We have great news to share with you; doesn’t this look like a beautiful place to live?!
We have been thinking of setting up a home to house our women for a while, and this centre is available for us to rent. It is at the edge of Kathmandu Valley in an unspoilt and unpolluted location.
The benefits:
20 women could live there and provide company to each other; we hope to provide their meals too. Unlike the rooms that they currently live in, there is running water and we will install a
back-up electricity source so that they won’t be plunged into darkness during the many powercuts. The building is far safer in an earthquake than the delapidated buildings the women live in in heavily built up Kathmandu.
It costs £650 per month and so we are looking for 65 people to give £10 per month to make it possible.
Please consider if you can help us, as you know we are only a small charity. Please e-mail Anna at anna@wwr-nepal.org if you can help.
Not only will your money be used to help to provide our women with a home, since we are renting the property from another charity called Restless Development (www.restlessdevelopment.org) they will use the funds we give them to assist them in their youth projects across Nepal – it’s a charity Two For One!
Renée, one of our trustees, and her husband Terry recently returned from a trip to Nepal. Renée writes:-
It was good to be back in Nepal again, this time based mainly in Kathmandu. At the best of times, general day to day living is not easy for the Nepali people and currently there is electric for only eight hours out of a twenty four hour period (2x4hr stretches) This is due to a lack of rain to feed the hydro electric plants. The electric frequently comes on at midnight or four in the morning! As it it dark around 6.30pm, people have to cook the main meal of the day (rice & lentils) by candlelight and spend the rest of the evening in the dark. There is no-one who is not affected. Shops (open till late) can hardly see what they are selling. Tailors (of which there are many) cannot see to sew at night and cannot use their sewing machines by day. Offices cannot function and so it goes on …..
We spent a good deal of time visiting the ladies supported by Women Without Roofs (WWR). All are so very grateful for thehelp given to them by WWR, which has of course, come from you, our supporters. The ladies have tragic stories to tell. One lady had fallen into a fire as a child and never received treatment. Eventually she was given away in an arranged marriage, her husband then left her because of her deformed body. A second lady cares for her disabled husband, who cannot move, due to a fall from a high scaffolding. He lies in bed almost all of the time. Everything is done for him. They live in a small sparse room which works as a kitchen, bedroom and place to sit.
The rooms WWR provide are basic with limited facilities. I have to be honest about that. We ensure the women have the essential items i.e. a bed, blankets, gas stove, a bag of rice, saucepans and other essential items. By standards here in the Western world, it is poor. In reality, it is the level of how most Nepalis live. I have to remind myself of this over and over again. I would love to be able to pick all the ladies up and transform their lives completely, but I know, as you do, that is not possible.
Laxmi - preparing food in her room
How then, can I continue to help these women? I will continue working hard on their behalf, throw myself into fundraising, keep in touch via our assistant, Bina, in Kathmandu, try to inspire people in our country. An article in a womens magazine is soon to be published. Many of us still have so much in spite of our “credit crunch”; that’s not wrong, its how it is here in the UK. I feel sure if you were able to experience life in a third world country you also would be stirred.
So finally, may I express my heartfelt thanks to all our supporters. Without you there would be no WWR and many people would be living on the streets or under plastic sheeting. God Bless you all for your love and care. Please get back to me if you would like more first hand information.
Posted by annamtownsend 
