Today was another busy day but and we believe it was a good day. First of all a disclaimer: we are not the only ones busy and this is the amazing thing, everybody is trying to do his own bit to improve the situation. I can’t think of anyone not trying to do anything at this stage. Individually or in group, formally or informally everybody and here I underline, everybody is really working around the clock in the aftermath of the earthquake. We also try our best to coordinate with our friends in order to maximize our energies and resources. Here my diary of the day:
9.30 AM Starting at ENGAGE Office
We are all a bit tired and we started our day a bit late. I met Kusum at ENAGE office and first of all, we do a quick press review in order to understand the latest developments on the post earthquake crisis. The Government is enforcing a “one window” policy in relation to relief and humanitarian aid. We definitely complied with it as our relief distribution has been done in coordination with the local municipality. Then we start planning the day. We are also trying to garner information from a village in Kavre where it seems that relief aid did not reach yet. We are ready for our meetings.
11.00 AM, Meeting with CIL
We have a meeting with Krishna Gautam, Secretary General of Center for Independent Living, CIL. We know CIL by name and fame as we have some of our best players and future ENGAGE Corps members working there but we never had the opportunity to meet with Krishna. Yesterday I with Kusum and Karl, our amazing Advisor and Donor, a guy with an incredible heart full of generosity, went to visit the players from the Jawalakhel team as they trained for the first time after the earthquake. After the training, we went to see the camp managed by CIL where our players are temporarily hosted. There we met with Devi, our friend and future ENGAGE Corps member who also work for CIL. We immediately agree to meet on the following day with Krishna. So this morning here we are, having a very pleasant conversation with Devi and Krishna to discuss about possible mutual collaborations. The most interesting thing is that CIL and ENGAGE shares the same philosophy in terms of empowering persons living with disabilities. There is good ground for future cooperation. We were asked to fund the purchase of vegetables for the camp and after the meeting, the Board of ENGAGE immediately decided to fund vegetables for 15 days.
12.15 PM Meeting with Self Help Group
The meeting at CIL is over and we are running a bit late. I am on the back, Kusum is driving the Black Dragon, a “powerful” electric scooter that miraculously survived the earthquake without scratches….So despite being a bit of a wreck as the indicators, horn, lights and possible everything else but the engine is not working, it is doing its job and it is actually moving. Let’s not complain too much, after all what counts is reaching destination, alive…
So in few minutes we are meeting with Umesh Shrestha, a real trailblazer in social entrepreneurship even if few realized it. On the way we meet Kalpana that is heading to office to meet with Sabrina, our amazing Treasurer. We briefly updated her about the meeting at CIL and then we agree to meet later at Umesh’s office. After few minutes we are there. We had met with him already once few weeks ago and we were literally blown away: he set up a self help group, all composed by visually impaired persons and can you guess what they are doing? Are you ready? They do not only produce and package incense boxes but they even produce and sell HARPIC, you got it right, the stuff we used to clean our WCs. After the manufacturing is done, Umesh and his peers start selling the products in the streets of the Kathmandu. Being a self managed initiative, here everybody is equal and each group member gets a fair share of what s/he sells. When we went there the first time, we promised ourselves to remain in touch and understand how we could do something together. Then the earthquake happened and we could not meet. We were in touch with Umesh since last week as he had shared with us that all his peers were in dire needs. We really believed him as, even before the earthquake, his people were already in status of vulnerability.
We talk to all the persons, one by one and this assessment simply confirms that all these people are in need. Their source of income, selling stuff in the street is at risk as no one is buying anything these days. Now we will try our best to provide whatever we can in terms of relief aid but then we will try our best to connect Umesh and his team with some opportunities to strengthen his business model so that he can improve it and scale it up. After almost 2 hours and half, we are ready for the next move
2.30 PM Meeting with Adhikari Brothers
We are in touch with them since the morning. When we first called them, they told us they were heading to Dhulikhel, 45 minutes from Kathmandu to visit a local school that was heavily damaged by the earthquake. In this school there are many blind children. Since the earthquake, the two brothers, Sushil and Basudev have been running several health camps but now they want to focus on Sanjeevan School where the blind students are living in few crammed rooms. We immediately decide to support the initiative, including the health camp to be organized this coming Tuesday. The Brothers are running an NGO, the Bright Star Society, a real volunteering organization as both Sushil and Basudev have full time jobs but nevertheless they find time to run amazing social work initiatives. Forget the details that the brothers are visually impaired persons. Since really long, I and Kusum have stopped to think of them in terms of their disabilities. The meeting lasted approximately one hour. We are ready for next one.
3.30 Meeting with Kalpana and Sabrina
While I and Kusum were with Sushil and Basudev, Kalpana and Sabrina went to buy the crutches for a person living with disabilities in Tripureshor, the health shops hub. We got his name from our friend Sagar Prasai. We met and we finally had for lunch. The day is almost over. Sabrina and Kusum are heading now to deliver the crutches while I and Kalpana are going back to office. At the same time, while we have our lunch, we keep discussing about work to be done. Also we came to know that that village in Kavre is no more in need of relief, at least for now.
5.00 pm Not finished yet
Here I am now writing this piece. My super smart phone was out of charge and I am still waiting for NTC, the national telecom I am subscribed to, to bless me with the confirmation that I recharged my phone one and half hour ago. Pretty crazy, isn’t? I think by now Kusum and Sabrina have a MISSION ACCOMPLISHED and the crutches were delivered. After all it was a long but good day.
As I said at the beginning, here everybody is involved in doing something. For example Karl and his incredible buddy Antoine left this morning at 4.30 am to reach a remote village in the District of Ramechap, quite far from Kathmandu. They went to deliver some aid relief with money raised from Canada. My buddy Mike though far from Kathmandu is doing is best in connecting people, trying to forge synergies and cooperation among different organizations working in the relief. This is really the way forward: working in a team, trying our best to avoid overlapping by forging new understandings with other players involved in the relief efforts.
Are we doing anything so special? Not at all. People back home think we are doing something special but actually at the end of the day, here we are just doing our bit and believe me it is nothing so extraordinary.
We should not forget what is really extraordinary: the people who lost their loved ones, people who got paralyzed, persons who lost their houses and keep living in a very precarious situation. They are extraordinary and their endurance, a source of admiration.
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