Blog

Galston Coffee Morning and Fayre

June 2010

 

On Saturday morning 12^th June a very successful fund raising event took place in Galston Parish Church Hall, realising £2586 on the day and eventually to reaching a final total of £2900 once all the monies were collected.

A group of dedicated ladies from Galston with help from many friends, including Galston Primary School exceeded all expectations by raising this fantastic amount, this was entirely due to the hard work by all concerned and over 300 visitors who came along and sampled the delicious baking that was on offer, all in the beautiful surroundings of the Hogg Hall.

A number of stalls displayed a large selection of books and bric a brac, and a lucky dip stall where everyone got a prize, Galston primary had a stall which was filled with candles, cards , plants and other gifts which were all hand made by a number of classes, supported by their teachers

‘On behalf of the children from Pasang Memorial school I would like to say thank you to everyone who supported the coffee morning and help raise these much needed funds which will support the further development of this beautiful and remote school’ Matt Dodds

Banchory Brownies roll up their sleeves to raise funds

May 2010

The Banchory Brownies held a sale on Tuesday 18th May to help raise funds to help the Helambu Project. The girls served at various stalls which included home bakes, books and children’s toys and games. There was also a  refreshments stall serving tea and cakes for the mums and dads who attended. In addition to the sale evening, the girls raised money in the lead up by undertaking household jobs as part of their Home Skills brownie badge. These included things such as cleaning the car, polishing  shoes and washing and ironing, for which they earned a £1 donation for each task completed. As a result of all of their hard work they girls raised £312

Going without for Helambu

April 2010

10yr old Caitlin Singer  came up with the idea of ‘going without’ in order to help raise money. Having learned    about the  hardship faced by the children she made a decision to give up all sweeties and chocolate for 40 days. Despite the temptation of Easter Eggs and parties Caitlin held out and managed to raise a fantastic £85 thanks to sponsorship from her  family and friends.

Open House at Stromwood

April 2010

An open house was held at Stromwood, Crathes to help raise funds for the Helambu Project on Wednesday 28th April 2010. All of the visitors were ensured a very warm welcome thanks to the team of helpers who worked tirelessly throughout the morning and afternoon to serve serve tea and refreshments. There was a sales table, a selection of cakes to buy and also a raffle to round of the day. In addition, a special Helambu Project chocolate cake was the centrepiece of the a guess the weight competition. Visiting guest came from far and wide throughout Deeside, including a visit from staff and members of the Forget Me Not Club in the afternoon.

The day was only made possible thanks to the hard work put in by several key individuals both before and on the day and overall an incredible £520 was raised for the Helambu Project.

Penpals

February 2010

Some of the children from Gangkharka wrote Pen Pal letters to the pupils of Banchory Primary School telling them about themselves, their school and the area the live in. The Banchory teachers were amazed at the high standard of the grammar and very neat writing by some of the children and all of the letters were very colourful. So the reply letters had a lot to live up to!

Helambu UK visit Helambu

November 2009

Matt Dodds, Pearl Wight and Mike Steven and his family (wife Val and their two eldest children Rory and Rachael) had the privilege of travelling to Nepal to visit the area.They were accompanied by three board members of the nascent Helambu Project USA, Chris Limburg, Danielle Preiss, and Daniel Coyle. Dorjee Sherpa and Pema Sherpa, along with Volunteer Coordinator Ola Perczynska, represented VEC’s management, and they were joined by its support staff, Gyamso Tamang, Tashi Tamang, and Lakey Sherpa.

We came bearing various gifts from the project supporters in the UK.

Banchory Primary School offered a £600 gift to help fund the teacher’s salary, pen pal letters written by the pupils of P3 and P5 and a handmade banner. This beautiful embroidered banner depicts life at Banchory Primary School through stories and pictures of a typical busy day at the school and now hangs proudly as the centrepiece of the school.

Sharon Roughton donated hundreds of items of much needed stationary for the pupils and also gifted toothbrushes/toothpaste for all of the children.

