Urgent call for Covid relief funds.

Target €15,000

Handwashing stations at the gates of Lalgadh Hospital. All visitors must wash their
hands before entry to prevent the spread of Covid. Photo: Dr G. Clugston ©NLT. October 2020

We are in urgent need of funding to deal with the current Covid emergency in Nepal. Our colleagues at Lalgadh Hospital desperately need Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for themselves and oxygen equipment to support those tested COVID positive. The total amount required is €15,000

This includes:

– Oxygen cylinders (currently cost €200 each)

– Oxygen concentrators, providing oxygen long-term (currently cost €1,100 each)

– PPE (currently costs €25 per set)

These costs are escalating daily due to shortage of supply.

HOW YOU CAN HELP – Please donate via PayPal on our website here

Lalgadh Hospital stands less than 50km from the Indian border in the south-eastern Terai region. Its proximity to the open land border means that many Nepalis travel to and from India for work, providing a fast, deadly route for the spread of Covid. Last week (early May 2021) the government reported between 9 and 10 thousand new Covid cases per day, with the real figures thought to be higher. Contrast this with a month ago when the figure was around 100 per day.

Thank you.

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Batik and silkscreen cards

We are a little disappointed that we won’t get to meet all of our friends and supporters this year at our usual craft fairs. However if you wish to continue your support and order batik or silkscreen cards, we are happy to post them to you. Our cards are in limited quantities so don’t delay. The cards are €2.50 each plus €1 postage within Ireland. We are selling 5 cards for €11 plus €1 postage. You can pay here through Paypal, make sure to leave your postal address for delivery.

These are individually made by hand by artisans in Nepal. We bring stock back when we visit, which has not been possible this year, so our stock is low. as a result. It is an important income to the people we support. They get great pleasure knowing that their craft is sold and admired by many as well as bringing them income. It is a great boost for the makers who work in conditions very different from artists here in Ireland.

 

We also have plenty of 100% wool gnomes or happy Santa as some people call them,  in 3 sizes and 3 colours in stock.  They are available in red, green and grey. Stock in low in red, please select a second option if ordering the red.

Large are  43cm  in height,  €12 each

Medium are  34cm in height, €10 each

Small are 27cm in height,  €8 each

Postage will vary depending on your size of order, they are very light in weight. You may wish to contact us to arrange sizes, colours and delivery just drop us a brief email to: info@nlt.ie

Gnomes or Happy Santa

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Christmas Craft Sales

Christmas is coming, what a wonderful exciting time of the year.

Do visit us are some of out craft fairs over the next few weeks. Watch out for our lovely batik cards, suitable for every occasion, and for our little felt Santa gnomes. See more on out events page.

Baby gnomes 4cm tall. Also available in a variety of sizes up to 43cm. Photo: Vera © NLT Ireland 2020

Afternoon Tea Party, Straffan Village, Co Kildare

Happy Spring.

Join us on Saturday afternoon for Afternoon Tea Party , 2nd March 2019, from 4pm – 7pm. Indoors, in a beautiful home close to Straffan village, Co Kildare. A big thank you in advance to our host. Photo shows our last Afternoon Tea in 2014 as the rain started, can you believe it was almost 5 years ago. Contact Vera at info@nlt.ie for exact address details. All welcome.

Afternoon Tea Party 2014. Photo; Vera © NLT Ireland

Come along to hear our stories of these beautiful village people and about the Irish support which is so very valuable.

Village meeting 2018, photo by Mrs Sheelagh Gibson © NLT Ireland

Craft Fair, The Hub, Peamount Hospital

It is the time of year again for sharing the joy and smiles from these guys. We have just just replenished our felt gnomes and batik cards from our Kathmandu workroom.

Felt stock in NLT workrooms in Kathmandu. Photo Vera © NLT 2018

Took a few minutes for a quick photo while in our head office in Kathmandu, with Reshma on left and Maya on right.

Vera visits NLT Kathmandu November 2018. Photo by Kamal © NLT Ireland 2018

Come visit me in The Hub in Peamount Hospital, Newcastle, Co Dublin on Friday 30th November and Sunday 2nd December 2018.

Time:  Friday 10.00am -3.00pm Friday & Sunday 10.00am -5.00pm

The potential of a coffee

The potential of an Irish coffee morning, or similar event, to support a small village with micro finance in Lalgadh, south-eastern Nepal.

A total amount of €2,173 was donated to Sunderbasti Village Women’s Group for micro finance. This was the result of 3 Irish fundraising events, a coffee morning, a supper night and an afternoon tea party. The events were held in the hosts home and included friends and neighbours which, as well as creating a lovely atmosphere, has the added advantage of spreading the news about our work and about the lives of others.

Sunderbasti Women's Group Finance committee
Sunderbasti Women’s Group Finance committee. Photo Hem Pradhan © NLT 2018

We are extremely grateful to the hosts and to all who attended,  your interest and encouragement in our work with the Nepalese people is greatly appreciated. We take this opportunity to thank you, on behalf of the women’s group, for your wonderful support.

