Transcript Slide 1

Volunteer Society Nepal
A note about this presentation:
• This is just a framework – feel free to change it in any way
• Please also get in touch with VSN for more information needed.
Also the website is full of information including videos if you
would like to show your audience those.
• Make it relevant to your audience:
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Compare their situation to that of people you are helping in Nepal
Think of connections they have with the placement you are doing
Think about what they will be most interested to find out about
How will they be inspired to donate money?
• It will get better the more you personalise it so think about:
• What do you want to achieve on your placement?
• How much money you need to raise?
• Do you have any personal connections/ reasons for doing the work you are
doing?
Contents Page
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Why I have asked you here today
A bit about Nepal
Who are Volunteer Society Nepal?
How I will help?
Where your donation and support will go
My trip in Nepal
(you to complete)
• When are you going
• What are you going to do there?
• Why do you need support?
A bit about Nepal
Nepal has three
terrains:
Jungle, hills and
mountains.
Nepal is the size of Florida
and contains 23 million
people.
Nepal shares its borders
with The People’s Republic
of China (Tibet) and India.
A bit about Nepal
Nepal is home to…
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The world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest (8848m)
An immense jungle full of rhinos, elephants and tigers
A unique blend of Buddhism and Hinduism
Over 90 different dialects
Thousands of Tibetan refugees
The toughest soldiers in the world; The Ghurkas
A bit about Nepal
One of the world’s poorest countries…
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Average annual income of $240
42% of the population are unemployed
47% of the population are illiterate
There are only 2.5 doctors to 100,000 inhabitants
56% of children are malnourished
Kathmandu’s streets are home to 15,000 orphans
A bit about Nepal
• Ripped apart by civil war from 1996-2006
• 14,000 Nepali people died during the 10 year conflict
• 100,000 people were displaced
• Over 15,000 children were left parentless
• Since 2006 Nepal has been a Republic but…
• There has never been a stable government
• A constitution is still being drafted
• Political strikes are a regular occurrence disrupting roads,
schools, universities and other services
• Infrastructure, education, employment and health services
remain crippled by a lack of organised government
A bit about Nepal
• Nepal is one of the world’s most popular trekking
centers in the world
– Foreigners are highly respected throughout Nepal
– During the 10 years civil war and since 2006 not 1 tourist has
been injured or killed as a result of political turmoil
Who Are VSN?
A word from the founders…
Tej Shrestha
During the decade long civil war from 1995, Nepal’s fragile
economy was shattered. Already poor families now had
even bleaker opportunities for a decent livelihood. This
merely compounded the issues associated with Nepal’s
long history of caste discrimination and social
marginalization, which causes immense disparities within
society.
At the height of the conflict in 2004 we gathered a team of
Nepalese development workers, including social activists
and ex-overseas and national volunteers because we
believed we could combat the prevalent shortages of
Education, Health and Women’s Rights in Nepal.
Sagundha Shrestha
Who Are VSN?
An organisation based in Nepal run by Nepali people to get
international volunteers to contribute to the development of
their country. They run, finance and provide helping hands to
projects throughout Nepal in:
Select the slides you
want
• In the following section we run through
all the main projects we work on with
an outline of what we do…
• Please remove the slides that are not
relevant and add in anything you think
is particularly relevant/motivating for
your audience
How Will I Help?
Why volunteer in an orphanage?
– The high mortality rate for mothers during childbirth, as well
as the short life expectancy in general, leaves thousands of
children without parents each year
– As a result, most of these needy children are
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deprived of education
find work as child labourers
get into the hands of child traffickers
become beggars
Orphanages provide these children with
shelter, food, education, love and most
importantly, hope.
How Will I Help?
What will I do in the orphanage
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Act as an older sibling to the children
Help them with their homework
Introduce new games and arts and crafts to the children
Teach them English
Help to make the orphanage feel like a home
How Will I Help?
Why volunteer in a school?
– Unfortunately, for most children in Nepal the quality of
education received is very poor, if received at all
– Problems encountered are:
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Unaffordable resources
Untrained teachers
Lack of building space
Lack of furniture
Overcrowding
VSN has set up their own school to provide good
quality education to the local community. They
also place much needed financial and personnel
aid in government schools.
How Will I Help?
What will I do at the school?
– Teach children from 4–16 years old English. Good English
will increase their job opportunities when they leave school
– Introduce new teaching methods to the classroom
– Teach the children about the world beyond Nepal
– Buy or create new much needed resources for the school
How Will I Help?
What will I do at the school?
