Travel and leisure
Saga Charitable Trust
Saga Charitable Trust: changing lives - how we use your contributions
It's time for our Christmas Appeal 2008 - and Janice Lee, director of Saga Charitable Trust, reports from Nepal on how your donations are making a difference in just one of 14 countries where the SCT is active. With your help, we can continue to be a real force for change
Bhattidanda: a viable village business
A bright idea, a few buffalo and a lot of hard work are the key elements behind the astonishing success of a project that is bringing education, prosperity and hope to the village of Bhattidanda.
The Himaljyoti Community School opened there in 2004, thanks to an amazing British couple who saw the need and raised funds to build it, backed by the Trust. However, our support took on a whole new direction when the chairman of the local women's co-operative had an idea that would raise the economic status of the villagers and help the school become sustainable through the sale of milk.
The result was Project Buffalo, overseen and supported by the local Thamel Rotary Club, which has made astonishing progress in just two years.
I watched one morning as, one by one, the women arrived with their containers of fresh milk, which was then weighed, filtered and its fat content measured. The women are paid according to the weight and fat content and out of their earnings they pay the school fees of one child and repay the cost of the buffalo in instalments. Once repaid, the money is then used to buy more buffalo and so on. The first 15 buffalo were bought by the Trust and now there are 22. They cost about £300 each but their value is priceless.
I was very proud to be asked to present prizes (new pails!) to the women who had repaid the most from their loans – a good endorsement indeed.
Nepal has a tragically low but improving literacy rate and education has been at the core of the Trust's support. It was a real joy to revisit the Himaljyoti School, which is now providing quality education to 204 children, of whom 62 are from the Tamang community. The latter, historically a lower caste in the Nepalese hierarchy, now have a firm foothold in the school and it was great to see the children so confident and eager to learn and show off their talents in a school production.
It is no exaggeration to say that without this school many of these Tamang children would not receive an education at all and yet here they are now, looking forward to a better future with aspirations of becoming teachers and doctors.
Kathmandu: an end to isolation
It's not often that people's lives can be transformed by very simple means – but a project I visited in Kathmandu really shows how a little assistance can have a most profound effect.
Research by the Kathmandu Association of the Deaf revealed that in the Kathmandu Valley alone there were more than 100 elderly deaf people who had received no assistance. In fact, many of them are not even registered as citizens, having been hidden away for most of their lives, isolated and often quite alone. Not only had some of them never learnt to sign, but most had never met another deaf person.
The Trust was asked by Deafway UK to help fund a programme that would bring this vulnerable group of people together – and now they meet three days a week at a small centre in Kathmandu (transport costs are covered), where they are taught sign language and are helped to improve their standard of life.
When I arrived at the centre I was greeted with more smiles and garlands than I could possibly deserve. This programme is just beginning, but uniting a group of people who have been alienated and opening up their world, has to be one of the most worthwhile things we have ever done.
I'm also glad to report that, probably for the first time in their lives, they are learning how to socialise, laugh and have fun.
Pokhara: education for all
We passionately believe that education is the key to a better future. So I was delighted to visit the Amarjyoti School at Pokhara, where I was warmly greeted by the village elders and the school committee.
The 'jyoti' part of the school's name means light – and with your help the Trust is indeed bringing light into the lives of these villagers. The Trust helped complete and equip a second storey for the school, enabling village children to attend for a crucial two extra years.
Here I also stopped at the Shreejna School for Deaf Children, a dynamic institution that provides much-needed education for children from all over Nepal. The school has become so successful that it is bursting at the seams and, although the Trust helped to extend the adjacent hostel to accommodate more children, even that is now no longer sufficient.
Making the world a better place
I left Nepal on a real high – wondering what more can we do. The answer, of course, is an awful lot, which is why we hope you will help.
Last year Saga Magazine readers raised more than £14,000, which has helped to change lives all over the world. We highlighted then the desperate need for childcare facilities in an area of South Africa ravaged by HIV/Aids. I am pleased to announce that with your generous donations a nursery for more than 150 children has now been opened there. In Zambia, through your help, the people of Mukuni now have a clean water supply.
The Trust now operates in 14 countries in the developing world and thanks to you we really CAN make a difference by helping communities to help themselves.
Website: Saga Charitable Trust
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Saga Magazine
Read about the Saga Charitable Trust in the December 2008 edition of Saga Magazine. You can also make a donation to the Christmas 2008 appeal through Gift Aid using the coupon on page 53 of the December issue.
Alternatively you can donate by visiting www.sagacharitabletrust.org. Click on the donation page and then post the form to: Saga Charitable Trust, The Saga Building, Enbrook Park, Folkestone, Kent CT20 3SE.
