by Kesang Yudron & Denise Attwood
Covid-19 pushed the world into unprecedented times of uncertainty, disruption and chaos. As often is the case, people living in poverty and hunger suffered the most. With each wave of Covid-19, from early 2020 onward, cases skyrocketed in Nepal and strict lockdowns were enforced. Now in April of 2022 Covid has slowed for the moment and CCF wants to pause and reflect.
When Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) initially set out to provide relief for communities that were hit hard by Covid, we knew there was a need for more vaccines, hospital facilities, better testing and quarantine facilities for migrant workers but we questioned our effectiveness in providing this type of relief. We connected with our Nepali partner organizations and community leaders to understand what needs they were seeing and they reported that the greatest need was hunger relief.
With month-long lockdowns, daily wage workers lost their main source of income and families quickly ran out of money to buy food. People, without their daily wage, were starving. The Nepali government has no social protection plans to safeguard livelihoods and with lockdowns being extended for months on end, hunger was an immediate and immense issue. On the advice of our local partner organizations this is where we focused most of CCF’s 2020 & 2021 Covid relief efforts.
CCF made it our goal to work with local grassroots organizations focused on marginalized communities and vulnerable groups, including single mothers and children, daily wage workers, disabled and vulnerable individuals, people experiencing homelessness, victims of gender-based violence and communities marginalized by systemic societal oppression.
Ayushma Rana—who lost her husband to the second Covid wave—ran an organization we were referred to. She had been providing food and medicine to single mothers, children and people living in slums. Once we got CCF funds in Nepal, through Ayushma, 65 families and 18 new mothers were supported with food parcels containing 10 kg of rice, 5 kg of lentils, 3 packets of salt, 1 kg of sugar, 24 small packets of biscuits, and 2 packets of mixed beans. This food ration would be sufficient for 1 month but we took solace in knowing that no one had to sleep on an empty stomach for some time.
The Hiteri Foundation, was a group CCF supported from the early stages of Covid. Led by a passionate husband-and-wife duo, they worked relentlessly to organize and feed homeless and day laborer families during each lockdown. Every day Kusum and her husband cooked & packed free meals for 100-150 people in Lalitpur, Nepal where many day wage earners live. Most daily wage workers live in these central areas of Kathmandu because this is where they usually gather to find work for the day. They work in construction, plumbing, households as maids, as porters, and as roadside vendors. The majority of them come from villages in search of a better life for themselves and their families. These workers have families that are dependent on their income and their source of income was gone due to the lockdowns. Kusum commented that construction laborers came saying that, despite lockdown rules getting relaxed, there was no work for them as tourism and construction had declined dramatically due to the virus. Tourism, alone, is one of the largest income earners in Nepal and provides direct and indirect jobs to over 4 million people.
You can watch Kusum speak directly of their foundation’s work in this video here.
Menz Foundation is another grassroots organization CCF partnered with. Run by Menaz Khan who has a working station in Thamel, the central hub of tourism in Kathmandu, he worked with 5-6 volunteers each day, cooking, packing and managing the people who came for free meals. A month before the Covid pandemic started, Menaz Khan lost his father. His goal was to feed people as a way to remember and celebrate his father’s life. As he worked to feed people, he came to know individuals who were drinking only water and sugar to survive. When the food distribution started each day, the volunteers called out the names of recipients to come and collect their food. The volunteers said, “The people are not afraid of Covid, they are afraid of being hungry”. If people have enough food, then they can stay home and be safe, rather than in crowds seeking food.
Nilam Poudel is another grassroots organizer that CCF worked with during Covid. Nilam is a trans woman who works for the LGBTQ+ community in Nepal. She is a model and has a successful business doing make up art and fashion designing. When Covid hit she wanted to volunteer to help the truly marginalized LGBTQ, and especially trans community, in Nepal and came to Kesang to seek assistance from CCF.
Through Nilam’s volunteer leadership, CCF was able to distribute food rations to LGBTQ/trans communities in rural parts of Nepal that had been hit hard by Covid. Because of prejudice and stigma, and estranged from their families, many trans people were without food and shelter, and this intensified as the pandemic continued over the years. Through the help of CCF, Nilam took overnight trips to Saptari, Ithari, Jhapa, Birgunj to distribute relief to these individuals. She talks about her work with the trans community and CCF in the interview here.
These are but a few of the groups CCF was able to help fund over the past few years of the Covid pandemic. In reflection the counsel of our Nepali partners to fund hunger relief proved to be a wise one. Many benefitted and made it through the pandemic through the basic provision of food and kindness. We could not have done any of this without your generous donations.
As we look back, we are humbled by the bravery, sacrifice and extreme kindness of our Nepali partners as they volunteered countless hours, risked their own health, and created friendships with those who were in dire need of the basics of life; healthy food and compassion. Thousands were helped through this catastrophe by these amazing individuals. We could not have found better partners and want to extend our sincerest gratitude to all of them for the work that they have done and the lives they have helped save.
It is hard to find words to truly express how grateful CCF and our Nepali partners are for your support and generosity. Throughout the pandemic, communities of people from around the world came together to help each other in times of great need. That is truly the beauty of our human spirit.
Please check our Facebook and website for updates as we hopefully wind down our Covid Relief work and amp up our educational work in Nepal.
Through Nepali-North American partnership, CCF invests in the power of women and girls to be key participants in their society.