Volontariato in Nepal


We arrange volunteer work stays in Nepal of 3 to 12 weeks. Your stay starts with pick-up at Kathmandu airport and an introduction course.
Volunteering is a unique way to discover a country, its culture and people while doing a meaningful job.
You must be at least 18 years old, independent and outgoing, and have the desire to work as a volunteer.


The country
Nepal is a narrow sliver of land squeezed between India to the south and the vast Tibetan plateau to the north. Nepal rises from plain to plain, valley to valley, and mountain to mountain – a precipitous staircase that ends at the roof of the world, the Abode of Snows. Eight of the world's 10 highest summits, including Mt. Everest, lie within her borders.
Nepal was a monarchy until 15th January 2008, when the king lost most of his authority. A newly elected parliament declared Nepal a republic on 28th May.
Nepal is an agricultural society - about 90 % work in this sector. Crops include rice and other grains, sugarcane, tobacco, and jute. Herds of cattle, oxen and buffalo, are also an important resource. The great variations in climate divide the land into 3 areas, the fertile tropical lowland Tarai, the central highland with grasslands and forests, and the Himalaya Mountain range with several of the world’s highest peaks.
There is a rich animal life, especially in the jungle and marsh regions, where tigers, leopards, bears, wolves, elephants and the very rare Indian rhinoceros roam.

The population
Nepal is also a land of variety from a religious viewpoint. 90 % of the population is Hindu, but there are Buddhist, Christian and Muslim minorities. The many ethnic groups live side by side in relative peace. The official language is Nepali, but it is spoken by only half the population. The many ethnic and cultural groups in the country have their own languages. Educated people in Kathmandu usually speak and understand English, especially the younger generation. People in rural areas and the older generation do not understand English. This is one of the world’s poorest countries, unemployment is high and around 80 % of the population is without a regular income. Even today, a large part of the population is unable to read or write. The law dictates that children go to school until they are at least 11 years old, but most never go because their families need
help in the fields or simply because the nearest school is too far away. You will see beggars, poor people and children who live in the streets of Kathmandu and other large cities.

Program
Voluntary work is possible all year round, and lasts from 3 to 12 weeks. Language and culture courses, preceding volunteer work, start every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month. You will be picked-up at the Kathmandu airport Arrival on Sunday, prior to program start. The language and culture program starts with a short introduction to the voluntary work program, host family stay, climate, facilities in the villages and other useful information.

Introduction week
1 day
At 10.00 o’clock a briefing about volunteer work, with a short introduction to the voluntary work program, host family stay, climate, facilities in the villages and other useful information.
From 4.00 to 6.00 Nepali lessons.
Welcome part in the evening.
2, 3, and 4th day
Nepali lessons continue.
5th day
An excursion with guide to the most important cultural and religious monuments in the Kathmandu valley.
Afternoon free to go exploring.
6th day
Nepali lessons continue.
7th day
Evaluation of the first week and preparations for departure to the volunteer work place. No teaching during the afternoon.

Employees are always available with tips about interesting places to visit during free time.

Volunteer work
After the first week introduction course, you will start your volunteer work. Accommodation will be either with a Nepalese host family, or at the working place itself.

Volunteer options

Teaching English
There are 50 schools in Kathmandu, Chitwan and Pokhara.
If you choose “English teaching” as volunteer work, you will teach children between 4 and 16 years old, in classes with 15 to 25 pupils. As a teaching volunteer, you will teach English or other subjects at schools, 4 to 6 hours a day.
Playing and drawing with the children as well as helping to organize sport and creative activities are also part of daily tasks. Your work area depends on the season, as schools in Kathmandu close for holidays during winter, whereas holidays in the Chitwan province are in summer. Teaching placements are available in both public schools and private boarding schools. Dashain and Tihar festivals mean that schools are closed from mid September until mid October in 2010, which is 2067 in Nepal! During this period volunteers will have other work.
Volunteers live with host families located within walking distance from the schools.

Teaching at a Monastery
As a volunteer in “Monk Teaching Project”, you will primarily work as an English instructor. You will teach English to young monks aged 4 to 16, around 1 hour a day. In addition to English teaching, volunteers will arrange games and sports, drawing, singing, dancing, and other creative education and extracurricular activities. This project allows you to immerse yourself in Buddhist religion and lifestyle. You will be surrounded by meditation, rituals, prayers and songs. I you want teach for more than 1 hour, it is possible to do so at an orphanage or school.
Most of the monasteries in Nepal have 15 to 30 children aged of 4 to 16.
Accommodation is in the house for volunteers, as the getting up each day at 5 o’clock and following the strict rules at the monasteries is not very popular.

