My friend, Carol and I have been joined by several other UAE residents in the East Coast of Fujairah on a trek of a lifetime – to Everest Base Camp - to save a few destitute children in Nepal and several disadvantaged women in Fujairah to give them a new lease in life. We are looking for a lot of support over the next year until our trek to Everest Base Camp in April 2009.
Please join us in our first general meeting when we plan to announce several fundraising projects and our search for trekkers and volunteers to make these projects a success.
Join us, sponsor us – or help us! Trekking for Nepal is looking for trekkers, volunteers, organisers, sponsors, venues, and fund raisers to make this project a success.
Meeting for volunteers:
13 April 2008, 7pm
Fujairah Tennis & Country Club
Fujairah
Posts
11 comments:
Good luck Mita.
But why don't you hold your meetings and get-togethers on weekends? You know, I'd love to volunteer, but the timing is ain't good for me (or anyone who work on weekdays I guess)..
Sorry but if you are keen to help then we can keep you on our file and contact you later once we have our events finalised. If you cannot attend the meeting, not to worry. Just email us your contact details on trekkingfornepal@gmail.com if you want to trek, or help please send your details
Forgive my ignorance, but how exactly is trekking to Everest going to help destitute women in Fujairah? Unless of course they are meant to trek along with you on the holiday of a lifetime. You could make them carry your luggage to make them feel useful and pay them sherpa's wages in order to directly alleviate their destitution.
I have an idea. Anybody out there wants to sponsor my vacation in the Maldives for the super-good cause of providing employment opportunities for destitute Maldivian chambermaids, please get in touch at paymyvacation@charityscam.com
nick: I think the main idea is raise awareness. In short: do something useless and get some companies to sponsor you to do it and the paper to cover your story. Trekking is probably the most common and least original idea but it sort of works.
Last one I've seen were retired people trekking on china's great wall for some Alzheimer foundation. Go figure the relationship between the two.
Mita, to be honest, based on your post I have no clue what your objectives are and it seems strange to me that you focus on two very different issue. Kids in Nepal and Women in Fujairah. Are we talking about Nepalese women in Fujeirah or are they related to the kids in any way?
It's nice that you want to save the world, more power to you, but frankly speaking the lack of focus is diluting your message and will dilute the help you can provide to any of them. Since your organization seems small you will never have enough funds to solve any of those issue, let alone both of them.
My advice, pick one cause. Choose a concrete objective such as "renovating an orphanage", "Buying lawyer time for abused women", "Funding a school with books", "Paying your holiday to the olympics this summer" and go with that. Next time alternate the cause if you wish.
Anyway, Mita, Carol, If you haven't done so you should try to get in touch with the local paper to ask for volunteers and support.
Your story is 7days, xpress, GN and KT material so pickup your phone and call them 5 time a day until you get an interview with each of them.
Cheers
Real Nick, lol! you never miss a chance do you?
But seriously, isn't trekking to base camp everest a tough assignment? I mean it can't be compared to a vacation, could it?
Jazz,
You want to trek, go trekking. You want to do something good and donate money, just collect and donate money. It's really that easy.
Surely "raising awareness" of a cause by going on holiday is selfcongratulory and shows a somewhat inflated sense of one's importance.
* self-congratulatory ;)
Mita, it is a noble endeavour. Here's wishing you all the best. Though corporates here in the UAE are quite willing to put up some money for such causes, it would help if you spell out the aid delivery mechanism. Which agency will you route the funds through ? Will the donors receive feedback on where their funds went ? How much of the funds, if any, will be used to finance the trek itself (as a ballpark, the 14 day ebc trek with a good operator should cost around $1000 per head) ? Agencies like Gulf for Good have a fair bit of success at this sort of thing because of the credibility they come with - you know..office in Humanitarian City and all. Try to tie up with some recognizable name in the charity game...and success shall be yours !
Ok, Jazz, I could have bet you know that word.
Interesting view points - thank you all.
For the cynics like nick, thank you and I hope you find your sponsor for your vacation - whatever floats your boat.
For BB - NONE of the money we raise will pay for our trip since all the trekkers who decide to join us will pay their own way as will Carol and I.
While the Nepalese charity was brought to our attention once we decided to do the trek, we also wanted to do something for a project closer to home. Most of the money will go to fund the medical and nutritional plan being set up by an English nurse who is moving to Nepal full time at the end of June to set the charity straight.
At all times, we will ensure that every penny is accounted for and there is transparency. We did not want to be absorbed by the bigger agencies unless they are willing to forgo their fees.
As always - this is just the early stages and the idea is to involve people in the community and then finalise plans. We have had a lot of pledges so far but we have refrained from taking any of the funds until we have everything in place that will make us legitimate.
I hope that Nick joins us to ensure that we are not paying for a jolly!!
Especially since you think it compares to a holiday in the Maldives!
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