Student volunteers in Nepal

A Worth student has spent the first part of his summer holidays volunteering in Nepal for three weeks, giving talks on leadership to women from the area.

Filippo Taddei, who arrived at Worth from Italy last September to study the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, has been volunteering for an organisation called Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN).

He headed to Nepal on 29 June and spent the first two days learning some basic Nepali language vocabulary, finding out more about Nepali culture and doing some sightseeing in the capital city. Then he got down to work for the next three weeks.

Filippo said: “At the end of the third day, we moved to a small village in the Himalayas 12km from Kathmandu. The Nepalese family of which I was a guest consisted of two parents (the father is a vice-principal, the mother is a mathematics teacher) and four children, a dog and a turtle. They have a nice brick house. They have no washing machine, no dishwasher, no car and no scooter. They only move around on foot. There is WiFi at home but the connection is poor.

“It rained a lot because it was the monsoon season. There were real walls of water that made walking impossible. Everyone moved around with umbrellas and plastic slippers. Landslides along the mountain road were the order of the day.

“My work project was to give lectures on leadership. The audience was all women, aged between 20 and 60. I spoke in English and a local VIN volunteer translated into Nepali.”

Filippo combined his trip with a fundraising project to raise enough funds to build 10 water tanks which will provide essential resources to communities in rural areas that lack them due to climatic or financial challenges.

He said before heading off on his trip: “In Nepal, there is water – a lot of it – but not for people because it doesn’t have infrastructure – dams, reservoirs, aqueducts – to reach the population. My dream is to get water to them.

“I have launched a fundraising activity, with VIN, to raise funds to build tanks in cement for rainwater collection in the Everest region. Each tank costs £850 and can contain 4,000 litres of water which is used for drinking, cooking, washing, irrigating the fields and to give water to the animals. Today, 75 water tanks have been built. My goal is to raise money to build 10 more.”

If you can donate to Filippo’s project, please go to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-am-16-years-old-and-i-have-a-dream

Every penny donated, aside from credit card fees will be used to purchase materials to build these water tanks.