Time to catch my breath

Unbelievably I am now sitting in my office back in Shanghai after a whirlwind last week in Sydney. I am trying to keep the blog up to date with everything that has been going on but I can't keep track of all of it myself at the moment! Some of the main happenings are listed below...

On Friday 18th I gave a presentation to the staff at LEAP Legal in Sydney. I in fact used to work for LEAP before Bec and I left Sydney and two of our board members, Hunter and Sarah, still work for them. I spoke for around half an hour about how the Foundation was started and then about all of the projects we are working on at the moment. It was great fun to re-visit my past life in Sydney and of course I always get a buzz from talking about Nepal and the Foundation. The highlight of the experience however was the very sizable cheque that was presented to me as a donation to Mitrataa. As well as this LEAP have set it up so that staff can contribute to the Foundation on a monthly basis directly from their salary. They are also exploring other fundraising ideas and opportunities for us. I have to say this turned out to be an amazing afternoon and just when I thought I was beginning to feel exhausted and drained this filled me up and set my mind racing with more ideas for projects and ways to impact Nepal.

I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Christian Beck, CEO and Richard Hugo-Hamman, General Manager at LEAP for contributing so significantly to our work. It really means so much and enables us to make a difference to many more people struggling throughout Nepal.

During my final week in Sydney I devoted my time to MLC Sydney as there was much follow-up work from their trip to Nepal in April as well as plans for future trips and projects. I attended a devotional assembly at the school at which I was interviewed by two of the girls from the Nepal trip, this was an interesting take on talking about Nepal and it was a lot of fun if not also a little daunting to have to think on my feet with hundreds of school girls watching! Some of the girls also shared some of their feelings and experience from the trip and it was great to hear how they felt about it after they had returned home and had time to process everything.

I spoke at another assembly at the school, and then followed this with a talk to Years 8 and 10 students about non-government organisations and how they work. I found this really rewarding as it gave me a chance to speak more about some of the logistical and administrative things we have to do as part of the work of the Foundation, the things people generally don't see or hear about. My final presentation to the school was in response to a donation of money raised by the girls since their return from Kathmandu. This money was to be applied to the Daisy Chains project so I spoke to everyone about the background to the project, how it works, and then introduced them to the group of women they would specifically be helping. I think this meant a lot to the girls, particularly those who had been involved in the fundraising as it made very real the contribution they were making and hopefully it will inspire them to continue to be involved in these types of activities.

I walked out the gates of MLC at 3:20pm on Thursday and after a farewell dinner with some friends found myself at Sydney airport on Friday morning wondering where the last month had gone!

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who I met during my visit to Sydney and especially those who have contributed in so many different and wonderful ways to the Foundation and our ongoing work. 2008 has already proven to be our most successful and exciting year yet - and we are only just over half way through it!

Great things happening

There hasn't been much time for reflection during my visit to Australia but I thought I would just take a minute to put down a few of the great things that have been going on for the Foundation.

As a result of the fantastic evening Libby Hathorn hosted at her home recently I have met some more very inspiring and positive people who are now helping Mitrataa along with Libby. In particular Michelle Kline and Joanne Fedler have been so generous with their ideas and their time. Michelle works for the Randwick City Library Service and she has co-ordinated the donation of a large number of children's books from the library. We will take these books to Nepal for use in the library at the Model School. Michelle is also working with Joanne and Libby on a launch event for a documentary on Libby's recent trip to Kathmandu to introduce the 100Views Art & Literacy program there. More news on that event once details are finalised. Joanne is an author (check out her website) and she has written the most touching piece about Mitrataa and put it on her blog which you can read by clicking here.

These three women truly are inspirational to Bec and I and we want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their support, it really does mean a lot to us and we are so grateful.

I have spoken at a couple more Rotary club evenings and was presented with a cheque for $500.00 from the Castle Hill club last night. This was most unexpected and I must give a big "thanks" to the club and also to Rhonda Radford for introducing me to the club. Rhonda's daughter, Sarah, is one of the directors of Mitrataa and I fear she will soon be spending her days collecting donations of books, clothes and toys to be shipped to Kathmandu!

So as you can see its all systems go for Mitrataa at the moment. I have plenty more engagements in Sydney and then it won't be long before Bec and I are back in Kathmandu following up on all of the projects - exciting times!

In Australia

After an absolutely amazing and exhausting 3 months in Nepal, and a quick 2 week visit home to Shanghai, I am now in Australia following up on all of the projects and doing some fundraising and admin work.

I have given presentations to a number of companies and Rotary Clubs with more to come in the next 2 weeks. I also had the pleasure of attending a dinner that was held by our good friend and supporter Libby Hathorn. Libby visited Kathmandu with her friend, Pat Granville Smith, and together they launched 100Views Art & Literacy at the Model School there. You can read more about this on our blog by clicking here. Libby arranged for a documentary to be filmed chronicling the experience and part of the purpose for the dinner was to generate interest in that. The documetary should be finished soon and we expect it to be a fantastic tool for raising the profile of 100Views as well as Mitrataa. There was a group of just over 30 people at the dinner and I had the opportunity to speak at length about the history of Mitrataa, our current projects, and some of our ideas and dreams for the future. We then held an open forum in which people were able to throw out ideas for fundraising, projects, and ways that they and others could become involved. It really was an inspiring and uplifting evening and I left with my head buzzing with new ideas and even more motivation.

A huge "thank you" must go to Libby and to Pat (who I have now discovered is a brilliant chef!) for hosting the evening and catering for it so well. So many possibilities and opportunities have already come out of it for which we are very grateful.

With many more presentations, meetings and functions to attend in the next 2 weeks I am sure there will be much more news as 2008 continues to be our most exciting and successful year so far!