How HANDS in Nepal is Working to Provide Education and Hope in the Most Remote Villages of the Himalayas

In 2010, I went on a life-changing trip to Nepal with my father to hike the Annapurna trek in the Himalayas. Despite having traveled quite a bit, there was something truly magical and mind-blowing about Nepal. I had never experienced anything quite like it before. The chaotic mix of utter poverty and lack of infrastructure juxtaposed against the beauty of the Himalayas, the people and the culture truly touched my soul.

As we trekked through one beautiful remote village after another, I began to wonder how could it be that in this tiny, mountainous country where over 80% of its people live in remote villages like the ones we’d seen, that many people have little or no access to education. I learned that only half of Nepalese women over age 15 know how to read and write and many people are barely making ends meet to survive.

I’d always taken education for granted and it stunned me to realize that so many people in Nepal and around the world didn’t even have the choice to go to school. I also took safe drinking water, proper sanitation, electricity, health care, a warm stable home and access to medical care and employment for granted as well. I had been living in a bubble, and from that point on was determined to change my life and figure out a way to give back, and thankfully I did.

As a stay-at-home mother of two young children, my trip to Nepal reawakened a strong desire to become a writer and do good. I returned home and immediately started my travel and social good blog, Thirdeyemom, and also began building my work as a humanitarian by raising money and telling the stories of the progress being made by amazing non-profit and social good enterprises around the world.

As we were leaving Nepal, Rajan Simkahada, the owner of Earthbound Expeditions, our trekking company, gave me his card and mentioned some of the social work he was involved with in Nepal.  On the back of the card was HANDS in Nepal, a small grassroots, non-profit organization based in California working to bring education to women and children in remote, rural areas of the Himalayas.  As soon as I got home, I contacted them. I worked with the founder Danny’s mother, Jan Sprague, for almost a year helping raise money for HANDS in Nepal by selling beautiful, homemade Nepali goods that Jan purchased in Nepal and sent to me. It was a wonderful way to give back and in the end I knew that every sale helped improve the lives of both the women who made the blankets and scarves and the villagers supported by HANDS in Nepal.

Over the following eight years, I kept the promise I made to myself and have continued writing and doing good, raising awareness of such issues as women and girls empowerment, global health, poverty and education. I’ve featured many different non-profit organizations and social enterprises on the blog however I had lost touch with Nepal. A few weeks ago, I serendipitously reconnected with Jan Sprague, now the Director of HANDS in Nepal and it felt like fate. HANDS in Nepal is still working hard to promote education and reduce poverty in the remote Himalayan villages and has began many new projects. Since Nepal will forever be within my heart, I wanted to do an update on the incredible work being done by HANDS in Nepal. I know Nepal is calling me to come back for a visit and I hope too soon.

Interview with Jan Sprague, Director of HANDS in Nepal

HANDS in Nepal

HANDS in Nepal Director Jan Sprague inspecting the building of Learning Center #2 in the Astam Village area of Nepal

How did Hands in Nepal get started?

At the age of 20, my son Danny went on his own to Kathmandu after reading about an orphanage called Buddhist Child Home that needed volunteers. He lived with the lady who ran the orphanage for the first month and then moved in with a Tibetan family to study Tibetan Buddhism. He walked to the orphanage each day from his Tibetan house. While working at the orphanage, he met Rajan Simkahada, and they became good friends. Rajan told Danny the “real” Nepal was up in the villages, and he would never see or learn about Nepal if he didn’t go up to the villages. So he went up to the village where Rajan grew up and was blown away by the poverty, the lack of roads, old, ruined school building, and the poor condition of homes. Rajan told Danny how kids up in villages have to walk great distances to attend a school and he asked Danny if he would build a school in his village, Dharka.

HANDS in Nepal

Danny Chaffin started HANDS in Nepal after volunteering at an orphanage called Buddhist Child Home in Kathmandu, Nepal.

HANDS in Nepal

Danny discovered many children in Nepal work on the streets or beg because of a lack of schools in the villages.

Most of Nepalese live in extremely remote, hard to reach areas.  Rajan’s village Dharka is located in the Ganesh Himalayas, an area like many that most people have never heard of. Dharka is reached by first taking a bus from Kathmandu to Dhading Besi, then a bush taxi to where the road ends, then you hike about 5-6 hours up a mountain to the village. This is common for many villages in Nepal which demonstrates the immense challenge in development areas such as education, water and sanitation, health and more. Danny was blown away by his experience in Nepal, and it forever changed the trajectory of his life.

After returning to the US to start college at Naropa University, a private Buddhist University in Boulder, Colorado, Danny did all he could to save up money and return to Nepal to help build the school. The two of us returned the following summer and began figuring out a plan for how we would build their first school in Rajan’s village, Dharka. It would have to be through the creation of a non-profit. We returned home to the US, filed papers for a 501(c)(3) for the start of a non-profit. Hands in Nepal was officially founded in 2007 and the school in Dharka was completed in 2008 and a second school called Shree Ganesh Primary School was opened in 2009.

