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Pink Kitten Dance School is based out of Bristol (http://www.pinkkittendanceschool.com/) and offers lots of different types of dance classes, from cheerleading to pole dancing. This night had a strict agenda of nipple tassles and tequila shooters. Need I say more?

To see more photos from this fabulous night check it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marnierecker/sets/72157624709820381/

Wedding and Portrait Photography: http://www.marnierecker.com

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More Photos here: FLickr SImikot Set

Remember in grade school when we had to write a little essay on our hero… well, this is my essay. At the end of my trip in Nepal, I met an amazing woman, who is not only my hero, but a hero and role model to everyone she meets. Her name is Maggie Doyne. A 24 year old from New Jersey that has changed the lives of so many people through her creation of The BlinkNow Foundation and her beautiful home in Nepal called Kopila Valley, where she cares for 30 orphaned children.

I’ve talked to so many people on my travels that have the desire to volunteer or to find a way to help the world become a better place, to alleviate poverty, to educate children and to bring cultures together for a better understanding of one another. We want this, but we don’t quite know how. We don’t know how to make the first step. Maggie is the kind of person that doesn’t think too much about it, she does it. And through her actions and her creation of the home, the school and the light within the Surket community, she is motivating others to take action. Everytime I watch this video I cry because even in the short week that I visited Kopila Valley, I found something the I’ve been looking for since the beginning of my travels. It brings me great joy and wonder to think that these kids are getting a top-notch education and the love and care they rightfully deserve.

There are just a few foreigners that live in Surket, most are just passing through. My good friend Sarah Homan, from Australia, is currently working on her PhD in Anthropology there. Her life’s work focuses on violence against women and when she is not busy interviewing and writing papers, she can be found at Kopila Valley supporting Maggie and playing with the kids. Recently, another Aussie came to join the family. Orr is an architect who is working on building a school that will give over 200 children from Kopila and the community a brilliant education. The school is set to open in June. I wish that I could have stayed longer to be a part of the building and opening of this school. But I know that I will be back. Maggie, you’ve changed my life in more ways than you can imagine. I will see you again soon!

Lots more photos here: KOPILA VALLEY

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Bijay was the project coordinator. He is originally from Godavari, but is now happily married and living in Scotland. He has always been involved in volunteer projects and even met his wife when she was in Nepal volunteering. He was home for 2 weeks to attend his good friend’s wedding, visit with family and friends and paint the local youth center. Bijay is a golden role model for his community, putting everyone before himself and truly caring for people.

Bijay and his mom cooking up lunch!

My contribution to the project was to come up with a couple concepts to paint on the walls of the center. Bijay gave me the largest wall to paint. He wanted to do something using the children’s hand-prints, so I suggested painting a huge tree and using hand-prints as the leaves. The back wall was painted by Bijay’s old friends who traced the outlines of their bodies to make a line of 4 people holding hands under the slogan “Together We Can”. The other sidewall was painted by some youth with flowers and a person climbing the stairs to success. Another volunteer and myself painted a peace mandala on the front and inside, Niscal, a graffiti artist, covered the walls with his vision and art.

I hope the youth love the space as much as I loved helping make it. Nothing lasts forever, and I’m certain that the rain, snow and sun will have its toll on our paintings. I vowed to come back in 5 years to paint again!

Click here for Flickr and lots more painting photos! (I’ll be posting lots more soon!)

Click here to see Erin’s site!

Many volunteers fund-raise in their home communities to raise money to cover placement costs. For those that do not have the time to commit to doing work like this, donating money to those who do have time can be a good way to help. I had started fund-raising back in South Korea in 2008, selling photography prints to the Gangneaug crew. Many of my friends there have my photographs hung on their walls and I have not forgot their generosity and support. I also have my friends in the Whitsundays to thank for their generosity to the cause and I hope that my work here in Nepal inspires others to consider volunteering their time to learn about overseas NGO work and what we can do to help others in need.

Action Volunteer Alliance works in partnership with Nepal Volunteer Helping Organization (NEVO). NEVO is a registered NGO that was established in 2003 in the small town of Toukhel in Godavari, on the southern fringes of the Kathmandu Valley.

“connecting friends to exchange culture, tradition, and technology”

On January 11th, with a one-way ticket to Nepal, I left my island home in Australia and headed to the Himilayas.

Shyam, my new Nepali bother and partner in compassion, was waiting for me at the airport upon arrival. He was holding a sign that read NEVO. He had a taxi waiting for us and it whisked us away to the mayhem that is the tourist district of Thamel. I stayed at the Hotel Dream House for the first few nights. Far from a ‘dream’, there was no clean hot water, no central heating and the power goes down periodically due to this thing called load-shedding that cuts the power up to 16 hours a day all over the country. It was all something that took a little getting used to.

