By Cameron Conner, CCF Vice-Chair
Of all the things that come to mind when I stop to reflect on this year we’ve had, I think more than anything about resiliency. People are tough, but it’s our relationships that make us that way. This year we’ve seen people demonstrate levels of collective courage like never before, marching for racial justice, voting in unprecedented numbers, buying groceries for at-risk neighbors, and creating community-wide mutual aid networks. The thing I love most about working with the Conscious Connections Foundation is that it’s our job to build the kind of relationships that allow this collective courage to grow; the kind of relationships that serve as a foundation for community resiliency. Our job is to bring people together and enable them to achieve, as a group, what no one individual could do on their own. The importance of this work becomes particularly pronounced in times of crisis.
The Conscious Connections Foundation (CCF) was created to promote girls’ access to education and support rural healthcare, yet in our five short years of existence we have found ourselves at the heart of two distinct and historic disasters. The first was Nepal’s earthquake in 2015, and now it’s the Coronavirus pandemic. It was never our intention to be a disaster relief organization, but we’re playing the cards we’ve been dealt.
Beginning in early April of this year, Nepal entered a complete lockdown for over 90 days. In quick order after that, it reopened, locked down again and is now once again open despite having record case numbers. Right now, cases are surging, and the Nepali government simply doesn’t have the resources needed to combat it on such a large scale. As in the United States, the virus is affecting those who are the most vulnerable: day laborers, widows, children, the elderly, and immigrants, among others. As starvation looms in many of these communities, the biggest threat is simply lack of money to buy essentials.
CCF’s philosophy has always been that we want to work ourselves out of a job; we want to build capacity in the communities we work with so that our presence is no longer needed. It’s all about cultivating community resiliency. Right now, this looks a little different than usual: the biggest barrier to girls attending school is COVID-19, and the biggest health crisis for many—alongside the Coronavirus—is hunger. The relationships we have, and the nature of our work means that if we want to continue pursuing our mission, we need to address these kinds of critical and emergent issues first.
Over this last year, with the incredible support of our donors, CCF did just that. Our Nepali partners on the ground conducted emergency food distribution to some of the most vulnerable groups in the Kathmandu Valley. They also distributed 600+ reusable cotton menstrual pad kits along with hundreds of additional masks and bars of soap to women and girls who lacked the resources to purchase these supplies themselves. CCF accomplished all this while continuing to strengthen the infrastructure and resources of our Menstrual Pad Program, the Baseri Health Clinic, and the Girl Child Education Program.
Fighting for women in two very different ways
Diya Maharjan was one of CCF’s three Joy Attwood Scholarship recipients in 2020. With it she will be able to continue her eduction and pursue her dreams of becoming an IT engineer.
Partnering with the Fatima Foundation, CCF distributed 500 Masks, 500 Soaps and 300 reusable Menstrual Pad kits to a group working to protect the human rights of poor Muslim and Madhesi women and children in Nepalgunj.
On top of providing emergency relief for individuals and families, one of the largest unanticipated challenges we had to confront was the overwhelming burden placed on some of our organizational partners in Nepal. With no financial aid coming from the government, and traditional income channels shut off due to lockdowns, groups like TEAM Nepal and the Association for Craft Producers—whom CCF has partnered with for years—were on the brink of collapse. These groups have served some of the most marginalized Nepali communities for decades. If they failed, we knew those years of knowledge, experience, and organizational credibility would be lost with them. To prevent this from happening, CCF has so far provided nearly $50,000 to help these groups sustain their basic operating expenses—our own version of a PPP loan. Read more about this story here.
At times heartbreaking, this work has also offered us a unique glimpse into many amazing moments as well. When traditional support systems fail and people lack any other options, we have seen how time and again people turn to one another as a source of support and safety. In the U.S. when this phenomenon started cropping up, it was called “mutual aid.” People helping people for no personal gain, just generosity and reciprocity. In Nepal, folks have been doing this kind of thing since long before the pandemic began; they are lightyears ahead. Thanks to our incredible volunteers over there, we were able to tap into these networks and work directly with the people.
CCF owes great thanks to Kesang Yudron, Pema-la Lama, and Chunta Nepali in particular. These amazing women are true heroines. Drawing on their own personal networks to pinpoint need early in the crisis, they initially collected, organized, and distributed food to 62 families who were unable to afford it because of reliance on day labor wages. These were the families of rickshaw drivers, widows, builders and street vendors. Since then, Kesang, Pemala, and Chunta have grown their distribution channels to different groups as their networks expanded. You can read Kesang’s insightful blogpost about their experience here: Humanitarian Efforts in Nepal Prove Challenging.
Left to right: Kesang Yudron, Pemala Lama, and Kesang’s sister Chimme Dolkar
CCF’s other amazing partner, Chunta Nepali
We’ve certainly learned a lot from this year, and we will go forward stronger because of it. But I also want to recognize that our ability to go forward at all is due to the incredible support of so many others. So, as we round out 2020, “the year of perfect vision,” I want to end it on a personal note of gratitude for the relationships that have made us resilient.
First and foremost, I want to give thanks to all of our incredible partners on the ground in Nepal, who helped us roll with the punches and kept us constantly busy doing what CCF was made to do. To Pampha in Ghat Besi, who helps oversee our scholarship program; to Ram and Pradeep Karki, our constant guides and emergency organizers; to Meera, Revita, Prashtuti, and the entire team at ACP, who have carried on the Power of 5 and Joy Attwood scholarship programs even as the rest of their world threatened to fall apart; and to so many others. CCF has remained nimble and been able to adapt during these crazy times only because we work with such thoughtful, kind and courageous people.
I want to give thanks to our volunteers in the United States: Fred Peck for his constant and extremely patient financial expertise; all those who found a Corona-safe way to participate in our annual Run for Her Life fundraiser; Sarah Conover for her hours of help editing the Menstrual Health Manual. Thanks to CCFs incredible board of directors who pour their own expertise and energy into this work for the sheer love of it. CCF is able to put nearly 99% of its donations towards programs because Board members take on the day to day responsibility of running the organization, refusing to let Covid, Chemo treatments, or babies get in their way. This is a huge amount of work, yet somehow folks still find the time to show up and get it done. I could not ask for a better team to be a part of.
And last but not least, I have to thank our donors, without whom this work would not be possible. You are the fuel that keeps our engine running! We can't thank you enough for your incredible generosity.
For more stories about our work, stay connected and visit the CCF website, as well as Conscious Connections Facebook page to stay informed. If you know of others who would like to support this kind of work in Nepal, we would love it if you shared this with them. We are SO GRATEFUL for everything you have done to sustain CCF. Your continued support has been a huge inspiration and believe me, it changed lives.
Stay safe and well! YOU ARE AMAZING!!!
Cameron N. Conner