On the One Year Mark
Kim Chen
A few weeks ago Google Photo reminded me that it had been a year since I loaded the EBC trek trip photos. It has been one year already! That means Project iBelieve is almost one year old! I still remember the day when I decided to do something for Nepali children.
It was the first day of our EBC trek. On October 11, 2016, our group of 13 people from Canada began the Everest Base Camp via Gokyo Lake Trek. We were led by our guide Bal and assistant guide Karan, starting from Lukha with the goal of reaching Phakding where we would stay for the night. I was quite excited about this trip with the opportunity of admiring Mt. Everest from a distance.
Shortly after we started, I was delighted to find a 100 Rs bill lying on the trail. 100 Rs is about 1 US dollar. I picked up the bill and called out: “This is my lucky money!” Bal asked me what I wanted to do with this money. I said I would give it to our porters. But I was soon puzzled. We had 6 porters. One dollar wouldn’t make a meaningful gift to 6 people. I thought to myself: “It seems I need to look for more money on the trail in the rest of my trip.” However this puzzle was soon solved by a little boy.
Not long after we entered the Sagarmatha National Park, we encountered a boy on the trail. The boy, about 7 or 8 years old, was standing in the middle of the trail and handing out a small wild flower to each of us. I was at the back of the group. When I approached him, there were not many flowers left. He gave me one and said “Namaste”. I took the flower, and thought of the 100 Rs bill in my pocket. I took out the bill and gave it to him. The boy’s eyes flashed immediately. He took the money and ran back home. Before he ran away, Bal called him and asked in Nepali: “What are you going to do with the money?” When Bal translated for me, I was expecting an answer like “buying candies”. But I was wrong. The boy said:” I want to buy notebooks”. For the rest of the day, I couldn’t help thinking: “Does he go to school? What makes notebooks more important than candies for a child at his age?”
Later in the day, I saw three boys walking in the opposite direction with an empty basket on their back. They were around 10 years’ old. Our assistant guide Karan told me they were probably on their way back from carrying goods from Lukla to Numche Bazaar, a one-way distance of about an 8-hour’s walk for us. How much weight could these little porters carry? How long did they take to walk from Lukla to Numche Bazaar and then back to Lukla? How much money could they make in one trip? Although I wanted to take a picture of them, I put away my camera instead. I was afraid that would make them unease. Later I found from Bal that the Market rate was about 1 USD for every kilogram carried from Lukla to Namche Bazaar.
For the rest of the day, and for the rest of the trip, the images of these three little porters and the little boy who wanted notebooks stuck in my mind. At this young age, children in North America go to school, have fun at playgrounds, or play video games at home. But for Nepali children, going to school is a luxurious dream. Some of them even bear the burden of supporting their family on their little shoulders.
What can I do for them? This was a question I asked myself again and again during the trip. I talked to our guide Bal, our assistant guide Karan, and our porters (through Bal’s translation) throughout the trip. I wanted to learn about their lives and their dreams. In my mind, lack of education is the root cause for poverty in Nepal.
When I came back to Canada, the idea of helping Nepali kids to get education appeared in my mind. That was how Project iBelieve was created. When I communicated my idea to Ian, the group leader of our EBC trek trip and the founder of a hiking group Trail Hike, he was very supportive. When I presented my idea to his group in the Christmas party, the positive responses encouraged me. The more people I talked to about Project iBelieve, the more confident I became in making it work.
Now one year later, I am pleased to tell you that Project iBelieve has made some progresses.
- Our website is up running, although more work needs to be done.
- We are connected with our first partner school – Nele Lower secondary School (NLSS), and delivered some donation items (student uniforms, stationery and sports equipment) to the students in April 2017.
- We hired an English teacher for NLSS. There was no designated English teacher before due to lack of government funding.
- We received a donation of school bags and will deliver them to the school soon.
- We received a donation to build a reading club for kids in the Jogara Village, one of the three villages in Nele Village Development Committee. The building construction is underway currently. Once it is completed, we will collect children books and make a library for the kids.
I am so grateful for the support received from my friends and people that I talked for the first time. Without their support, Project iBelieve wouldn’t have gone this far. My special thank-you goes to our web developer who has put many hours to get the website up running.
Looking forward, there is lots of work to do. More imminent ones are:
- To launch fundraising campaigns and raise funds to purchase stationery and healthy lunch for students at NLSS.
- To look for sponsors to build one-to-one sponsorships with children who are going to higher secondary schools and need support with tuition fees and school necessities.
We need more people to know about the project and get involved, and we need your support to spread the word. I am confident to continue and expand the project, and I am confident that some Nepali kids’ lives will be changed because of Project iBelieve. I am confident because I know I have your support.
To get involved, check out our fundraising and volunteer opportunities.
“There is no good deed that is too small”.