April, 2017:Girls Empowered by Travel, Nepal (GET Nepal) organized the New Year celebration with kids and people from brickyards. When people want to help and do charity, they often look for orphanages or rural and remote areas to help people in need, leaving people struggling in the Kathmandu valley often ignored. This city is occupied by people from several backgrounds, among which we can observe social hierarchy, caste and gender division.
Most of the brickyards and chimneys are located in Bhaktapur and Lalitpur district, as it is assumed that the soil of this land is perfect to make the bricks. The work in this chimneys and brickyard is hard and seasonal. The workers ascend to Kathmandu from different districts. They migrate with their family members in expectation of earning high amounts. From November to April (6 months), they can earn up to $300 a month, working 12 hours a day. Most of the people are from marginalized and underprivileged communities, called “untouchable caste” in our society. The plan was to provide some clothes, art supplies/stationeries and lunch for the kids and their parents.
One week ago, we made a survey in the brickyard at Changunarayan Municipality, ward no-12. What we found was the miserable situation of kids and their mother, with most of the children suffering from Malnutrition. So we prepared the packages accordingly with 2 pencils, 2 sharpeners, 1 drawing book, 1 box of color and nice outfits for each kid below the 15 years old.
The program was begun at 9:30 am and ended at 12:00 pm. There were more than forty kids. We played games as hot potato, balloon and others. We also had a cake as it was one of our GET girls’ birthday (Shaily Rana Magar, student from Times International College) and distributed pieces around the people present. The kids were really happy and overwhelmed by this event. Shaily told that it was her first time celebrating her birthday so differently. She also mentioned that, with such activities, we came to know each other better within a short interval of time.
Girls Empowered by Travel is a network that attempts to create opportunities for women to travel and get involved in community work with like-minded women in a welcoming and safe environment for all, help women in need overcome their own obstacles, and promote leadership among women that will have a ripple effect in the reality of their families and their communities. We always seek for meaningful ways to empower young girls with fun.
