In 2007, Neville Neal, of Southern Cross University (SCU) Student Association, (Coffs Harbour campus) and his partner Benita Morris were holidaying in Nepal. Whilst in the Chitwan region in the south of the country, they happened to wander into a souvenir store owned by local man, Keshab Khanal. As Neville and Benita browsed, Keshab proceeded to tell them his story- the extreme poverty he experienced in his childhood, how he was able to teach himself English by working as a tourist guide and how once he had made a secure place for himself in the world, that he was determined to do whatever was in his power to help others living in poverty. Keshab’s inspirational community work and his infectious optimism and sense of humour won them over. By the time they left the store that afternoon, they knew they would be back someday to help.
Back in Australia Neville inspired fellow Association members to fundraise on behalf of Keshab, and over the next few years Neville and Benita sent the thousands of dollars they raised to Keshab to continue his work in the local community. Buffalo and goats were bought for starving families, bright children had their school fees paid for and leaky thatched roofs were replaced with sturdy tin ones.
I was fortunate enough to spend three months volunteering with Keshab in late 2010. During this time using funds raised through events at Southern Cross and Flinders Universities, a fish pond was built and stocked. The money raised from the sale of the fish to local restaurants provides an ongoing source of revenue for the charity work. During my time there I also got to witness many of Keshab’s projects firsthand. Much of the work at that time was being focused in the village of Jutpani, where 800 families have settled after having been displaced by Maoist fighters during the civil war that raged in Nepal from 1996-2006.
The poverty in Jutpani is extreme. Most of the villagers live on less than $1 a day. Many people, including hundreds of children, are malnourished. Until recently the villagers had to walk up to 6 hours a day to collect water from the closest river, which was quite often contaminated with human and animal waste.
The time I spent in Nepal witnessing such poverty had a profound impact on me. Back in Australia, in early 2011, Neville, Benita and I launched our own charity- the Children’s Welfare Organization of Nepal (CWON). CWON is based and run through the SCU Student Association, Coffs Harbour campus. Having our own organization allowed us to greatly increase our fundraising capacity. With support and backing from the University we did presentations to students and in November 2011 we took our first group of SCU student volunteers to Chitwan, Nepal.
Our volunteer program is based primarily around health and hygiene education and teaching English to school children and interested adults. Working side-by-side with Nepali doctors and nurses during the CWON-funded health-camp was a particularly valuable experience for the SCU nursing students. It was a similar story for our second group of volunteers in November 2012.
With our charity’s increased growth during 2012 we were able to fund a major infrastructure project in Jutpani. A 65 metre deep well has now been built giving the locals reliable access to clean safe water for the first time. We continue to fundraise for the completion of this project and we hope to see the impact that clean water has had on the villagers’ lives when we return in 2013.
Our volunteer program has been so successful that we have just launched a new non-profit organization- Student Volunteer Placements International (SVPI), designed to specialise in giving students a life-changing international educational experience. We aim to stay true to our roots and have programs run for students, by students. For information on our volunteer program please email Calida at svpi.aust@gmail.com.