 

HANDS in Nepal

Danny founded the first school in Dharka, Dhading Besi, in the Ganesh Himalayas, one of the more remote and poorest areas of Nepal.

Child Labor, Marriage, Education and Survival Global Issues Global Non-Profit Organizations and Social Good Enterprises Poverty SOCIAL GOOD Women and Girls
Annapurna Trek Nepal

My heart breaks for Nepal

“We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.” – Petra Nemcova

News of the devastating earthquake this past Saturday has sent shock waves throughout the world. Once again, Nepal is struggling to help rescue survivors after another catastrophe. For me personally, my heart is broken. A place that has meant so much to me has continually suffered and is now in ruins. A place where I found my voice and was inspired to start this blog.

Annapurna Trek Nepal

Me and my Dad at the start of the Annapurna Trek. November 2010.

They sometimes say that bad things happen in threes. In Nepal’s case, I certainly hope it ends at three. A series of natural tragedies over the last year has brought heartache and struggle to this tiny mountain country, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Global Issues Humanitarian Nepal TRAVEL BY REGION
Annapurna Trail Nepal

READ Global: Empowering people with the ability to read #ILD2014

Imagine living in a faraway, mountainous community in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Despite its unbelievable beauty, most people live in rugged, remote communities with poor infrastructure, difficult lives and few educational or economic opportunities. In fact, Bhutan has one of the lowest literacy rates in Asia meaning countless children and adults are left behind, trapped in an unescapable cycle of poverty.

In 2008, READ (Rural Education and Development) Global, a not-for-profit organization based in San Francisco, changed the future by opening their first READ Center, a community library and resource center that teaches people to read. Before READ began working in Bhutan, the country had only one public lending library in the entire country. Today, there are five READ centers reaching over 37,000 rural villagers creating a culture of reading and providing access to information and resources to help farmers, children and women’s empowerment.

I learned about READ Global’s work before I went to Nepal in 2010. I had wanted to give back to the community and through research on different non-profit organizations, I found READ Nepal, a part of READ Global that works to provide literacy services in Nepal. I fundraised enough money to donate $4,000 before I left and was thrilled the money would go towards such an important cause. (I have written about it here).  Experiencing the rugged remoteness of Nepal during a two-trek in the Annapurnas made me see firsthand how incredibly difficult it is for children to learn. Schools are far and few between. I wondered what life would be like if I couldn’t read or write. It was unimaginable.

The statistics regarding illiteracy are heartbreaking:

  • 773.5 million adults are still illiterate around the world.
  • 17% of children in the developing world will not enroll in primary school
  • 39% of South Asia is illiterate.
  • 50% of women in South Asia are illiterate.
  • On average, kids only go through 4.7 years of schooling in South Asia.
Child Labor, Marriage, Education and Survival Global Issues SOCIAL GOOD Women and Girls
Annapurna Trek, Nepal

On Top of the World at Nepal’s Thorung-La

I will never forget the moment I was on top of the world. I was trekking around the Annapurna through the world’s largest pass – Thorung La. We rose in darkness and anticipation of our two-hour ascent up to the highest point of our Himalayan hike, the pass at Thorung La at an intimidating 17,769 feet (5,416 m). 

We had spent a sleepless freezing cold night at Thorung Base Camp to acclimatize before our morning ascent. I remember being so utterly cold during the night in our barren, unheated room that I emptied every single item of dirty clothing out of my pack and slept in everything I had along with three wool blankets. Unfortunately I was still frozen to the bone and could hardly sleep that night due to the high altitude and apprehension about the next day.

Would I be ok? Would I get altitude sickness? Would I make it to the top? These were all the worries and concerns that were racing through my restless mind and keeping me up in the middle of the cold, dark night.

Annapurna Trek, Nepal

Our last day-long hike up to the top of Thorung La Pass in Nepal.

Adventure Travel Nepal TRAVEL TRAVEL BY REGION TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY Trekking/Hiking Weekly Photo Challenges
Los Glaciares National Park

My Top Five Wild Hikes

I just finished reading Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” a dark, raw and fiercely humorous book on how one woman finds herself during a three-month long trek through the wild Pacific Crest Trail. The book is powerful, emotional, honest and inspiring, and Strayed uses her brilliant memoir to take a hard look at self-discovery, heeling and change.

Of course when times are tough, we can’t always pick up our bags and leave town. Yet, I often find that there is no better way to escape and reflect upon life than to go on a hike, and the more remote and wild, the better. I have been fortunate to have done many wonderful adventurous hikes over the years.  Although every hike I’ve done has been special and has brought me to a new place, there are a select few that have truly inspired me and are unforgettable.

Here is a list of the top five wild hikes that are bound to get your mind thinking.