Matt Dodds brought signed Kilmarnock FC shirts and Rory and Rachael brought hair clips and bunches for the girls, rugby balls, frisbees and more, including a set of tartan bonnets!

School Cultural Day

The pupils had created their own banner celebrating the partnership with Banchory Primary which was used to form the backdrop to their ‘Cultural School Concert’ to welcome their visitors. This was an extraordinary 3-hour concert in which the children performed traditional songs and dances from their region, even singing some songs in English. Indeed, most amazing of all was that the entire show was compeered in both Nepalese and English by two of the pupils. There were also presentations of certificates recognising the hard work and support of some of the villagers with speeches from the headmaster and teachers.

We left with the feeling of how impressively well run the school is despite the challenges of it’s remoteness and harsh terrain. The dedication and motivation of the teachers to work in such a remote area was matched by the

enthusiasm and willingness of the children to work hard and learn. Perhaps more importantly, the school has now given the children the opportunity to meet and socialise with their peers.

Prior to its construction, the children were spread over a 100-mile area made up of small remote villages, with many of them having only 1 or 2 children staying in them. With most villages being a days walk apart the children had little contact out with their village and also had little activity to fill their day, so it was great to see them laughing and playing together in the playground with their new friends. In addition, the school has pumped life back into a reinvigorated community, which had become increasingly fragmented over recent years as young  adults left to seek menial work in the cities.

The Health Camps

The visiting team contained two doctors (Mike and Val) and two nurses, Pearl and Lakey whom is a trainee nurse based in Nepal. Travelling with the back-up of two large boxes of medical supplies we stopped to hold clinics at the school, Yangri village and Balgown village.

The health clinic at the school was an opportunity to provide the children a health check-up. Whilst we encountered common ailments such as skin rashes and head lice, two of the pupils had significant untreated conditions. One of the girls had difficulty seeing the blackboard due to cataracts in both eyes and the other girl had a worn-out foot brace which she requires to help her walk after burning her leg in fire. Unfortunately, their parents were not in a position to pay for their daughters to see a specialist. However, thanks to the support of a family in Banchory we hope to have them seen and assessed soon. Also, many thanks to Michies Pharmacy for donating a much needed supply of nit combs!

The clinics at Yangri and Balgaon were very busy but thanks to the support of the travelling team of helpers and translators we successfully managed to see over 150 patients between us over the two days.

The illnesses we encountered were wide ranging and mostly related to chronic conditions. Whilst we were able to help relieve the symptoms of most of the patients we saw, a number of them require ongoing, longer term medication to provide sustained benefit.

Helambu UK nursing team visit

October 2008

Pearl Wight and her nursing colleague Sally Bambridge, both from Arran Memorial Hospital, left for Nepal in October for a planned 5-week trip. Although Pearl has known Dorjee for some time after they  first met last year whilst trekking in Everest, for both Pearl and Sally this was their first visit to the Helambu Region. After spending a couple of days in Kathmandu they set off on a 5 hour bus journey  and then a 4 hour walk to their first stop at Baruwa medical clinic. Amazing, tear inducing welcome  awaited them with Khada, garlands and posies – not once but twice! One night’s rest and then is was straight to work with villagers from far and wide crowding into the clinic to be seen

The next day they set off to the next clinic over at Yangri, arriving after a 5 hour walk uphill in strong  heat. After another warm welcome and a good nights sleep it was back to work again to see more  people. The next day they walked 2 hours to do a home visit on a sick woman before walking a further 5 miles to Gangkharka. Interestingly, most of the presenting problems were related to eyes or dental issues, although a number of other illnesses were seen too.  The villagers have donated additional land to enable both the Yangri and Baruwa health posts to be developed and expanded. Current thoughts are to increase Yangri to having up to ten rooms with a further eight in Baruwa. These decisions have been made in conjunction with the medical staff that currently work there albeit with very limited resources.