Working in an NGO for a month

This one comes way too late, but here we go.

On October 17th I started working in the organisation through which I could partner up with the SCLC Project: ONGD-FNEL, currently a partner of 12 Nepali NGOs working to improve education in Nepal.

On paper my voluntary work started as of this date, as I mentioned before the voluntary service for cooperation (meaning the one where you work in a developing country) that I'm doing with the SNJ, is usually from 6 to 12 months long. Buttttt the Nepali government is very strict concerning Visas. Thus they never give out a visa to a foreigner that is longer than 5 months, ever. This is an exception for Nepal, so to make things easier the SNJ decided all Volunteers going to Nepal (which is just 1-2 usually, this year it is Cathy and me) would simply add one month of work in the Luxembourgish office.

So, well over a month ago, I had my first day in my first real 9 to 5 job.

Generally, these kinds of jobs have a bad reputation I feel, and I kind of understand why sometimes they are lengthy and working on a computer for a long time can set you in a really bad mood. But this was all about development, so most of the times I found my work really interesting.

Of course, I also did the things I feel every Intern does at some point:

I cleaned up the computers, updated the database, translated some documents, did some powerpoints on the work the ONGD does, etc…

It wasn’t really boring though, mainly because I got on well with the people I worked with, there were only two staff hired full time. Cécile, responsible for accounting and Julie, responsible for Projects and sensibilisation.

During Lunchtime, they told stories about Nepal and previous missions, this made time go by really quickly.

I did this for two weeks only though, cause in my third week, the more exciting part started. Two people from Nepal were coming to Luxembourg in order to participate in some workshops in Schools.

Some context first:

Over the years, and even more through growing tourism, child trafficking from village to cities has become a very serious problem in Nepal. When in 2006, the government stopped turning a blind eye to these practices that were happening not even so undercover, they discovered that by then, a real orphanage business had been established. With it, a tourism of misery.

Rural Nepal is very poor, like every other parents, village parents also seek the best possible future for their children, from what they've heard, the best opportunity for a better future is in the city. People from “orphanages” come to the villages, convince the parents to entrust them their children, and promise them that they will have a good life in a home in Kathmandu, Pokhara or Chitwan.

What really happens is that these children are arriving in the cities to find a home that looks nothing like their parents had imagined for them. No Heating, no privacy, no Books, no shower, no medical facilities (at all!) and in the worst cases no food.

The point of these homes is to make children look as miserable as possible so that pitiful tourists give as much as possible. In the vast majority (we're talking homes caring for hundreds of children) straight into the pockets of the people responsible. Charity money would come in from all sides, the children never see any of it.

Sometimes children were facing bad living conditions on purpose, in order to generate as much pity ad possible from naive tourists. Bottom line kind of is, the more you violate children's rights, the more money you get…

Rajani, a young girl about who a film was made last summer, was living in one of these homes for 5 months before she was rescued.

Since then, her life took a turn, they found her family, she finished school, started university in the capital, where she now lives with her brother.

Here is her movie:

Tsewang director of the Umbrella organisation, who has been working to rescue children for many years, and now focuses on re-establishing contact with the families (turns out that about 80% of so-called “orphans” had at least one living family member).

Tsewang and Rajani have been invited to Luxembourg to share their stories, and an insight into a hardship that is completely and absolutely unknown to Luxembourgish people. Or am I wrong? Did anyone of you know that 1.2 million children are victims of trafficking today? I sure didn’t...

With their story, they also share a passion to help, and a desire to let us know how much partnership and community means to them.

We went through schools to do workshops together for two weeks, we've visited primary and high schools. It has been intense, but important.

Rajani and Tsewang doing the Tikka (red dot) as a welcome to primary students

In the schools, I mostly did some translation from French or Luxembourgish to English or a brief presentation of Nepal. Doing this has been very fun, every class was a little different, and I learned so much, especially about sensibilisation.

On the 9th of November, we organized a Charity Dinner with 80 people and Nepali food. I took my parents and my grandma, which was great cause I could introduce them to everyone and they were also reassured a little, their baby was not gonna go to a place completely foreign.

The ONGD also organised a conference at the Banque de Luxembourg, for which I did some of the press stuff, I couldn’t be there because I had a goodbye dinner with all my friends, but some other cool people were there and it was a great success, here's the poster of it.

All in all, I had a great month in the NGO. And most of all, because of the good timing, I had a good insight into how working in the development sector is like.

we went to an animal park after we had gone to a school in Esch

Everyone I met was just so devoted, if you choose this line of work, you do it out of conviction ( definitely not for the money hehe). Many people I believe, are making some sacrifices here and there, only in order to be able to do a work that they stand behind completely.

They all seemed so competent, Julie and Cecile have been working the sector for years, they know exactly what the struggles are and how to continue despite of them.

Good experience !!

In Friendship,

Teddy Smile