Brief Project Details:

NLT Ireland fundraises, supports and enables NLT Nepal to eliminate leprosy and its associated stigma and provide human rights for individuals, empowering the most rejected to become respected community leaders. Our Sunderbasti Women’s Micro Finance project is to provide finance and support for 28 women and their families, enabling them to work towards empowerment, stigma elimination, social inclusion, human rights and dignity.

Sunderbasti Village is located 3 km south east of Lalgadh hospital. It is a rural area in the Terai (lowlands) in south-eastern Nepal. The 350 (breakdown below #) inhabitants are landless migrants from the time of the Maoist insurgency and are living in this area since 2009. Sunderbasti is a very poor community, lacking basic human needs. The women’s group have requested funds for micro finance to provide food for their family and to sell produce.

# Sunderbasti Village Number of inhabitants Male Female Notes
350 157 193 85 of the total population are under 15 years of age

Access to funds for the women will help provide food for their family as well as generate an income eg., a goat can provide enough milk for a family and the excess produce sold for income. The role of business owner can elevate the social status of an entire family.

Empowerment and participation in one’s own development process can bring lasting change to females and to their families. Our micro finance scheme includes money-handling skills, decision making skills and veterinary skills if relevant. Confidence in these areas has been proven to aid the presentation of potential sufferers for early diagnosis of leprosy to our compassionate hospital and community care staff.

This request from Sunderbasti’s Women’s Group is the result of a successful project we support in the nearby village of Khoksikhola. Khoksikhola have built a new community centre, have benefited from a new fresh water supply and large reservoir tank, new toilets and 15 women have received micro finance. This village has been transformed and the people’s self-development in clearly evident.  Such improvements have happened in dozens of villages where NLT works with the villagers undertaking the laboring tasks. The main benefit of this success to the wider community is a revolution of empowerment, one small community’s success influencing another. We support this empowerment and stigma elimination one person at a time, one self-help group at a time and one village at a time.

Our support with Sunderbasti community has developed over the last few years and will continue with support gradually reducing when appropriate. Re-paid micro finance funding will continue to be reallocated to new beneficiaries, so the project will have long term impact and duration.

From our experience, access to and on-going support in 3 core areas can aid empowerment and bring lasting change to females, their families and the wider community:

Self-help group

Clean drinking water

Micro finance

Sunderbasti Village’s current development:

  1. Self-help group – a Self-help group has been established and the members are meeting all their monthly requirements including making consistent savings
  2. Clean drinking water- the provision of clean drinking water and the installation of toilets is currently under construction with development aid funding acquired by NLT Ireland
  3. Micro finance – with the generous help of above fundraising endeavours this part of Sunderbasti’s community development is now currently being implemented.

If you wish to hear more about this project or to hold a coffee morning do get in touch with vera at info@nlt.ie

World Leprosy Day 2018

Sunday 28th January is World Leprosy Day 2018.

Support us to continue to fight the disease of leprosy and its associated stigma, here

Congratulations to all our staff and patients, our children’s unit in Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital in Nepal is being officially opened today.

Urgent appeal for monsoon help

Please help with our urgent appeal for monsoon relied aid 2017, to provide houses for 10 families whose earthquake-damaged homes have been totally destroyed in the current monsoon. €15,000 will provide housing for the worst affected families in the remote village of Inarwaha, Dhanusha district. NLT’s Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital is well placed to offer immediate support through its network of 101 community Self Help Groups operating in monsoon-hit districts. Click to donate:

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Please keep the frontline work of Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital in your thoughts and prayers.  The hospital is built on a hill and so the building is relatively safe.

The United Nations describes this as the worst monsoon flooding for 15 years in Nepal.

The following is an extract from a recent update by Dr Graeme, the medical director, at Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital & Services Centre, Nepal.

‘Since July, the rains have caused:

  • More than 150 deaths
  • The destruction of 90,000 homes in floods and landslides.
  • The displacement of 461,000 people in 35 districts of the southern Terai region.
  • The deaths of around 70,000 livestock and the devastation of crops worth tens of millions of dollars.

Every year, the waters from both monsoon rain and swollen Himalayan rivers inundate Nepal and its neighbours. Latest United Nations figures put the death toll in Nepal, India and Bangladesh above 1,200. At least 41 million people have been directly affected by flooding and landslides.

There is an urgent need for flood-relief items such as clean water, food rations, tarpaulins, blankets, clothes, water purifiers and mosquito nets. With the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera, donations will also help treat sick children, pregnant mothers and other severely ill people, as well as providing transport to hospitals and medicine for local clinics.’

Take a look below at what people are facing in Inarwaha.  Is is about 60 km south-east of our Leprosy hospital. Normally it takes 3 hours to reach the village over rough terrain. We have supported a Self Help Group there since 2010.

Please help with our urgent appeal for monsoon relief aid to support these resilient people. Thank you for reading about our work. You can donate here:

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