Demo

Dear Friends of the Umbrella Foundation:

You may be hearing more disturbing reports from Kathmandu on the world news in the last weeks. Progress towards our long awaited constituent assembly elections has halted with the old political guard haggling over the details. Prices are spiraling, and especially fuel price increases have prompted demonstrations on the streets and these have turned violent on several occasions. As I write this, a Maoist rally is taking place in the centre of Kathmandu (unthinkable a year ago) the capital is once again at a standstill, and we wait and hope for some kind of sustainable peace process to emerge.

August started off too dry and we were all very concerned about water supplies, and therefore electricity supplies, for the coming long, dry season. However, by the end of the month the monsoon had reduced much of Nepal to a swamp. It is sadly ironic that last year’s drought plagued the far west, only to end in floods this year which have displaced thousands of people and devastated crops in the south and east of the country.

And the good news? Well things at the Umbrella are going along nicely. This month we are focusing on ways to reduce our costs by buying in bulk, and by soliciting more food donations locally.

A Day-trip to Pashupatinath
Pashupatinath temple, is the second most sacred shrine in the Hindu world. It draws millions of devotees and visitors every year and is the most auspicious cremation site in Nepal. Now that we have our own bus, each of our houses is sending a group of their children out on day-trips on Saturdays (their only day off school). We suggested the children may like to go to the zoo, but they overwhelmingly choose a picnic at Pashupatinath. It will take many Saturdays for all 208 of our children to make the trip, as only about 25 children and 5 caretakers can go each week, but it’s certainly something for us all to look forward to!

Dear Friends of the Umbrella,
Winter is finally over. It was mercifully short and moderate this year, but sadly no rain fell, which means Nepal is already in the grip of a drought. No water means no electricity, and we are currently facing loading shedding of 34 hours per week. So although the weather is glorious (perfect for our building work) we are hoping for rain soon.

New Children Under our Umbrella
Things are going well for us here under the Umbrella, and this week we welcomed 7 new children from the Humla area of far west Nepal. The children are classified as “conflict displaced children” in other words they fled their villages fearing they would be injured in the fighting. Moreover the report stated that little was planted last season in Humla due to the conflict, therefore many families report that they do not have enough food to feed their children. The report went on to estimate that around 50 children a day are arriving in Kathmandu to escape hunger and the conflict. When I feel overwhelmed by these figures, I remember that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness!