home and Biplab and Sulab in Chitwan. We will continue our work and hope that you will support us. Special thanks goes out to the Dutch Photoclub FWS Maassluis, who donated the tip jar of 2022 entirely to our foundation.
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Thank you.
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All the best,
Laxmi Support Foundation