Primary Health Care and Medical Program
This volunteer program requires volunteers with medical background. We encourage medical students, nurses, and medical doctors to apply. We place volunteers at the hospital and local clinics.

Volunteer activities are
Assisting doctors and nurses.
Helping patients.
Distribution of medicine.
Checking up on patients, blood pressure, taking temperatures, etc.
Learning about local diseases.

Orphanages
Every year, thousands of children go to Kathmandu, searching for jobs and a better future. What they find is often worse than what they left. Many of these children end up working 14-hour days in industry, hotels or restaurants. Most of the orphanages in Nepal have 20 to 30 children age 4 to 12. When you work with the orphans of Kathmandu you give them a new perspective, new experiences, hope and fun.
Some orphanages are less structured and basically function as informal education training centers. Some placements allow the volunteer to live within the orphanage; however volunteers can also choose to be placed with local host families located within walking distance of the orphanage. We place volunteers in 20 orphanages.

Volunteer tasks
Teaching English to children in small groups.
Teaching hygiene and sanitation.
Helping with food distribution.
Playing with and caring for the children.
Teaching art and creative activities.
Teaching music and songs.
Helping with homework.
Administrative tasks.

Fees in Euro
Program fees including one week language and culture program.

Orphanage or teaching		Monastery or Health
Weeks	Fee	Weeks	Fee
3	665 €	3	707 €
4	707 €	4	770 €
5	749 €	5	834 €
6	791 €	6	897 €
7	834 €	7	960 €
8	876 €	8	1 024 €
9	918 €	9	1 087 €
10	960 €	10	1 151 €
11	1 003 €	11	1 214 €
12	1 045 €	12	1 277 €

Included in the fee
Airport pick-up and transport to accommodation.
Teaching material and one week language and cultural immersion.
Transport to voluntary workplace.
Food and accommodation during your entire stay. During volunteering, you will stay with a host family, in the apartment for volunteers or at your workplace. During the first week you will share rooms with other volunteers at the apartment in Kathmandu.
Pre-departure handbook about Nepal.
Support of local coordinator during your entire stay.

Not included in the fee
Airfare to and from Nepal.
Insurance.
Any entrance fee during sightseeing and travel.
Transport from and to accommodation during voluteering, if necessary (cost $3-$4/day).
Laundry, telephone.
Visa fee.

It is not allowed to drink alcohol during your work stay and you may not smoke in school classes.

Extra excursions
Nepal is known for its many tourist attractions. We warmly advice you to take the time to join some of the following excursions organized by the local coordinator.

7-day Anna Purna trekking
Day 1: Arrival in Pokhara. Preparations for the trek.
Day 2: Breakfast followed by 1½ hours drive to Birethanti, where the trekking route to Ulleri starts. 1 night stay in Ulleri.
Day 3: Ulleri-Ghorepani.
Day 4: Ghorepani-Tadapani.
Day 5: Tadapani-Ghandruk.
Day 6: Back to Birethanti and from there to Pokhara, where you will stay the night.
Day 7: Back to Kathmandu.
Fee: USD 300.

Or:
White Water Rafting: 1 day – USD 50
Chitwan Safari: 3 days – USD 200
White Water Rafting: 1 day – USD 50
Chitwan Safari: 3 days – USD 200
Annapurna Trekking: 5 days – USD 200
Annapurna Trekking: 11 days – USD 500
Annapurna Trekking: 18 days – USD 750
Everest Trekking: 14 days – USD 1000 – including round trip flight to Lukla.
Tibet tours 8 days: USD 700 – including visa to Tibet.

All these excursions can be booked after arrival in Kathmandu.

Before you go
It is a great challenge to live and work in a poor country. It requires courage and adaptability. Especially in the beginning it can seem overwhelming to adapt to new and foreign conditions and speak a new language. Things are nothing like they are where you come from and people do not react as you would expect. The climate, the food, the atmosphere - everything is different. At your volunteer workplace you will be confronted with a harsh social reality and experience things a tourist could not imagine. Participation in a volunteer work program demands maturity, flexibility, independence and a real desire to do volunteer social work. At the same time it is your chance to do a meaningful job and experience the adventure of your life.

Note
We always strives to deliver the best service, also in Nepal, but do not expect European standards. The work is not planned as in Europe, with weekly charts and schedules.
Your personal efforts are required to make everything function smoothly.

