Yesterday I was extremely tired. I had taken a night bus from Siraha to Kathmandu; I hardly got any sleep as I was worried about the driving especially since the road was extremely foggy and I had no idea if the driver could see oncoming traffic. I had come to Kathmandu to finally, after six weeks in storage, pick up donated items from the US, as well as, catching a flight to New Delhi, which when I arrived at the airport was told that it would be delayed by 12 hours, to coach wheelchair basketball.
It is and it isn't important to go into the details as to why there was such a lengthy process to get this donation released from the airport. However that is beyond the scope of this article. There were many key issues which aided in getting the items released and transported. One key issue was partnership and the number of people, friends and family, corporates and institutions which participated in getting 72 boxes in varying sizes and shapes, flown for free from Los Angeles and New York to Kathmandu by Cathay Pacific, to Karjanha, Siraha. The night bus which I took to Kathmandu actually brought the donation back to Karjanha the next day. On some level this was all a miracle.
The point was to bring a total donation which consisted of toothpaste, toothbrushes, toys, games, books and other assorted items, mainly collected by my father and a friend, to the children of Karjanha and the surrounding VDCs. These items, except for the toothpaste/toothbrushes, will not be given directly to the area children, as I don't believe in just giving, but will be used to enhance the Phul Kumari Mahato Memorial Hospital library/resource centre which is about learning to take limited resources and sharing these.
Other key issues dealt with customer service, how far was a person or an institution, corporate willing to go to make this very kind hearted donation available to the children in the Karjanha area? After all as one friend recently said to me, "people generally don't care about these children, why should you?" I found one company in particular United World Logistics Nepal (UWL), extremely helpful in facilitating getting the items released from the airport. Generally I don't find excellent customer service in Nepal, but UWL went well beyond, providing an American style of service, in a very kind manner.
The donation and transporting these items to Karjanha, Siraha was never about any one person/organisation. From my perspective this was about engaging individuals and organisations that were willing to exhibit kindness towards total strangers. This was about providing resources enabling children to have greater opportunities for developing themselves in a creative environment. Some people showed little regard to kindness and thinking beyond themselves, e.g. the agents who accosted me at the airport; others including my friends Jugal and Shital took time out of their very busy schedules to help me facilitate this donation.
Changing the environment in our very limited worlds does not have to be difficult. For example I do know that anything is possible in Nepal, but what this takes is a bit of honest imagination, especially when it comes to assisting others. I do see this even in small gestures such as offering a seat to someone on a bus. But these gestures need to be consistent; kindness and service towards others must go beyond ego and one's self and immediate family members. As human beings this seems to be extremely difficult. We just don't seem to care enough.
As I reflect on the experience of this donation, I can see the full panoply of life, from kindness and wanting to be helpful to selfishness, from creativity to putting oneself in a box, from partnership to individualism. I know that we all must be persistent, not necessarily on the same path to "change the world". It is possible as I've seen with this donation, which will benefit a lot of very wonderful children living in a rural part of Nepal.
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