Christmas Gifts

This Christmas WWR gave all the women we support a shawl.  Here are some of the women wearing theirs.

Subhadra and her daughter

Yamuna on Christmas Day

 We have also recently bought our two newest ladies a cooking stove and cupboard each. 

Durga with her new stove

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Renee writes about Cyrene

Whilst in Kathmandu Renee & Terry also had the opportunity to visit the Cyrene Sewing project that we support.

A class at the Cyrene Project

Visiting the Cyrene sewing project is a delight and a joy. On the whole, the ladies are quite young, very enthusiastic and quick to learn. The teacher has excellent sewing skills. The ladies learn how to measure, cut out and sew material pieces to make every day Nepali dress called “Khurtas”. This is basically long pants (fairly baggy) with a dress over the top (slits up the side) and a shawl. The colours are gloriously rich. Like most Nepali ways, all this is done on the floor – except of course, for the sewing machine itself.

The ladies attend for several weeks and at the end of the course they receive a certificate at a ceremony (Nepalis love celebrations) after which they will hopefully be able to find work as a tailor either working for themselves or others. Cyrene also run an advanced course for those wishing to learn more.

One of the women that the Cyrene course has trained

Before the sessions start in the mornings there is a brief meeting, when the ladies sing short Christian songs and maybe share something of their lives. This is followed by a session on general life skills – many Nepali girls have not had the opportunity to have education so reading and writing is offered. Family planning is also discussed.

The ladies certainly leave Cyrene with a vision and a hope, not to mention a life skill that will benefit themselves and their families. We are grateful to our Nepali contacts who run this project so faithfully and we continue to help from here in England in every possible way.

49 Actions!

Last week the trustees of WWR met together in the stunning Devon town of Lynton for 24 hours.  As a result of the meeting they have a combined total of 49 actions to achieve and will be very busy for the next while!

Some of the main points you might be interested in are:

Marilyn will be taking over organising pashmina orders – her e-mail address is pashmina@wwr-nepal.org.

Renee will (hopefully) be visiting Nepal during February and March and will be assessing each of the women we support and ensuring they have a basic standard of living.  She will be checking to see that they at least own the following items:

Bed	Salt & Rice	Jacket
Blanket	Large Water Container	Hat
Pillow	Stool	Gloves
Metal Crockery inc Beaker	Cupboard/Food Store	School Uniform for children
Saucepan/Stir fry pot	Shoes	Shawl
Pressure Cooker	Socks	Stove & Gas
Serving Spoon	Thermals

If you sponsor one of the women and would like to know what their needs are and what we will be buying for them, then please let us know.

Our income has crossed the £5,000/annum threshold and consequently we will be fully registering with the Charity Commission (at the moment we are registered with HMRC only for tax purposes).

Once Renee returns from Nepal we will be putting together a DVD to demonstrate the work we do and the plight of the women we support – we will let you know when it is completed so you can see it.

If you’d like to know what the other 45 action points are then get in contact and we’d be happy to send you a copy of the minutes…..!