Useful reading
The Kathmandu Valley by Kerry Moran.
Mount Everest National Park: Sagarmatha Mother of the Universe by Margaret Jefferies.
The Royal Chitwan National Park by Margaret Jefferies and Hemanta Mishra.
Trekking in the Everest Region by Jamie McGuinness.
Trekking in the Annapurna Region by Bryn Thomas.
Insight Guides: Nepal by Hans Hofer.

Links
www.welcomenepal.com and www.info-nepal.com
A link to a video, made by one of our French volunteers who worked at an orphanage:
http://www.dailymotion.com/53a35ce199b1485830c8357bb/video/x4xn0y_nepal_travel


Individual volunteer package program Nepal

Please fill out in English

Name (according to your passport)
Passport n.	Issue date Issue place Exp date
Full Address
Telephone
Cell phone
Email
Skype name
Nationality	-- select one -- Afghan Albanian Algerian American Andorran Angolan Antiguans Argentinean Armenian Australian Austrian Azerbaijani Bahamian Bahraini Bangladeshi Barbadian Barbudans Batswana Belarusian Belgian Belizean Beninese Bhutanese Bolivian Bosnian Brazilian British Bruneian Bulgarian Burkinabe Burmese Burundian Cambodian Cameroonian Canadian Cape Verdean Central African Chadian Chilean Chinese Colombian Comoran Congolese Costa Rican Croatian Cuban Cypriot Czech Danish Djibouti Dominican Dutch East Timorese Ecuadorean Egyptian Emirian Equatorial Guinean Eritrean Estonian Ethiopian Fijian Filipino Finnish French Gabonese Gambian Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Grenadian Guatemalan Guinea-Bissauan Guinean Guyanese Haitian Herzegovinian Honduran Hungarian Icelander Indian Indonesian Iranian Iraqi Irish Israeli Italian Ivorian Jamaican Japanese Jordanian Kazakhstani Kenyan Kittian and Nevisian Kuwaiti Kyrgyz Laotian Latvian Lebanese Liberian Libyan Liechtensteiner Lithuanian Luxembourger Macedonian Malagasy Malawian Malaysian Maldivan Malian Maltese Marshallese Mauritanian Mauritian Mexican Micronesian Moldovan Monacan Mongolian Moroccan Mosotho Motswana Mozambican Namibian Nauruan Nepalese New Zealander Ni-Vanuatu Nicaraguan Nigerien North Korean Northern Irish Norwegian Omani Pakistani Palauan Panamanian Papua New Guinean Paraguayan Peruvian Polish Portuguese Qatari Romanian Russian Rwandan Saint Lucian Salvadoran Samoan San Marinese Sao Tomean Saudi Scottish Senegalese Serbian Seychellois Sierra Leonean Singaporean Slovakian Slovenian Solomon Islander Somali South African South Korean Spanish Sri Lankan Sudanese Surinamer Swazi Swedish Swiss Syrian Taiwanese Tajik Tanzanian Thai Togolese Tongan Trinidadian or Tobagonian Tunisian Turkish Tuvaluan Ugandan Ukrainian Uruguayan Uzbekistani Venezuelan Vietnamese Welsh Yemenite Zambian Zimbabwean
Birth Date (dd-mm-yyyy)
Occupation
Which languages do you speak?
Do you smoke?	YES   NO
Do you have any dietary restrictions (e. g. vegetarian)?	YES   NO
If yes, please specify:
When do you want to start the program? (day, month, year)
Number of weeks including language and culture program.
Which community service do you want to do?	Teaching English Teaching English at a Monastery Orphanage Health Care and Medical Program
Address and telephone of parents in case of emergency
Where did you find us?
I have read and understood all the information provided in the program text. All of the information that I have provided is both accurate and complete.
codice antispam= 5FY42

Please add a CV + picture and a personal letter of motivation explaining why you are interested in working as a volunteer and stating any previous experience.



General conditions

Payment conditions
Upon enrolment, a deposit of 200 Euros is charged. The remaining amount is to be paid 6 weeks before departure. If you enroll only 6 weeks or less before departure , the total amount will be due at once.

Cancellation
If you cancel your program before you have received information about your volunteer work, the total amount of the program will be refunded except for the 200 Euro deposit. After arrival in Nepal, no refunds are made.

Enrolment
You enroll by sending the enclosed enrolment form to work@intermediateonline.com
Please add a letter of motivation in English.

Problems and responsibility
Any problems you may have, should immediately be discussed with your local coordinator. We are a representative for a local organization and therefore cannot be held responsible for any changes that our partners may make after editing this information.

Fees
All fees are quoted in Euro.

Price adjustments
We reserve the right to adjust fees in the event of a change in exchange rates.