Rob visited Nepal in December and, together with social worker Arbind, developed a priority plan. This plan was presented to the Mayor of Haripur, Gopal Pariyar, and the heads of various local districts in Haripur. Under certain conditions, Gopal agreed to provide substantial financial support.
Our primary focus has always been on education, but for Gopal, upgrading a maternity clinic was crucial. Both parties also worked out a plan to improve the self-sufficiency of the poorest people in Haripur by starting a goat and chicken farm and leasing agricultural land where locals can grow vegetables and fruits for personal use and for sale. We then elaborated the plan in detail and presented it to the Wilde Ganzen Foundation. This organization supports foundations like ours to improve self-sufficiency, fight poverty, and achieve other charitable goals in developing countries.
We learned a lot from Wilde Ganzen, including long-term planning, strict financial administration, monitoring of objectives, and involving local partners. After completing numerous documents to substantiate our plans and personally explaining them, we also received a wonderful contribution from Wilde Ganzen. This process took about six months, but in summary, we can now say that we can implement several plans to improve the schools. The maternity clinic is currently being renovated, and the initial results of the agricultural plan are promising.
Rob and Rebecca will soon return to Nepal to follow up on the developments and present new initiatives. We're not done yet, but we are incredibly happy and proud to see that "our" village is making significant progress every year on multiple fronts.