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News Guardian, Thursday, March 31, 2011
Cash collected in North Tyneside is helping to improve the lives of impoverished villagers in far-away THE Rotary Club of Monkseaton Centenary supports charity projects at home and abroad. TEGAN CHAPMAN went to Nepal with the club to see how money raised by North Tynesiders is being spent there. WHEN you arrive in some cities, what takes your breath away is the bussle of life. But in Nepal it is the tranquillity, and the hospitality of the people in the hillside communities, that really amazes me. As we travel up into the Himalayas, the commotion of Kathmandu drops beneath us and we venture into the remote villages in the foothills of one of the world’s most famous mountain ranges. Everyday life still follows long-established traditions in these villages, and it seems as if time has almost stood still. Here it is a million miles away from the life we are used to in North Tyneside. Nepal is among the poorest countries in the world, and the beauty of the surroundings does not feed its people. Many villages have no access to a clean water supply, basic health provision or education. Thokarpa is a small but spread-out village, where life seems almost medieval compared with that in the UK. Villagers live in homes made of mud and wood, and they sur-
How your money helps to make a difference on other side of the world
vive on a diet of rice and whatever vegetables they can grow on the terraced slopes. The ground is poor and hard to work, and crops often fail because of the summer heat and lack of water. Malnutrition rates are more than 50 per cent, life expectancy is under 60, and mortality rates for children under the age of
five is a heartbreaking ten per cent. There is limited or no electricity, and they cook by fire and are dependent on candlelight. Many homes do not have a toilet and share water between several families, washing using a bucket outside. Here there are no mod cons. There is no internet or e-mail
‘An Art History of British Surfing’ Exhibition Exhibition includes: • 25 surfboards featuring stunning artwork from the last eight decades • A selection of prints and contemporary art • Key pieces of memorabilia • Special screenings of ‘Protect Our Waves’ by Surfers Against Sewage
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and no mobile phone coverage. They are effectively cut off from the rest of the world. Thokarpa is 6,000ft up, and as we climb higher into the Himalayas, I notice my breath is getting quicker and even taking a few steps up the uneven ground is harder and takes more effort than usual. Even when the plane touches
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down in Kathmandu, it has to negotiate Everest and its surrounding imposing mountains, and you are already several thousand feet above sea level. The people who live in these mountain villages are used to working and living at high altitudes. When we arrived, they promised we would adapt – and they
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were right. I am part of a group of four from North Tyneside over here to help out at an eye camp made possible by money collected by the Rotary Club of Monkseaton Centenary from people in the borough. Club secretary Vera Russell, immediate past president and retired nurse Barbara Connors-
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News Guardian, Thursday, March 31, 2011
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Nepal
Vera’s new mission in life is to help village she regards as a second home
Fowler and Mary Rathbone at the Thokarpa eye camp. Fowler and Sister Mary Rathbone, from Whitley Bay Health Centre, have been sponsored by the club to work as volunteers at the eye camp. In the mountains, cataracts are a common problem due to the thin air at higher altitudes, and simple surgery can make a big difference to the lives of hundreds of people in the
mountain villages. Over the next few weeks, I will take a look at some of the projects, such as the eye camp, that the Rotary Club of Monkseaton Centenary has helped to finance with money raised in North Tyneside, so you can see where the money you donate goes and the difference it makes.
WHEN Vera Russell’s husband Ken died 13 years ago, she decided to look for a new purpose in life. And she found it where she least expected it – in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. Vera was in Goa with friends in 1999 when she met Sitaram Timalsina, known as Jack, who was working as a cook at a seaside restaurant. Jack invited her to his home country of Nepal, where the former teacher, from South Beach in Blyth, found a community of caring people in need of a helping hand. While some greatgrandmothers would be content to potter around at home, since discovering the remote village of Thokarpa, Vera has spent years travelling up and down the mountains, devoting her time to improving the lives of the villagers in any way she can. In 2001, Vera and Jack joined forces to create the charity Javea in Nepal, to improve the lives of impoverished villagers. The Rotary Club of Monkseaton Centenary stepped in to offer financial
Vera Russell in Nepal. support in 2007 and has been raising funds to help the charity ever since. With the help of the club, and generous donations from people in the borough, the charity has been able to provide a clean water supply that means villagers no longer have to walk hours at a time just to fetch fresh water. It has also provided a block of three toilets for
the village school, a health post manned by a full-time trainee doctor and an eye camp. Vera said: “I felt such humility on my first visit to the country. The people out there are just amazing – always smiling and working so hard. “The first thing we did was raise as much money as we could for a water supply
for the village as the villagers were having to walk for long periods several times a day to get water for their families. “I fell in love with Nepal and the people there, and it was like I had found what I was meant to be doing. “Now Thokarpa is like my second home.” For further details, go to www.javea-in-nepal.org.uk
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