Dear friends,
Until September 9 of this year, political life in Nepal proceeded largely as usual. Most Nepalese rarely vote because they cannot see any difference in the impact of political parties on their lives. They believe that all politicians are corrupt and pocket the money that comes from abroad. Although there are occasional demonstrations against various grievances, the situation usually calms down quickly.
On September 8, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli announced that the use of all social media such as X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Tik Tok, and similar platforms would no longer be possible until they registered an official address and representation in Kathmandu and paid taxes. The following morning, thousands of young people in school uniforms took part in large demonstrations in the centers of Nepalese cities. They chanted slogans against government corruption and complained that only the sons and daughters of rich families were allowed to study and work abroad. After receiving an education in Nepal's comparatively poor school system, they find themselves unemployed at an early age and have little chance of a hopeful future. They described themselves as representatives of »Generation Z« and demanded immediate access to social media: many school and university students run small online businesses to finance their school fees or support their families. Without the internet, they would lose their income. The demonstrations were peaceful at first, but were suddenly infiltrated by numerous, sometimes armed and angry men. They began looting, destroying, and setting fire to ministries, politicians' homes, public buildings, and luxury hotels. The country's prisons were also attacked, allowing many inmates to escape. Violent clashes broke out on the streets between police and young demonstrators. The police were given orders to shoot: within a short time, 72 young people were killed and more than 600 were seriously injured, quickly overwhelming the cities' hospitals.
Finally, the army decided to take control of the situation. Prime Minister OLI was forced to resign and was taken to safety by the army. Other threatened politicians fled the country. The army then placed the country under a week-long state of emergency. A general was appointed as the spokesperson for »Generation Z«. The young people wanted the popular mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shah, to be prime minister. He reassured them and asked them to first gain experience in state politics and to vote for loyal and righteous people in the next elections who have only the good of the country at heart. Nepal's former chief justice, Ms. Sussila Karki, who had been known for her high integrity in Kathmandu for years, finally accepted the young people's offer to become interim prime minister. However, this was only until the new elections, which are scheduled to take place on March 5, 2026. On her first day at work, Ms. Karki had the Nepalese human traffickers arrested who had enabled hundreds of women and men to enter America illegally in exchange for large sums of money. Currently, many charter flights from the US regularly arrive with such Nepalese, who are first arrested by Donald Trump and then deported.
The cost of rebuilding the numerous destroyed buildings amounts to several million euros. The big question remains: Who infiltrated this peaceful demonstration and organized and financed the violence and destruction so well? Who is responsible for the deaths of so many young people, and to what end?
Ms. Karki has ordered an investigation, but with such unclear events, everyone in Nepal doubts that the truth will ever come to light. »Generation Z« is behind similar protests in poorer countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and even recently in Moscow. Nepal's intellectuals suspect that all this can only be the work of the CIA.Nepal has never been able to feed itself, and most goods are imported. For eight days, shops in Kathmandu were only allowed to open for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, which meant they quickly sold out. No one dared to go out onto the streets, and even the people we care for in the slums stayed in their huts. Prices are now so high that we are no longer able to buy the expensive milk porridge for the many children in the Thapathali slum. We have given the 1,500 slum dwellers the large water tanks, but from now on they will have to pay for their own drinking water. They thanked us with smiles for our years of support. The Nepalese live in the here and now and are content when they know they have enough to eat for the day. Tomorrow is another day. On the other hand, poverty in the Thapathali slum is not as extreme as it used to be, because almost every family has one or more relatives working in the US, the Gulf States, South Korea, or Australia who send money home.
Our Madhesi do not have this advantage, as they are all illiterate and do not have passports. The monsoon washed away their tent camp again this year and destroyed their few possessions. Such people are only allowed to camp on riverbanks and have to endure these regular blows of fate time and again. They originally come from southern Nepal on the Indian-Nepalese border. There, the heat is unbearable and the rules are strict: women are only allowed to leave the house completely veiled and must be accompanied by their husband or brother. For them, life in Kathmandu is a real liberation. They are not Muslims, but Hindus. In Kathmandu, they beg for used clothing, which they sew together into blankets and then sell. The men do heavy physical labor and sort garbage. The 40 children continue to receive our nutritious milk porridge every day. They and their parents are the people most affected by poverty in our project.
Our Maute people, the Madhesis, whom we have been caring for for decades, live in better conditions in the small tin shanty town of Gattaghar, which has toilets and drinking water. Sushma spends the whole day in the classroom we have set up there. In the mornings and evenings, she helps school-age children with their homework, and during the day she teaches the 50 younger children from both Madhesi settlements to read and write. The four older girls from Gattagar attend a tailoring and sewing school in the evenings so that they can open a sewing business together later on. As we will be ending our project in Kathmandu at the end of 2026, we are already ensuring that Muna and Sushma receive enough money so that our Maute children can graduate from high school in the coming years.
Nepal is currently recovering from the dramatic events of September and preparing for new elections on March 5, 2026. The Nepalese hope that »Generation Z« which has now divided itself into six groups, will find more stable political structures so that at least corruption will decline somewhat after the elections. We would like to thank you for your loyal support this year and hope that you will continue to accompany us until the end of our project at the end of December 2026.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year!
Kind regards
Elisabeth Montet