WALKING WITH THE EXCLUDED
By Stuart Salier, CEO of The Cardoner Network
In conversation with David McMahon, Province Communications Manager
There were many purposes in undertaking this reconnaissance:
Safety first
The safety of our volunteers is always a prime concern: hiking for multiple days in overnight sub-zero temperatures, and often at altitude, raises obvious safety issues for our young volunteers.
The logistics of the trek, which are no simple task, involve an eight-hour ride in a jeep, followed by two very full days of hiking up and down mountains where at one point you reach close to 4,000m above sea level. Mount Kosciuszko is 2,228m.
Our destination, Tipling, is in a remote part of Nepal. We need to be constantly alert to weather, icy terrain and potential altitude sickness possibilities, which is where our guide’s experience in the mountains is invaluable.
All images courtesy Stuart Salier and The Cardoner Network.
This trip gave me a chance to accompany three 18-year-old Cardoner volunteers, all from St Aloysius’ College in Sydney, as they trekked to and settled into the village of Tipling for their three-month placement. Our young adult volunteers teach the local children English and share their talents more broadly, so that these children might have many more options in the future, perhaps beyond the harsh farming conditions which many of their parents have endured.
Being as conscious as we can to keep our costs low, we do like to settle volunteers in when we can. I wanted first-hand experience of the many aspects of having our young adults abroad, and in this trip, in Nepal. I also wanted to meet the people who are responsible for the young people when they’re in the country. From a governance point of view, it is very important to be able to sense-check our risk assessment for Nepal. The trip has enabled me to speak more authoritatively to volunteers, to parents, to donors and to the Cardoner Board about our operations in Nepal.
Getting to know the region and our local community
Building relationships with our partners in the Tipling community is critical, because these are the people who are caring and looking out for our volunteers. Our volunteers have just landed in a very remote and, initially, strange place. We have formal arrangements in place with the principals of two schools to host our volunteers. Additionally, there are two Jesuits in the village who take particular care of the wellbeing of our volunteers. The Jesuits are never far away; they go to the schools where our volunteers are serving and get involved in some of the teaching as well. Our volunteers are accommodated in very modest homes, but the owners also keep an eye on them. Each of these groups of people is playing an important role in caring for our volunteers and making sure that they are settling well into their new community.
Our guide, Chandra Rai
A highlight of the journey was marvelling at the knowledge and skill of Chandra Rai (pictured above), our hiking partner, who is responsible for getting our volunteers safely to and from Tipling. I know that in the event of a health issue, or another emergency, Chandra would have the wherewithal, the contacts and the ability to quickly get word to and from any of those villages where assistance might be required. He knows those communities intimately. He knows how to get in touch with people who can help and, if the first person and the second person don’t respond for some reason, then he’s got a third or fourth person he can talk to. He’s so much more than just a trekking guide. I’m also totally in awe of the fact that he’s done 73 trips to Everest base camp.
Chandra and I spent the best part of a week or more together and when you’re trekking with someone, you are walking beside them for eight to ten hours a day. We had plenty of time to talk to each other and he shared some pretty powerful stories in terms of what he’s seen happen on the mountains. He’s seen people perish on the high mountains, typically at altitudes much higher than what our volunteers experience. He’s seen people lose limbs, and he’s seen the devastating impact of avalanches. Chandra’s conservative approach, plus knowledge of what to do in difficult situations, is invaluable. I’m totally convinced that if you are trekking to Tipling, then Chandra is the guide you want.
Signing a memorandum of understanding
An important aspect from a regulatory standpoint is signing an MOU with our partners in the village. I’m very pleased to have returned with two signed agreements with these existing partner schools in Tipling and their principals. In addition, I met an American Jesuit based in Kathmandu: Fr Greg Sharkey SJ (pictured here), who is resident director of the Boston College Nepal Program and a professor at the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies. In a very significant way, he is our eyes and ears in terms of local perspective.
Possible Nepal expansion
I also did some reconnaissance to other locations in Nepal, an aspect that proved to be a very significant revelation for me. Thanks to conversations with Chandra and Fr Greg after I arrived in the country’s capital, I built an itinerary for a four-day visit to various schools in the eastern Nepal region. This has the potential to significantly expand the capacity of Nepal as a location for our future volunteers.
There are two schools in Tipling that our Cardoner longer-term, three to six months, volunteers go to: Dongden Devi Secondary School (pictured below, left) and Gothan Devi Primary School (below, right). These are also the schools that we visit as part of the shorter, three-week immersion, which takes place in December or January each year.
Assessing options in eastern Nepal
During the second half of my Nepal visit, I visited three Jesuit schools in the “lowlands” of eastern Nepal, the Jhapa region, where I met wonderful Jesuits, equally delightful lay teachers and, of course, the very inquisitive and totally awesome students as well. I’m very excited that we might be able to send volunteers to St Xavier’s at Sadakbari, Moran Memorial School at Maheshpur (below), and St Xavier’s at Deonia … possibly as early as next year.
Chandra’s alma mater
I also visited a school in Dhankuta (below), which is Chandra’s old school in his hometown in the east of Nepal. A primary school there has around 93 young students, with 32 of them suffering from various forms of hearing disability. It is so encouraging to think that some volunteers might have a particular passion to go to this school, where there are profoundly deaf students, and get involved in communicating with students through sign language.
It turns out that Nepal is rich with volunteering opportunities. I’d love to share more details with future volunteers and I’m obviously very hopeful that we will find some students who relish these opportunities and come back with amazing stories of their own.
Filled with gratitude
I am so grateful to Cardoner’s partners – Chandra, as well as the school principals and the Jesuits – who spend their lives giving hope to the Nepalese children in these very remote places. I’m also sincerely grateful to our young adult volunteers.
I am filled with enormous gratitude to have this experience, having never been to Nepal before. It’s very special, even to visit for a couple of weeks and to make brief but meaningful contact with these communities.
I am hopeful that we now can send not just three volunteers to Nepal, but probably a dozen or so every year. It is a wonderful place for our young adults to visit, because they will be transported into an extraordinarily different, but beautiful new world, to have an amazing experience undertaking service for people whom they will always remember with great fondness.
More information about The Cardoner Network’s placements in Tipling, Nepal
