Our Service Projects
1
KOSHISH Garden Project
We will be working with the Rotary Club of Patan in Nepal. Assisting in the second phase of a sustainable garden project at KOSHISH. This is a Nepali mental health facility for women which receives very little support from the government.
We will help with planting the trees, learn about grafting and organic farming techniques. We will also support the volunteers in the kitchen and experience Nepali culture through its food.
The first phase involves preparing the land around the facility with raised beds for vegetable farming. This organic garden will supply most of the food needs for the facility.
The second phase involves planting grafted fruit and nut trees around the perimeter of the garden. Grafted trees produce fruit and nuts within only two years and are hardier, as the jungle root stock is drought resistant and already acclimated to the environment. Eventually, the sale of fruit and nuts will create an income stream which will further help to cover expenses at the facility.
Our sponsor club, Rosebud-Rye, has already contributed $3,000 to phase one. The Rotary Club of Dromana and the Rotary Club of Mount Martha have both contributed $1,000 each. In the second phase, $7,500 will be raised by the Rotary Club of Rosebud-Rye.
2
Education Support Project
Our Education Support Project has two distinctive initiatives. Our first project will be Creating Teaching Resources and our second will be creating a Mural to Expand Rotary’s reach.
Creating Teaching Resources.
We will be working with the Rotary Club of Kathmandu Mid-Town. This project will take place at Shanti Sewa Griha and the Mangal Secondary School in Kirtipur. We will be working with teachers and students in making simple teaching resources to provide alternative method of learning. These will be made from recycled and natural materials i.e. using 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' principles.
These village schools generally have very few teaching resources as they cannot afford to buy them. This project aims to introduce new resources and develop ownership and care for the resources they have made.
We intend to work with the Rotaract Club of Kathmandu to share the project with other Rotaract clubs in Nepal and eventually spread the concept throughout the country.
Mural to Expand Rotary’s Reach
Sandra from the Rotary Club of Rosebud Rye, who is joining us on the service trip, has significant experience in painting murals through her organisation SSE (Sarangi Social Enterprise). The organisation has painted murals at the Australian Embassy in Nepal, the Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital and Tilganga Eye Hospital.
We will be helping the Rotary Club of Kathmandu Mid-Town to paint a mural on part of the inside wall at the Mangal School. The subject of the mural is Rotary’s 7 Areas of Focus.
Later we will be helping the Rotary Club of Rosebud-Rye to plan and paint a sister mural on one wall of the Rotary Opportunity Warehouse in the Rosebud industrial estate. This provides a great opportunity to deepen the partnerships with the Nepali clubs and create a powerful promotional opportunity for Rotary in both countries.
3
Eye Health Camp
We will be working with the Rotary Club of Mahabouddha, to hold an eye health camp. The Rotary Club of Mahabouddha has a working partnership with the FHF (Fred Hollows Foundation), TIO (Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology) and the German NGO Shanti Sewa Griha in Kathmandu. Shanti mainly supports disabled people and regularly runs village health camps with the TIO/FHF hospital staff.
The COO of TIO, Pitambar Adhikari is a member of the Rotary Club of Mahabouddha.
The background of this health camp is that the Rotary Club of Rosebud-Rye has co-contributed, (alongside the Australian Embassy in Kathmandu), to the publication of a children's activity book, which is being given to the child patients waiting for their eye treatments. The Fred Hollows Foundation have endorsed the publication and requested that their logo and website be included. They have also suggested we duplicate the project in the other countries that they work in.
The artwork in the book is based on a mural SSE (Sarangi Social Enterprise) created in 2022 and also funded by the Australian Embassy. Two of the three traditional women artists had their eyesight restored through cataract surgery provided by the Fred Hollows Foundation.
Our Projects In Nepal
