We are here for the Long Haul
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Today we feature a field report from our Development Director, Bidisa Rai, who has just returned from a trip to visit our Kopila Valley programs in Nepal.
“We are here for the long haul, we are not a short-term big-aid project. We consider very seriously the long-term consequences of our actions on the families and communities of the students we serve. We work to guide them towards stable and lasting self-sufficiency and independence.” Jagannath on our Health & Wellness team explains as we set out to visit one of the families we work with.
The ride in the jeep is bumpy. After some distance, the road ends and the vehicle stops. Dinesh, one of our social workers, leads the way to a narrow path between terraced fields.
We take the path single file, cross a dry creek bed, climb a few feet up a hill and shoo away a couple of goats eating the neighbor’s crop before we arrive at B’s home.
B lives with her father, step-mother, and her younger step-brother in a 2 room mud hut. I see two chicken coops in the clearing in front of her home. The courtyard is swept clean. The hillside forest starts not far from where their dwelling stands.
I learn that her father built the home on “ailani ko jagga,” or unclaimed land. The Nepali government sends out officials periodically to conduct surveys of ailani land. If they find the same family having settled on the same piece of land for a certain period of time, there is a possibility that the government may grant legal ownership rights of the land to the family. It is never a guarantee.
We are invited inside. We take off our footwear and enter. Her father lays out a reed rug on the floor for us to sit on.
B’s father has a severe and visible physical disability. It is difficult for him to find people willing to hire him as a daily wage worker. He has never had a chance at an education. B’s step-mother joins us. Her eyesight is impaired. She earns a living as a construction laborer for a daily wage. She also never had the opportunity to attend school.
Their everyday struggle is evident. The room we are invited to sit in is about 2-3 feet wide and perhaps 4-5 feet long. There is a shelf with a few jars sitting on it. A small bottle of cooking oil hangs on one wall. A patchwork of empty plastic rice bags sewn together is the door to the house. A clean latrine is off to one side outside the house. It has the same patchwork of plastic rice bags as its walls.
I learn that the chicken coops are a result of a loan from the Kopila Valley Women’s Center. B’s family is raising chickens to sell. Chicken imported from India and sold to the local market in Surkhet, at costs that they cannot compete with, is making the family nervous.
On the last day of school, before Dashain vacation begins, I meet B chatting with Poonam, head of our Health & Wellness team, at the school gate. The Health & Wellness team at Kopila Valley have put together a food package for B and her family. The package will have rice, lentils, salt, oil, onions, and vegetables.
My heart has never felt more full -- full of love, of sadness, of desperation, and of hope. I think my heart broke a million times. And healed a million and one times. Speaking with our social workers and home room teachers was very special. I loved seeing their passion and witnessing first hand the impact of their work and dedication to the children and communities. I left feeling very, very inspired by every person, child, and adult I had the opportunity to cross paths with.
School has closed for a month. However, B and her brother will have access to Dashain camp at Kopila Valley School. They will have a safe place to play. They will have a healthy meal every day until school re-opens. The days and years will pass. B and her classmates will grow from children into young adults.
With their education, they will lift their families out of poverty. It will not be an easy journey, but it will be a hopeful journey.
Until then, Kopila Valley and BlinkNow will stand by their side. We are here for the long haul.