Nepal it is one of the poorest countries in the world, with huge political problems. It’s an absolute mess despite the fact that more developmental aid is spent here than anywhere in the world, it still remains so poor. This is because of rampant corruption and mishandling of money. It is thanks to non-government organizations like Action Alliance and NEVHO that the children are looked after. The children are the future and it is in everyone’s interest that we invest time and money into homes and schools where they can get the basic necessities of life, education and love.

I really enjoyed my time spent in Toukhel. I lived with Achyut, his wife, Sarmila and their 3 year old daughter Sankusha. I was given a large room in a modest two-story house at the foot of the mountains. Achyut’s mother and father lived next door and other members of the extended family lived in the other two houses in the small complex, including Shyam. It was very peaceful there, lots of time to relax and meditate to the sound of little birds, bleeting goats and the father chanting mantras on the roof.

The Children’s Home was about a 10-minute walk away through the town and paddocks. It was called New Creation and was a Christian home run by the pastor David James and his wife Kiran. David also ran the Word of Truth Church and he holds services every Saturday morning. There were 27 children at the home when I was there. Two of these children were very small babies awaiting adoption, one of which was adopted while I was there. There was also a pregnant 13-year-old girl that had her baby while I was there.

The home is a 3-story building next to the school that all the children went to. They had an education fair one week and I was went to the school to see their projects and play the educational games they had created.

There were 3 workers at the home when I arrived. Two were in charge of cooking and cleaning and one was in charge of looking after the little babies. At the time of the birth of the 13-year-old’s baby there was only one girl working, doing EVERYTHING. I put in a lot of extra time then looking after the babies. I also bought two cradles for the babies because they had been sleeping in hammocks made of sheets slung from the bunk beds to the windows, which was really bad for the development of their spines. Abagail loved her cradle and I absolutely fell in love with her little smiles and giggles.

I spent most of my time with the kids helping them with their homework, two hours before school and two hours after school. The children were really appreciative of this and I really enjoyed getting to know them. I took a lot of photos of everyone and the life lived at the home with the intention of making a fundraising calendar. On the last day I showed a slide show of 200 pictures and they loved it. It was really hard to say goodbye and I cried when Abagail squeezed my finger with full understanding that something sad was happening. I still cry when I think about her. She is too young to remember me but the other children assured me that they will remind her when she gets older and hopefully I can go back and visit one day.

I recently got an email from a man in the states that founded the home thanking me for my commitment and love that I gave the children. He says they pray for me everyday and I am filled with such a great sense of compassion and responsibility for each and every one of them.

“To meet the challenge of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all.”
-His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

I interviewed some of the children on their lives and hope for the future. Here are some of things they had to say:

Surya Gurung is 13 years old, the oldest boy at the home. He is very bright and he wants to be a pastor when he grows up. He wants people to believe in Jesus so they will go to heaven. His favorite thing is to worship God. He also likes Math because it is very easy for him. His dream is that the government situation in Nepal will improve and there will be no more fighting.

His sister is Sujita Gurung. She is 12 years old. She likes living at the children’s home because it is very clean and there are many trees. Her favorite subject is P.E. because she is very good at sports. Her dream is to go to other countries and help them. She wants to be an airline hostess.

Gracy Bhusal is the 9-year-old daughter of David and Kiran. She is a beautiful and very smart little girl that likes to read. Her favorite subject is science because she wants to be a doctor and help sick people for free. Her dream is to be a good doctor and a good girl.

Babita Das is 12 years old and she loves learning about Jesus because Jesus loves all man, even poor people. Her favorite school subject is science because she likes learning about animals, the moon and the sun. Her dream is that all families will believe in Jesus and go to heaven.

Titas Tamang is 12 years old and he wants to be a pastor when he grows up. He likes to read and play football.

Sudip Das is 13 years old. He likes to read and his favorite subject is math because he understands it fast. He wants to change the state of pollution in Nepal because he does not like to sit in pollution. He wants to be a basketball player because he wants to play more. He says volunteering is a good thing because we have to help each other.

Angela Das is 11 years old. She wants to be a nurse to help children.

Seema Das is 14 years old. She wants to be an airhostess and a teacher. She wants to teach poor people how to read and how to respect elder people. She wants to help other people. She thinks volunteers should come to Nepal to teach and love the children. She says volunteers are creative and can teach them how to make other things, like food and art.