A MAN ON A MISSION

If you are a WordPress blogger, please re-blog this post. If you do, you might improve the lives of some needy Nepalese people.

Kuldip and I have just farewelled my nephew, Steve, after a 5-day visit. We packed a lot in over that time, including an introduction to ‘our’ Chandigarh. We also took him to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple, the place of pilgrimage for Sikhs the world over. The changing of the guard ceremony at the Indian/Pakistani border, 30 kilometres from Amritsar, was also on the itinerary.

Steve was trekking in Nepal when the earthquake stuck a little over 12-months ago, and although he was booked to fly home to Australia shortly after that, he stayed on for a month to help with the clean up. Over that time, he arranged A$6,000 of aid including food, blankets, mattresses and tarpaulins to the needy. It was the beginning of his We All Rotate aid organisation.

Since then he and his wife Natalie, or Nat, have worked to raise funds to build a school in a place outside Kathmandu called Thakani Sindhulpalchowk. Although the little village is only 60 kilometres away from the Nepali capital, the roads are so damaged it takes around five hours to get there. Before the earthquake the village comprised 139 homes; all were lost leaving the 700-strong community homeless. The school, which provided education for 300 children from Thakani Sindhulpalchowk and its surrounding areas, was also levelled.

The school Steve is trying to build urgently requires additional funding. The field reports are done, and Steve has architects and engineers on board who have started engaging with the community to get the school built as soon as possible.

In addition to being dedicated to rebuilding Thakani Sindhulpalchowk’s school, We All Rotate, in the last six months, has provided re-usable sanitary wear to around 500 disadvantaged women in rural areas of Nepal. Nat and her team of volunteers sew each sanitary kit that comprises ten fabric pads plus other essentials that last up to two years. It takes around two months to make 100 kits. Although Steve’s Nepalese volunteers show women how to use it, each kit also includes an instruction manual.

Steve is passionate about helping the Nepalese rebuild. He is, therefore, in the process of registering a not-for-profit company to manage contributions. Charity status will follow.

When Steve is on the ground in Nepal doing what he does so well, Nat stays in Australia to ensure all runs smoothly from home base. I unreservedly guarantee Steve and Nat’s honesty and integrity. I know that 100 percent of donations (past, present and future) are spent to help Nepal’s needy of which there are many.

Should you with wish to donate or know more about Steve and Nat and their non-for-profit organisation, please click on this link; www.facebook.com/weallrotate

 

Some Thakani Sindhulpalchowk village people in front of their makeshift homes.

 

Thakani Sindhulpalchowk’s children at the site for the new school.

The girls share a giggle at a sanitary wear demonstration in a remote area of Nepal.

(L-R) One of Steve’s We All Rotate volunteers, Binita, and Steve with Nepalese women clutching their new sanitary wear kits.