Amazing journey to Tikabhairab

It was a very welcoming community filled with different types of people. Everyone had their own fair share of problems. Despite them, facing such difficulty they never gave off any scent of hesitation in our presence. They fully supported and engaged in our programs and speeches.Even the local businesses and villagers in the cafes, shops, the children, the tailors etc, they were very kind and welcoming to us and made it easy for us to fit into the community.    

I am very delighted to share this blog as "An Action at Home". "An amazing journey to Tikabhairabh, Lalitpur" where I got chance to see life in a different way. 

I was quiet concerned about the things i had to learn to pick up the pace as I was unable to attend Pre-placement training at Nagarkot due to personal reasons. Simultaneously, very excited leaving home for the Foundation training at Budol, Banepa as it was my first ever experience staying with unknown people for so long.

Our Foundation Training beginning from 16 February 2020 in Banepa where I met with the UK volunteers and got chance to share Cultures with them. I also met some wonderful people, Sankalpa, Shivu, Dinesh. Susan, Sanoj who are still very close to me. We were given our placement and counterparts on the 19th February. Our placement was in Tikabhairabh, a sub-urban area, yet very beautiful. Luckily, I had such a supporting team that i never felt like i missed the pre placement training.

We got warm welcome from our host family. Our host mother was unwell as she just had her stone operation and was told to take bed rest for 1 month. Despite her operation, She took care of me and my counter part Fatima, Kazna and Sankalpa very well. I felt like I knew my host family for a long time as we all got on with them very well and they made us feel at home immediately. Our host parent were very amazing, loving and caring although the host brother was a bit on the shy side at first but once he was comfortable with us, he started to chat with us more and was very helping and friendly. The host family always served us tasty food with so much happiness and love. 

We, "Team Tikabhairabh", did our very first work in Saraswati Madhyamik Vidhyalaya. It was very hard to convince the Head Teacher for any sessions as the final exams of the academic session was near. Before long, he agreed to give us a session at 3:15pm everyday. I was very glad to see the school teachers and students. Saraswati Madhyamik Vidhyalaya is a basic school which teaches upto Grade 8 only. We started our regular sessions and It was going well. We gave the children sessions about "Saving Management and Livelihood" and also conducted ECA where we provide gift hampers to the winners to encourage them for their further growth.

We also met with Women's Group. Our host mom was a member of the womens groups which made it quite easy for us to meet up with the head of the women's group "Devaki Rana". While talking with host parent  I found out that there used to be domestic violence in the community. So during those meetings I decided to talk about domestic violence. At first, they were shocked hearing all those incident from us but as we moved on further into the topic the place got silent and everyone was curious to listen to the speech.  Also we got the information that the victim has gone to her mother's house so we couldn't do anything. 

           

Beside sessions, we organized a "Health and Wellness" programme where we went door to door to invite everyone we could from Tikabhairabh. We were expecting at least 20/25 people but unfortunately someone from the Tikabhairabh community had died on the same day and there was a funeral going on nearby. We waited until the funeral had ended. The children from the school nearby came for the participation. We, as an organizer held a Karate Competition in collaboration with Karate Club. I was very excited seeing peoples craze towards Karate. I believe that every child from Tikabhairab are expert in self defense. People from different districts were there for the participation. We also did yoga and meditation courses and most of the children were active rather than young people.

I gained a lots of things from my volunteering experience. My personal development, positivity, leadership skills, and confidence level has built up. I am very thankful towards Restless who provided me this opportunity to understand how people manage their life for everything. We couldn't do much as we had to leave one month earlier because of the global pandemic Corona Virus but I hope whatever I did during that one month will bring the changes in the place we lived. Not only Tikabhairab but every place where our ICS team went. I would love to work for people times and again. If more youth took small steps towards development they can bring even bigger changes in the community. They will be able to reach their dreams and destinations.

I am very proud to be a part of ICS, Restless Development Nepal. I would like to thanks my team Kaazna, Fatima, Sankalpa, Susan, Sanoj and Carl.  Similarly, My Team Leaders Shona and Carol. Supervisor Anjila Di. Without them my journey on ICS would be incomplete. They supported me through thick and thin. Host parents, Womens group and entire Restless Team for trusting me and giving this oppurtunity to bring positive impacts in our community and Nation.