Nepal update - straight from the field!

Hi Seven Women friends, 

Just wanted to send a quick update and share the excitement. I hope you are all well and looking forward to catching up with some of you when I get back on the 15th November. 

I have been flat out here since the minute I arrived and we have kicked some massive goals including getting a new team together for the next project (we formed the new board). Together we wrote the constitution for our new single mothers and widows centre which the leadership team from the last project are going to lead (some of our women with disabilities).

We searched hard for a suitable house to lease for the next 5 years and to launch the next project, and finally found the perfect one in the perfect location that the women love. We have now signed a 5 year lease.

A lot of shopping has been done to buy furniture and carpets for the floors of the rooms, curtains and other urgent furnishings. We have planned a launch party for this coming Monday and have invited around 50+ people. 

For this trips spendings I will need to throw a few serious fundraisers when I get home - which we have already started planning- A Seven Women barn dance in February 13, a Seven Women Singles' night and our Seven Women documentary screening at ACMI early next year.

We have had a program at the centre where we donated all of the sanitary pads and solar lights that I received funding for before coming to Nepal and

handed out the certificates on this day too, to some of the women who have just finished their sewing training. I have learned with the women how to make briquettes for cooking and how to dry fruit.

 

We are planning a health fund for the women to access when they are in need of medical treatment that is costing beyond their means.

There are some fantastic outcomes of our work that we have seen but so many heart wrenching stories and suffering that surrounds this work. Diseases I have never heard or or seen, illnesses that do very strange things to peoples bodies. I am always surprised at how people continue to smile and be happy here when enduring such struggles with often no one to assist them. I'm hoping we can grow our income generating activities both in Nepal and in Australia effectively and soon so we don't have to turn anyone away, now that we have the space in our new Seven Women house. 

 

I love being here. My life purpose is crystal clear and many women here are benefiting from what has been created. It is so fantastic to do this work and be working with such beautiful people. 

 

I have been chosen as a Rotary Peace Fellow which means Rotary is going to sponsor me to do my Masters in International Development Policy at UPPSALA University in Sweden at the end of next year. This is such an exciting opportunity that I have not yet processed. 

 

Hope your all alive and kicking. See you soon and thanks for being great supporters of this work. It would be so fantastic if you could come here one day to experience it for yourself.

Look out for more blog posts, or for more information on our work in Nepal, check out our website: www.seven-women.com