– Run a training program for Nepali teachers who have had no
teacher training
– Introduce new teaching methods to enliven schooling
Establish behaviour management systems in the school
– Buy or create much needed resources for the school
How Will I Help?
Why volunteer in a health institution?
– Health care is inadequate throughout Nepal due to the
following cultural, economic and social problems:
» The rapid movement of people to Kathmandu to seek
better financial opportunities has left much of the city’s
public health infrastructure desperately
oversubscribed
» For many people in Nepal seeing a doctor for themselves
and their children is not an affordable option
» In rural areas health facilities are also in short supply due
to poor transportation links and lack of funds
» Traditional sectors of the population remain suspicious
or uneducated about Western health services
VSN has established their own health clinic in Kathmandu, a health camp
that moves around the country and placing volunteers and giving funds to
other clinics and hospitals where extra help is needed.
How Will I Help?
What will I do at the health clinic?
– Carry out basic health checks for the local community
– Train local Nepali health clinic workers in practices they do not
understand
– Provide basic first aid and sanitation training for the local
community through schools, women’s groups and youth clubs
– Provide or fundraise for new medicines and equipment for the
clinic where needed
How Will I Help?
Why volunteer in a women’s group?
– Women are still a long way from social liberation in Nepal
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They are kept illiterate, increasing their financial dependency
They are unaware of basic human rights
They have no access to legal support
If from a low caste, they are subjected to a lifetime of heavy
labour
» Their duties in the home (without modern appliances)
means they see very little of the outside world
VSN has established and supports women’s
groups throughout Nepal, providing education in
basic human rights and legal matters and skill
training to encourage financial independence.
How Will I Help?
What will I do at the women’s groups?
– Provide English language lessons to the women to build
their confidence
– Hold meetings with the women to discuss what skills they
want to learn
– Organise skill training programs for the women
– Help the women market and sell their products
How Will I Help?
Why volunteer in construction?
– Most of the schools in Nepal are badly constructed buildings with
not enough space for their pupils
– Many rural and landless communities lack very basic facilities
– Orphans often live in cramped conditions
– The following shortages are commonplace:
» No drinking water. No desks. Open toilets. No enclosed
classrooms. No playgrounds. No libraries. No blackboards.
No running water. No cooking facilities. Leaking roofs. Not
enough beds. No bathroom facilities. No private space. No
homeliness.
VSN identifies infrastructure needs throughout
Nepal and places volunteers and hugely improve
people’s daily lives.
How Will I Help?
What manual labour will I do?
– Be part of a team of local builders creating new classrooms for a
school/building a toilet block
– Buy the materials and build a dining room for an orphanage
– Paint the children’s bedrooms in the orphanage to make it feel
more homely
– Create a play area and garden for the children at the orphanage
How Will I Help?
Why volunteer in a special needs group?
– Most of the disabled individuals in Nepal are ignored and
neglected, seen as a shame on their family and often locked
up in dark rooms out of sight. Their lives are void of love,
understanding or opportunity
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Deprived of education
Forced to beg by their families
Treated as outcasts
Offered no independence
Rehabilitation centers provide disabled
children with education, support and hope for
a better future.
How Will I Help?
What work will I do in rehabilitation centers?
– Work alongside Nepali carers from 9am–5pm every day
– Organise day trips for the children, taking them into a world
outside the center they never get to see
– Teach the children English
– Introduce the use of new games, technology and resources
to the center
Why we need you help?
(Complete this section according to your
fundraising needs)
• I am not asking you to fund my trip to Nepal but I
would like to raise some money to go directly to the
project I am working on.
• Out of $xxxx that it costs to travel and volunteer in
Nepal xx% will go towards my living costs whilst I
am volunteering and xx% directly to the project I
am working on.
• NB to fill in figures see the fees breakdown page on the website
Why we need you help?
• In Nepal the following amounts of money can
provide a world of difference to people’s lives…
$
Buys
50
1 weeks worth of rice and vegetables
for 25 children
100
Sports equipment for the children: A
table tennis table, badminton net, balls,
bats, football etc.
500
A new toilet with shower, water tank
and solar water heater
1000
Solar panels to provide electricity when
the power is cut off every night
Why we need you help?
• I would also like to raise $xxxx to
take/send/buy the following items for the
project:
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Books
Clothes
Playground equipment
Sports equipment
Medical supplies
• Any extra money raised will go directly to the
project
A Big Thank You!
From myself and everyone in Nepal...
Further Information
• ‘Ctrl M’ to add more slides to the
presentation…