April 2024 news

A colourful journey

The team at Samunnat Nepal has been delighted to welcome a tour group from Australia, as part of the Women Empowering Women tour. This was the first group to come since the tours re-started in March. Eleven women travelled from Kathmandu, through eastern Nepal, to spend three nights in Birtamod. They spent a day at the Samunnat office receiving individual instruction, making polymer petal earrings, from the polymer artists. As part of their teaching, the Samunnat women were thrilled to use some English phrases that they had been practising for weeks. The Australian women were delighted to walk away with beautiful earrings that they were proud to wear. The next day was a picnic day at a local fish farm with the Samunnat team, seeing a local family business in action. The visitors felt privileged to spend time meeting the Samunnat women and seeing the community life so up close and personally. The happiness was mutual.

The visiting students were concentrating so hard!

Exciting new jewellery

Meanwhile, the polymer team has continued to meet with its international mentors - Christine, Kathleen and Wendy - to design a new range of jewellery. This range is based on the traditional dhaka fabric that is made in several parts of Nepal. Over many months, they have carefully matched the colours and designs to make unique pieces in five colour ranges, available through various Australian retail outlets. There are also limited quantities available in the WORLD shop (more coming but not yet available in the US shop). Go to our contact form if you have any questions about these. The artists love using their new design skills to tap into their Nepali artistic heritage. They take immense pride in designing and making art that draws on distinctively Nepali themes.

An earring and necklace set with its matching dhaka scarf

Bureaucracy bites

The Government of Nepal has put in place a new set of procedures and regulation for NGOs. This is part of the Social Welfare Council (SWC) monitoring the sector more closely and making sure organisations are compliant. Unfortunately, many NGOs didn’t know about this – they only became aware of this when foreign money transfers were help up in the receiving bank. Samunnat ran out of cash and was forced to borrow money from its related co-op. They are into the third month of waiting but have, finally, discovered which documents they need to submit – and have done so, just more waiting now. Under this new arrangement, all foreign transfers to NGOs will be taxed at 1.5%, on top of the regular tax they are required to pay. This money is payable in advance of receiving the transfer, so Samunnat will need to borrow again. This has been an immensely difficult and frustrating time. These arrangements also affect grant money from foreign governments. The grant that Samunnat received from the Australian government DAP scheme, for its community hub project, has also been frozen. The Embassy was not aware of these arrangments, either. Samunnat has been lucky to find some local money to tide them over but are desperately hoping that this is resolved soon.

And also some great news!

Meanwhile, there is also some great news. Samunnat is delighted to have received a very generous donation from the J.C. Freeman Trust.  This trust is administered by the family of the late Mike Leak who died in 2011, far too young, after developing cancer. Mike was a dear friend to several of us on the Samunnat Inc. committee, and his wife, Jane continues to be.  Mike had a great heart for adventure and for justice and had come to love the country of Nepal after trekking there. We are very grateful to the Trust for choosing to direct their charitable funds to Samunnat.

The unexpected bonus of this donation means that Samunnat will be able to maintain and develop its sewing program in the coming years. It can go ahead with its plan to employ a Team Leader in the sewing room. This will take a lot of pressure off Janice Laurent who has been managing the team wonderfully, by Zoom from Australia. A tough job! Sewing skills will be able to stay within the organisation, even when women are ready to leave to set up their own business. It should also make communication, teaching and planning so much easier. Samunnat has advertised the position and has started interviewing applicants. The sewing and polymer training groups will continue as the mainstays of skills training.

Once the financial blockage is cleared, the polymer team should also be able to receive a long-awaited pay rise. The women have been very patient and dedicated through a difficult time. Everybody has a friend or relative who has travelled outside Nepal to seek work and a more reliable income - but there is a feeling of ‘sisterhood’ that keeps Samunnat moving forward. Even though Nepal faces huge social, political and financial problems, there is a core of people in Birtamod who are committed to pushing ahead.