PaxWorks in Nepal
PaxWorks’ Board annually re-asses the shared
values, goals, accountability, and progress of the NGOs PW
supports. Faithful productive relationships grow in depth, at
times our paths diverge from others. And new collaborative
opportunities arise. Here are some of both:
PW continues to support Women for Human Rights,
www.whr.org.np/. Founded by
Lily Thapa, this organization supports single women’s social,
psychological, legal, and economic empowerment. WHR advocates
eliminating the social ostracism of single women (widows - and
their children) so as to incorporate them into the social
mainstream. WHR provides counseling support and education.
Essential to this work is the establishment of micro credit
systems to start generating a sustaining income.
PaxWorks will again bring laptops that will help
provide job training. In addition, we will support some
locally chosen women’s groups in micro enterprises. Remarkably,
WHR is one of the few organizations that lets its fledgling
groups evolve without demanding ongoing payments for
various stated ‘needs & support.’ Given the skills, these
coop members hold each other accountable, support one another,
and share rotating leadership. Always free advice from WHR is
available upon request. This is true empowerment. For a
number of years the women have proven their trustworthiness,
their competence, their welcome to persons of all castes, and
their fairness.
West Virginia University is one of the U.S.
fastest growing universities. WVU’s Director of the Office
of International Programs is committed to the globalization of
the curriculum through the promotion of study abroad &
collaborative international research. Recent requests from
faculty and students for connections with Nepal’s respected
Tribhuvan University hopefully will bear fruit. The first steps
initiating a dialogue are being taken now.
PaxWorks’ goal always includes a major emphasis
on education. We are committed to enable inquiry-based and
experiential learning opportunities in diverse peer
partnerships. Recently we led several experiential science High
School teacher trainings abroad (3 grad. credits), and we hope
to establish, with local partners, a similar program in Nepal.
(¨Please read one teacher’s eager outreach for her students to
Nepal.)
Our goal is to match collaborative teacher teams from the United
States and Nepal, and help them develop experiential
collaborative curricula that address specific global
warming issues in a local setting. We have so much in common,
and so much to learn from each other!
Dorte Just, a retired Danish schoolteacher, works 6 months each
year in Nepal. Supported by a few friends, she uses her own
retirement to assist families in immediate need. Usually that is
single women with children. Working with a social worker who
also translates, Dorte helps establish sustainable livelihoods
for them. In outlying areas local women choose a recipient
with the most pressing need, and then everyone contributes labor
to help. In one village recently 2 houses that had collapsed
were rebuilt in 14 long work days. Everyone, including Dorte and
her translator, cleared rubble, carried mud bricks, and worked
on the construction. An unemployed stone mason found work again
and his children are back in school, some women earn their
living now from vegetable stands, some obtained medical care,
another emergency transportation…. And, of course no present or
future fees for ‘education’ or ‘organization’ are extracted - an
odious way some organizations perpetuate their income.
PaxWorks happily supports this grassroots partner whose
total designated resources go directly to recipients.
Our Spring 2009 report will detail progress of OLE Nepal, Agro
Forestry, and the medical & educational work of Scheer Memorial
Hospital, and ADRA. Another valuable ally, Green Micro finance,
http://www.greenmicrofinance.org/, would like to
resume their work again in Nepal. GMf’s Executive director,
Elizabeth Israel, lived and worked in Nepal for several years.
We are grateful for her support.