April 2011  Number 11

Hello to all the Nepal Knitters,

Another year has gone past, we spent 5 months in Nepal and this year, during the winter we distributed over

1000 jumpers and 1000 beanies

Imagine all these jumpers and beanies being sorted in a small office!!  We identified the schools and children’s homes and asked them for a list of he children’s ages.  We then packed the appropriate jumpers and beanies and marked the bags.  These bags travelled by rickshaw, taxi, bus and light aircraft to the different areas.

We distributed the knitted goods at 2 children’s homes, 4 schools in remote villages, 5 schools in a small village in Kathmandu valley and small jumpers at 2 baby clinics.   This year jumpers were taken to remote villages in 4 different areas of Nepal. Each had not received jumpers for a number of years and some we had not visited before.

In one of the villages on the day we planned to distribute the weather turned inclement and by time we were going to distribute it was raining and lightly snowing in the nearby hills.  As it was so cold the children were very happy to receive their “presents”. We were working at this village for 7 days and due to the weather we noticed that the children wore the jumpers every day.

At another village a similar thing occurred with light snow falling as we distributed the jumpers, so it was timed very well as they did not have many other warm clothes. At both of these villages NAFA is assisting with funds for the villagers to put in Micro Hydro plants to bring electricity to their houses.  This will only be lighting, however it will help each house in their kitchen so they do not have to rely on the light from the fire to see what they are doing.  Also the children will benefit by being able to complete their homework at night with better lighting.

At one of the village we had not been to before, the school had applied for funding for new school toilets and replacement of the old roof which had many holes in it. The toilet was totally unusable & the children were having to go in the nearby bush.  This was also a poor farming area and the children at the school had never been given jumpers before so were happy to receive them. Thank you to all our knitters.

Jumper sizes

Your jumpers and beanies are wonderful, they are bright and cheerful and gratefully received.  In the last few years I have been asking you to knit larger jumpers which many knitters have been able to do, so thanks for helping there.

Mums over there as well as here like to get clothes a bit big for their child so that they will last two or three years – because of this the larger sizes are very popular.

Most knitting patterns are fine, but some are a little short in the body – this is a guide on the size of jumpers we need and the approx length. 

No need to knit anything much bigger.  Lets see how that works this year.

Maroon jumpers for Buddhist monks

Thanks for knitting the maroon jumpers for the monks, we had a great response and have distributed all the maroon wool that was donated.  This will go with our members Sue and Lew to remote areas for the young monks.

A message to our new knitters

There are a few things I like to explain to our new knitters.  In Nepal mothers like to wrap their babies in traditional clothing so we do not take over any baby clothes.  When we hand out the jumpers the mothers ask for jumpers a few sizes bigger than the child, this is so the garment can last a few years.  Nepal has a very cold winter and they village children wear many layers of tattered clothing and the new jumper is pulled over all the existing clothing.

It is for these reasons that we prefer to take larger jumpers for children from age 2 to adult.

To make this program worthwhile, we try to keep our costs down.  We have to send all the jumpers and beanies by air to Kathmandu and without the airlines help with the freight we could not continue this program.  We have a limited amount of free freight each year and so unfortunately we have to limit ourselves to sending only jumpers and beanies.  We are unable to take scarves, blankets, socks or used clothing.

Your discarded things – our gems

Thanks you so much for your wonderful response to this appeal.  We took over the haberdashery items such as buttons, lace, thread, needles etc.  I made up sewing kits for women in remote areas who have little access to shops and these kits were well received.  I also taught the girls at the children’s home to crochet with wool and nylon lace and they made lovely pencil bags and then sewed in the old zyps.  They loved the ‘big’ buttons and used them to decorate the things they have been making like tops and ponchos.

We have been able to use the discarded costume jewellery either remaking necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  I also took over a lot of the lighter plastic beads and taught the children at the home to make earrings.  They pored over the beads deciding which was best for their design and all went away with one or two pairs of lovely original earrings.

If you have anything at home you don’t want such as beads, buttons etc, please put it in your bag with your jumpers BUT please don’t go out and buy things, keep your money for wool.

Last year we asked for

• An earring without a partner which we can recycle as a pendant
• Any old beads or broken necklaces which we could recycle
• Felt scraps to make small felt toys
• Buttons, cotton thread, unused zips, lace or any other sewing notions
• Embroidery thread for gift cards

Don’t forget to put your name with the jumpers you give us so that we can maintain our knitters list and keep up to date with who is knitting.

Take a look at the photos of the happy children – I hope you are able to spot one of your jumpers in the crowd.

Every year we give a number of talks at meetings and retirement villages.  I have been traveling to Nepal for over 20 years and enjoy sharing my experiences with others.  This information talk with slides shows the beautiful countryside, the mountains, how the people live and their diverse culture.

I give these talks to entertain and inform people about our organization and Nepal.  If you would like us to come and give your organisation an interesting and informative talk (with no fund raising obligations)

Or if you need more information please contact Brenda  nafasec@hotmail.com

NAFA has been supporting the Tamang people in a remote mountain area with co-operative initiatives in health, education and infrastructure projects for many years.

NAFA Tawal Health Clinic. Above left -NAFA Health workers Beg Bahadur Tamang and Sunita Tamang suturing wounds. Above right – Patient resting with saline drip during treatment. .
Download “Project Paper” here

Project Update

Thanks to the generorsity of 5 wonderful supporters, we now have ongoing donations which will cover the project costs for the next 3 years. These donations will enable NAFA to increase the health worker’s salaries and provide training and resources when needed. The health workers and the people of Tawal and surrounding villages are extremely appreciative of the fact that NAFA funding and support makes access to a health service possible. An initial evaluation of this project shows that it is meeting the aim of improving the health of local people through good quality prevention and treatment.

NAFA wishes to acknowledge and express appreciation to the Queensland Government Gambling Community Benefit Fund for the $5,374 grant provided in December 2009 to purchase computer equipment for the Association and traditional costumes for children and adults who perfrom at various NAFA fundraising events and other activities organised  by the Nepalese Association of Queensland.