Originally published on WhereNext
Background
Jahni Izzard visited Nepal on a mission trip with her school in 2014. They visited hostels dedicated to helping girls who had been rescued from brothels in India and were determined to help. Her mother, Racquel, joined her the following year and the Badi Project was born. At first, the Badi Project started by holding small fundraisers. movie nights, silent auctions and selling yak blankets. After the third trip and selling many yak blankets, Racquel knew the need was much greater. She reached out to a family friend who worked for Salesforce, as the company has a volunteer time off (VTO) program to encourage staff give back to community initiatives. Jess and Olivia came the first year and Nepal captured their hearts. They have now been 5 years running with the team growing each year. The impact now being far greater than from selling yak blankets!
Objectives
The objective for our team was to help Asha Nepal, a small NGO on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Their mission is devoted to preventing the trafficking and abuse of girls and caring for survivors, with the aim of their safe reintegration into the community. The task of the week was to help them renovate the property which has become a sanctuary for the victims of human trafficking and abuse in Nepal and India.
The other team, where the requirement was to in "cross-fit" condition was to travel outside of the city to build sanitation facilities for a children's hostel.
Activities
The journey to Nepal for our group from Singapore was on Malindo Air. There was some stress getting all of the donated supplies checked in without an enormous excess luggage bill. With some prior calls to explain the purpose our trip and very accomodating check-in staff we were on our way. With a short stopover in Kuala Lumpur we arrived in Kathmandu at 9:30pm and were met by other volunteers who had arrived early to get our baggage to the hotel and meet the rest of the team.
The following day we went sightseeing around Kathmandu and ended up grabbing some lunch of traditional Momo's (Nepalese dumplings) at Paddy Foley's Irish pub and watched the football. That night we had a group dinner with our volunteer team at the hotel.
The next day we packed up and headed off to lunch at the Dwarika's Hotel which has some beautiful gardens that offer a tranquil respite from the noisy and hectic streets of Kathmandu. Then off to our bed and breakfast in the outlying suburbs of Kathmandu to begin our week at Asha Nepal.
The week entailed cleaning and renovation of the buildings in the Asha Nepal sanctuary with a complete remodel of the top floor kitchen and roof top area along with cleaning and painting of the other buildings in the complex. Our team also rejuvenated the vegetable garden and organised a sign writer to redo the entrance sign. It was exhausting work to be honest and quite the break from our desk jobs in Singapore, the first night I fell into bed at 7pm!
In our free time and evenings we were able to go on hikes in the surrounding mountainside, cook some amazing dinners and spent a lot of time getting to know the girls who were staying there. Some of the stories were heartbreaking and gave us an opportunity to reflect on how lucky we are and the things we take for granted in life. The most basic things like where you were born, your parents and your citizenship gave all of us a major head start in life. These girls had gone through some traumatic events in their lives and still maintained a positive attitude with beaming smiles and willingness to dive into all the opportunities that were provided to them.
Perspectives
It was an inspiring week with some amazingly strong women who have gone through some extremely tough challenges and yet maintain such a positive outlook and radiance in life. Even though we raised a good amount of money and worked hard to create a more welcoming refuge we couldn't help to think that more was needed to help provide for the victims of human trafficking in this region.
Money Raised
$50k USD for two different NGO's. Fund Raising activities included a wine auction and various social events. Staff and friends donated clothing and toys which we took with us to Nepal. We also used the Salesforce charity match scheme where each employee donations are 100% matched up to USD$5000/year.
ASHA NEPAL is a small organisation in Kathmandu devoted to preventing the trafficking and abuse of girls and caring for survivors, with the aim of their safe reintegration into the community.
With your help, we care for girls rescued from sex-trafficking, forced labour and abuse. We provide trauma counselling, health care, educational support, and emergency and long-term residential care.
Learn more about WhereNext here and read the full feature article here.
