Kathmandu – volunteering with Heart Beat

During my stay in Kathmandu I spent time volunteering for a charity called Heart Beat.

The NGO provides teaching and recreational activities to children from poor families through its facility known as the Dream Centre.

Children take part in Hand Washing Day

Although I was supposed to be the one teaching, through lessons in art and English, I learnt a great deal myself, not least of all how to play the massively addictive Nepali game, caroomboard. It’s a bit like pool except you flick small plastic discs on a wooden board with your fingers.

The children at the Dream Centre were an inspiration. They were ambitious, eager to learn and so cheerful.

If pupils in the UK could spend a day in the shoes of these youngsters, they would never moan about having to go to school again.

Youngsters at the Dream Centre

Heart Beat also attempts to engage with street children by providing food, clothing and health check-ups.

When I accompanied representatives from the charity we went to visit a group living in a wooded area. They were aged from about ten to mid-20s and have to fend for themselves.

They told me many of them have drug problems such as  sniffing glue.

Seeing the conditions the street children live in was also an eye opener.

They literally have to fend for themselves and, apart from charities like Heartbeat, there’s no safety net for them to rely on.

Street children who receive support from Heart Beat

Heart Beat, founded in 2006, has provided relief, such as food and shelters, to villages decimated by the earthquakes.

Founder Juju Kaji said: “There are lots of children growing up on the streets after the earthquakes.

“We have already reached more than 2,000 kids through health camps, art, clowning and education support.”

For more details on Heart Beat, click here.

Nepal and the story so far

Wow. The past two-and-a-bit months have been crammed with so much stuff it already feels like I started my trip years ago instead of in October. So far, I have trekked in the Himalayas, survived “the World’s Most Dangerous Hike” and set foot on one of the Seven Wonders of the World – but more about those later.

My first stop was Nepal. At the time of my arrival (October) the country was going through a tough time to say the least. Families were still trying to return to a semblance of normality following devastating earthquakes which hit back in April.

On top of this, there was a fuel crisis. Political factors, such as protests over Nepal’s new constitution, had sparked an unofficial blockade on the border with India, meaning only a fraction of the trucks carrying petrol and other supplies, including medicine, are allowed in each day. As a land-locked country, Nepal is heavily reliant on these imports.

The visible effects of this were inescapable. Queues, two or three vehicles wide, went on for miles and miles at every petrol station. One poor taxi driver I spoke to said he had been waiting in the same place for 10 hours – and all for just a few litres.

It didn’t help that the biggest festival of the year, Dashain, was happening as well. It was described to me as Nepal’s equivalent of Thanksgiving. Everyone goes back to their family home so the lack of fuel made this extremely difficult for some people.

A parade as part of Dashain in the village of Bungmati

Journeys clinging onto the roofs of buses were fairly normal and I even saw one person climb up with a goat in his arms (each family slaughters an animal as part of the festival).

In my first week I met representatives from a local charity called Lakshya Nepal, which is trying to raise money to build a new school in the village of Chundevi after it was badly affected by the earthquakes.

They very kindly treated me to my first dal baht. A very tasty dish usually consisting of rice, chicken or mutton and a lentil sauce. You eat it without utensils and only with your right hand – the left hand is used for “other things”, so I was told.

We later went to look at some of the aftermath of the earthquakes in the village of Bungmati, just outside of Kathmandu.

Homes destroyed by the earthquakes

Many of the homes were completely flattened, however. the people there were getting into the spirit of Dashain as there was a parade going through and a huge shrine on wheels was being pulled by ropes up a hill.

Despite all this turmoil, the Nepalese people were, in my experience some of the friendliest I’ve ever met. When I got lost once and asked for directions at a nearby hostel, two men who worked there went 20 minutes out of their way to walk me to where I needed to go and they didn’t ask for a thing.

It’s humbling that they have had all of this thrown at them and they are still smiling and striving to get on with their lives.