National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Helping Hands

An international network of expatriate Nepalis sets up example of serving one’s own country

By A CORRESPONDENT

“There is darkness right below the lamp,” says a Nepali proverb. Named after Lord Buddha—the “Light of Asia,” Buddha primary school at Chhampi in Lalitpur district is nearly 16 km away from the city. But if you happened to visit the school, you could see up to 80 students crammed in a dark, narrow room. As heavy vehicles drive right above the school, students fear for their safety while attending their classes.

“Now, we are going to construct a new school building by mobilizing voluntary labor from the community on top of the assistance provided by Help Nepal Network (HeNN),” Raghunath Baniya, headmaster of the school told SPOTLIGHT.

Baniya received a cheque of Rs 300,000 amid a function organized by HeNN to mark Help Nepal International Day in Kathmandu on Saturday.

A global charity registered in the UK and Nepal simultaneously in 1999, HeNN has encouraged Nepalis living abroad to help their motherland—whatever small the assistance may be -- in an organized way.

The money raised through a simple scheme of “One Pound a Month,” mostly by the Nepalese for the Nepalese, has been spent mainly in the areas of health and education.

The Network has already raised nearly Rs six million and helped in the construction of school buildings in Lamjung, Parbat, Dang and Pyuthan and a library at Dunai, Dolpa. Similarly, the Network has helped in the construction of a Health Post at Murma in remote Mugu district besides conducting eye camps, Hepatitis B vaccination programs and supporting victims of natural disaster in different parts of the country.

HeNN has also supported SAHARA, a Nepalgunj-based NGO, to run educational and rehabilitation program for children who have become orphans during the Maoist violence.

“The beauty of these projects is that local community has invested more than double the assistance we have provided in terms of voluntary labor and other inputs,” said Arun Singh Basnet, a young and committed social worker who heads the Nepal chapter of HeNN.

The proceeds of the fund-raising dinner organized at Hotel Yak and Yeti last week would go to support the health post in Mugu, he said.

Addressing the function, vice chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr. Shanker Sharma said that he health post in Mugu was able to provide services to 17,000 people in the region. NPC had also assisted in the construction of the Mugu health post. He also congratulated HeNN for providing support to the communities where the government had not been able to extend social services.

With the overall aim of encouraging Nepalis and those who love Nepal around the world to contribute to Nepal, HeNN has made sure that every penny contributed by its patrons reaches the needy people back home. Nepalis studying or working in Austria, the US, UK, Belgium, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Canada, Italy, Sweden and New Zealand are already affiliated to the network and are organizing various fund-raising activities to support HeNN projects in Nepal.

“At a time when our country is suffering from armed conflict, we must take initiative to help the needy people in whatever way possible instead of looking for foreign aid,” said Rabindra Mishra, president of HeNN UK at a function organized in London on July 26. He said that there was the need to set up precedent that Nepalis can help each other wherever they are.

Said Minister of State for Water Resources Thakur Prasad Sharma, “It is the culture of the Nepalis to help those in need. HeNN must be lauded for networking the Nepalis living abroad and raising resources to support backward communities like Chepang in Chitwan district.”

(To know more or support the activities of the Network, visit www.helpnepal.net)