Adventure Travel Argentina Chile Guatemala Iceland Nepal TRAVEL RESOURCES Trekking/Hiking

Inspiration

“It is impossible to live without failing at something – unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default”. – J.K. Rowling

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This week has been a bit hairy so I thought I’d post some of my favorite photos of mountains I’ve hiked as they always calm my soul. Photos above from France, Nepal and Guatemala. This fall, I will be adding Bolivia to my list of great hikes. 

Stay tuned…

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The Magic of Hidden Places

Often when I travel, I am drawn to the unexpected surprises of places hidden beneath the non-attentive eye. From the mysterious hutongs of Beijing to the labyrinthine of a souq in Morocco, there is always a surprising hidden place to explore.

Perhaps these hidden places open a window into the unknown about the foreign culture you are visiting. Yet they always seem to leave me questioning, thinking and guessing about what it is really like behind these hidden windows of life.

The secret paths within a souq. Rabat, Morocco.

The whitewashed and baby blue walls in a Moroccan kasbah.

Inside the deep alleyways of the traditional Chinese hutongs. Beijing, China.

Another look at a Chinese Hutong.

Peering deep inside a hutong and wondering who lives there? How many homes are tucked away inside?

A hutong without a name or address.

Inside an ancient Chinese Water Village with numerous mysterious alleyways.

Many Chinese Water villages are threaded in waterways like this one that wind around the village and flow out to sea.

The open-air entryway of a home or cafe in Uruguay.

An open-air room of women making fresh torillas out of a building in Guatemala.

An alleyway in Guatemala where a Mayan women hones her craft.

Peeking inside the reddish brown wooden doors of a teahouse kitchen in rural Nepal.

Looking outside a “hotel” window in Himalayan Nepal at the donkey train passageway where modern day trucking is at its best.

TRAVEL BY REGION TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

India’s quest to become polio free has arrived

As many of you know, In January I attended the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life Summit along with 45 other fellow Americans, who will be working hard to raise awareness and funding to provide vaccines to impoverished nations around the world. 

Since January, I have been steadily following all news vaccine-related and have been blown away by India’s quest to become a polio free nation.  In one of the most populous nations in the world that has many places that are extremely difficult to reach, the massive effort to vaccinate India’s children and wipe the deadly polio virus away, has been a hair-raising feat.

Global Health Global Issues India Nepal SOCIAL GOOD TRAVEL BY REGION

Giving back: How a trip to a third-world country changed my life

I started my blog thirdeyemom back in February with modest expectations.  I have always loved to write and I have been a wanderlust since birth.  I wanted to share my experiences of seeing the world with others.  I wanted to have some kind of voice besides my leather-bound journal.

I felt a little nervous about writing a blog.  Many thoughts crossed my mind.  What if no one ever read it?  What if no one liked it?  What if I was disappointed?  

But excitement and anticipation took over all my doubts and I said “What the hell“, you only live once.  By using a pen name, thirdeyemom, no one will even really know who I am!  I can be somewhat anonymous. (Yeah…right).

Nepal TRAVEL BY REGION

Update on Hands in Nepal: Building of Second School Completed

As many of you know, I’ve been actively fundraising for a small, grass-roots NGO called Hands in Nepal which focuses on building schools in rural Nepal.  Most of my fundraising efforts have been done through the sales of beautiful Nepalese, Tibetan and Indian treasures such as hand-woven pashminas, scarves, yak-hair blankets, bags, purses and even baby clothes.

Since late spring, I’ve been able to fundraise $1,670 to date and now have over four boxes of lovely merchandise to sell at upcoming events.  My goal is to raise the $6,000-$8,000 required to build a school in rural Nepal, a place in which 82% of the population live in remote villages and many have little or no access to education.  Only about half of the population of Nepal is literate and most people live on less than $2 a day—-less than a cup of coffee!

I became involved with this organization after trekking the mighty Himalayas last November mostly because I fell in love with this country and its people and more importantly, I wanted to help and make a difference in people’s lives.

The founder of Hands in Nepal, Danny, is an impressive young man, still in college and in his early twenties who works together with his fabulous mother Jan, an educator, as well as several local Nepalese contacts.  This summer Danny, his girlfriend Bree and his mother journeyed to Nepal to build their second school in the remote village of Phulkarka to help with the completion of their second school.

Here is a video Danny recently posted to YouTube which highlights the remoteness, beauty and poverty of this unknown village in Nepal.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dchaff

Danny’s mother Jan, is working on setting up a sewing co-op with village women to help them learn to make a living and improve their lives.  Together, Danny and Jan make a wonderful team and go to show you “if there is a will, there is a way” to making a difference in people’s lives.  Each school will educated over 80 children that had little or no access to education at all.  An amazing story and testament to the will and power of people to make a difference!

To read more about Hands in Nepal, Danny’s work, and my personal travels to Nepal, please visit my earlier posts under the topic “Nepal”.

Nepal TRAVEL BY REGION Volunteering Abroad