R Daphne shared pictures and stories of her trips to Nepal and Rotary's involvement.
Daphne has made 9 trips to Nepal over the years. Her first trip was in 2000 when she took a leave from teaching to go trekking in Nepal. Nepal is a small country sandwiched between China and India. A population of about 29 million, and poor live on about $1/day. It is year of 2074 in Nepal by their calendar. Northern part is mountainous, with 8 of the 10 highest mountains in the world. Some discussion about height of these mountains.
South eastern part of the country is low and experienced flooding this year but this news was overshadowed by hurricane in Texas.
Where Daphne goes, it is about 3 hours by bus to the base of the mountains from Katmandu, then 15 km up the mountain.
There are 3 seasons, they rotate crops. 83% of country is rural.
Lots of big rivers. They lack electricity even in Katmandu where they experience hours without power. They now have garbage pick up in Katmandu, but dust especially from brick kilns is a problem and there is the Katmandu cough.
Earthquake on April 25, 2015 at 7.9 killed 9000 and left 3.5 million homeless. Many roads still not repaired, buildings supported by poles and other means.
On Daphne's first trip in 2000, or maybe it was 2003, her guide showed her picture of his village school. Daphne recognized need and on return home mobilized ENSS students to raise funds to support upgrades to the school and support low caste children to go to school.
Daphne has been involved in a couple villages. Most recent is Reep, a village of about 400 low caste people. They are resourceful. Council manage micro loans to the people. They recently started to grow coffee beans as well as their staples. They are building a pool as a tourist attraction.
Rotary Club of Brighton has donated $6,000 since 2010 and with this money we have sponsored students, paid for teachers, women's education, tarps, water, children's play ground, new school for kindergarden to grade 3, farm cooperative.