Namaste from Kathmandu Domestic Airport, where I am waiting for Buddha Air flight 603 to Pokhara. This is my third trip to Pokhara in the almost 6 weeks since we arrived. Seriously, I have a Buddha Air frequent flyer card! When I collect enough points I can redeem them for a scenic mountain flight!
I can expect to spend 50% of my time 'in the field' i.e. out of the office in Kathmandu. I have been to Pokhara to attend the end of an 11 week basic training course we organised. Then last week we escorted a monitor from the European Commission, the funder of our project, to see some of the project activities. We started in Pokhara, drove and walked ot a village in the hills (photo above) to see a new community disability worker (CDW) at work, then drove south to the Terai.
Nepal is roughly divided into the so-called hilly region in the north and the flat Terai in the south. This topographical division influences everything: economy and prosperity of individuals, ethnicity and society, politics, even basic health services. In a nutshell: in th esouth are the fertile farmlands, roads and Indian border. Where there are roads it is cheaper to build other infrastructure and provide services. HI Nepal supports 5 rehabilitation centres, which offer prosthetic and orthotic workshops and physiotherapy, and they are all in the Terai belt. In order to reach people in the hills they operate mobile camps periodically, usually by flying to a nearby airport and then driving and walking to the site.
On our last day in the field we had to drive about 30 minutes to Bharatpur Airport for a 3:45 flight. About 4km from the airport we hit a traffic jam. Bishnu, our driver, quickly found out that it was due to a bandh or strike. This has become a common show of people power, especially in, but not limited to, the Terai. A group of people united in a common cause get attention and hopefully action from government by bringing transportation to a halt. Vehicle movement can be tied up for hours. We left Bishnu with the truck and hopped in a bicycle rickshaw that could navigate the jam and reached a bridge that was completely blocked except to foot traffic. There we discovered the reason for the bandh: a man had been beaten to death by police several months ago and evidently no one had yet been held accountable. Kathmandu Valley was also seriously affected the following day. In the end we made our flight and I arrived back in Kathmandu tired and more experienced.
So this is my third trip to Pokhara. This time I will officially close a 3 week course we have organised for experienced CDWs. They have learned about the approach of this project, which is still essentially community based rehabilitation but in a much more holistic way. It focuses on the person with a disability and his family and is strength based instead of problem oriented. This means that instead of going to see someone for the first time and asking what the problem is and looking for all of the weak areas, we ask what he can do, what he would like to be able to do and then set about giving him the tools and adapting his community so that he can do it. It is all about empowering the individual and family while also trying to affect social change in order to achieve full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.
Immediately following this course the technical team (me and 3 technical officers from HI in Kathmandu) will conduct a 1.5 day course for CDWs who will be taking on the role of technical advisors. They will support less experienced CDWs more frequently than we can based in the capitol.
While I am away enjoying 2 evenings to myself to wander the touristy but pleasant streets of Pokhara (and hopefully see some mountains if the clouds clear), Toby and Noa are home in Kathmandu. Dena, the didi, comes to stay and will bring her daughter and husband with her. It sounds like the kids don't miss me at all, which is great because then I can enjoy my time guilt free!!
Love
C T N
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