Every year Net4kids offers the opportunity to stakeholders (investors or potential investors) to see for themselves what the impact of Net4kids' projects is. This year's destination: Nepal.
Visiting
The first few days of our Stakeholder Trip were entirely devoted to our projects. We immersed stakeholders in the daily reality of poverty in Nepal. From the slums where we came with the staff of Child Watabaran Center Nepal (CWCN) with a mobile healthcare bus to the home visits at Nepal Matri Griha. We have seen the most shabby, dirty huts where the kids from our projects have their home. If they already have a home, because too many children in Kathmandu are still walking on the streets without a roof over their heads.
We draw strength from the vitality and perseverance of the children and their families who, thanks to Net4kids, get a chance for a better future. It really can. With all these experiences in our backpack, intense and sad to happy and positive, we will then see the most beautiful side of Nepal together: we enter the beautiful Himalayas. And we don't just do that. We have been invited by Mountain Child Care. An organization with a special mission: to bring young people without parents and young people who have lived on the street into contact with their deepest motives. From there they can take charge of their own lives. This leadership enables them to participate confidently and proactively in society after leaving their home. Mountain Child Care organizes QuestTreks for these young people, in which Western participants (young & old) can also participate. It is a six-day personal leadership program in the Himalayas. And during our stakeholder trip we got a taste of this program in the form of a two-day draw.
Program with impact
At 6 o'clock in the morning we were already on the bus that dropped us off at the beginning of the road to Chisapani in the Helambu area, just outside Kathmandu. We have been divided into groups in advance with three talented Nepalese coaches, Susmita, Suraj and Leeza, and with the Dutch Hedda who manages the Nepalese Mountain Child Care team. And these coaches have let us experience the leadership program in a shortened form. What a gift. We walked for two days, talked but also walked in silence, laughed a lot, but also shed a tear now and then. We sweated to get to the top (up and down all those stairs) and we were quite cold at night in our simple sleeping bags. But we have all done it and in two days the Mountain Child Care team achieved so much with us personally with different exercises, really special to experience. And we are convinced that the impact of this program is only greater for Nepalese youth.
And that is why it is important that Dutch people, who would like to follow a special leadership program, join QuestTrek. Thanks to their contribution, former street children get the chance to really take steps for their future thanks to this program. After the draw, these young people will receive individual coaching for another year. We can recommend a QuestTrek to everyone and see the impact of the program after only two days. With some muscle aches and smelly clothes we came down the mountain incredibly enriched and we are grateful that we were able to share this experience with such a special enthusiastic group of stakeholders.
The very last day of our stakeholder trip consisted of a tour of the city of Bhaktapur, where we also got an insight into the daily life of the (middle class) Nepalese and we shared a large bowl of special yogurt, the local specialty. After buying some last souvenirs for family and friends, the journey is over and we return to the Netherlands with a suitcase full of stories, photos and a boost of inspiration. To work. Because there are still so many companies in the Netherlands that we want to reach with our message that together we can really make a difference. And hopefully we will be able to take them to 'the roof of the world', beautiful Nepal.
The end. Namaste.
Ps. If, after reading this blog, you think: I would also like to do a QuestTrek and not only give myself a gift, but also offer Nepalese young people a future: let us know! We would like to put you in touch with Mountain Child Care.