Dear friends,
it has been 45 years since the monsoon in Nepal was last as violent as this year. It has caused major disasters that have caused enormous damage to entire parts of the country. Many bridges and roads were destroyed, landslides swallowed entire villages and even Kathmandu was badly hit and flooded several times. Then, at the beginning of October, the worst flood disaster of all happened, destroying most of the slums along the Bag-mati River: in the middle of the night, when everyone was in a deep sleep, a huge wave of water came from the higher regions of the Himalayas and swept away the huts standing close to the riverbank. Over 700 people were reported drowned or missing in Nepal.
In the three slums where we work, the damage was worst for the Madhesis living in tents: at 3 a.m. their camp was washed away in an instant and they could only try to save themselves and their family. A four-year-old child disappeared, who could not be found even with the help of the police after a long search. The whole clan was in shock and the women cried for a long time for the missing child. We were also disheartened: Just a few days ago we had bought the families large solid plastic tarpaulins so that they could protect themselves from the approaching winter, but these too were brutally washed away along with clothes and blankets. All that was left for us to do was to get new tarpaulins so that these people could at least shield themselves a little from the cold. They are not registered as Nepalese and, as stateless people, receive no help from the government. We also supported them with food and clothes, but used clothes in good condition are hard to find in a poor country like Nepal. The cooking pots were also washed away by the water, as were all the cars and buses that were parked nearby.
The 1500 people in the Thaoathali slum fared a little better. They all have Nepalese nationality and therefore received food and some assistance from the government. The families who lived very close to the riverbank also had their huts suddenly ripped off over their heads while they slept, and the entire settlement was quickly submerged under a meter of water. While people struggled to get themselves and their children to safety, they lost everything they needed to survive. The large drinking water containers had been filled by us the day before and were fortunately able to withstand the force of the water due to their huge weight. Only our “Maute” people, the Madhesis, whom we had moved from the garbage dump to a clean tin hut settlement three years ago, survived the disaster without any damage because they live on a hill and were well protected from the water. The children go to school regularly, are helped with their homework by our employees Muna and Sushma and put a lot of effort into their studies.
Muna goes from house to house every day and provides the sick children with medication. During the day, our classroom becomes a kindergarten and Sushma alphabetizes the little ones so that they can start school later. The fathers continue to sell their home-brewed herbal medicines in nearby villages, but most people in all the slums earn too little to eat anything other than rice. Only the milk porridge with all the necessary vitamins and minerals, which all of our 250 slum children receive from us every day, keeps them healthy. Many of the men in the Thapathali slum leave their families and the mothers have to work as heavy laborers on construction sites or as maids in wealthier households. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to get such jobs because the people who are a little better off financially are now unable to cope even with the rising food prices and simply can no longer afford domestic help.
The World Bank has donated 150 million USD dollars to Nepal to help the many flood victims across the country, asking them to build roads and buildings now so that they can better withstand the climate disasters that surely lie ahead. The United Nations also donated USD 17 million. For so many years, Nepal has been receiving a lot of money from abroad for these purposes, but every year after the rainy season, half of Nepal's roads are unusable. There is only one thing that works smoothly in this country: it is the steady emigration of Nepalese citizens. The political instability, corruption and incompetence of the parties, whose leaders are alternately appointed as prime minister, discourage potential investors from investing in the Himalayan state. As a result, there are hardly any jobs.
For years, young Nepalese have been traveling to Europe, England, America, Australia and Japan as students, first borrowing a lot of money from family and friends to pay for the flight and the expensive fees of these foreign universities. Theoretically, they had to return to Nepal at the end of their time at university, but to this day most of them still manage to stay in their new home country, even though quite a few of them end up working as waiters in restaurants or as assistants in supermarkets.
Almost half of “our” children from “Children's World” now live abroad. Some of them, who have a Buddhist name - such as “Lama” - even manage to pass themselves off as Tibetan refugees in Europe in order to reach their destination, even though they are not Tibetans at all. Genuine Tibetans are always welcome in Nepal and are easily granted Nepalese nationality anyway... The poorest Nepalese migrate en masse to the Emirates or South Korea as cheap labor. Even Israel is still a popular destination! Recently, Israel signed a contract with the Nepalese government: 2,200 young people were selected by the embassy to work as geriatric nurses in the promised land for three to five years.
It is also very popular in Nepal to join the army and then serve as UN peacekeepers for a low salary in war zones such as Congo or Lebanon. Because Nepalese do not need a visa to enter Brazil, it has been popular to fly to Sao Paulo to be smuggled into the USA for expensive money by human traffickers. At the end of September, 176 Nepalese landed in Sao Paulo, but no one was waiting for them at the airport. The poor people, who had already paid for the “trip” beforehand, spent a week in the airport building without food. Not knowing where to go, they were all deported back home, and the Nepalese government quickly decided that no one with a plane ticket to Brazil would leave Nepal without a visa from now on.
We are worried about the future, especially as the years are passing and we are not getting any younger ... Nepal has also developed to some extent and not all Nepalese are completely impoverished today and could certainly start helping their poorer fellow human beings themselves. But what discourages us the most is that we cannot work as we used to because the cost of living in Nepal is just as high as here in Germany and our previous help can no longer be provided financially. We found this particularly frustrating during this flood disaster.
We want to do our best for at least two more years so that the children we have enrolled in school can complete their schooling and the very young ones up to the age of 5 have something nutritious to eat. We would like to thank everyone who continues to support us so faithfully and wish you a Merry Christmas and the very best for 2025.
Kind regards
Elisabeth Montet
P.S.: Please also read the letter from blind Furgel Sherpa, who grew up in our former orphanage and whom we helped to overcome his disability and receive an education that has enabled him to gain a professional foothold in Nepal.