WTMY October Challenge 2012: Global friends, global successes

New Zealanders take on a Yoga Challenge

This year many of you joined our 2012 October Challenge, giving up a small habit or routine for a whole month. People gave up tea and coffee, alcohol, sweets and treats, clothes shopping, cycled to work, went on diets, stopped eating out, cut out canteen food, did yoga challenges and stopped shaving. You participated from Nepal, UK, Australia, New Zealand and USA. Well, your sacrifices raised an incredible £678!

Biraj (Nepal) gave up his morning cup of tea

This is the second year we ran the challenge recruiting through Twitter, our e-newsletter and through creating a special Facebook Page. Last year seven people successfully completed the Challenge , this year twenty seven challengers made it through the month, a fantastic increase in people signing up!

Some of our challengers also took a novel twist on the concept.  Three women from New Zealand decided to up their yoga classes for the month and donate every time they did a session. Two others (in Cyprus and USA) went on diets and donated for every pound they lost.

Bipindra (USA) lost an incredible 16 pounds by giving up junk food

 “What was really great about the challenge was that people could give up or reduce as much or a little as they liked and they only donated whatever savings they made, meaning they didn’t spend a penny extra than they would have normally, unless they wanted too! It was so fabulous to see so many people join in from different countries, it really felt great to get such support”  Sarah, Founding Director

The money raised through this years challenge will help towards keeping our centre open for the street community for a further 6 months! This is so important as our centre provides us with a crucial drop in place for the street community to gain support, a safe place to run our programmes from and provides us stability to keep building and improving our service. You see, a small sacrifice really does go a long way.

We can’t thank everyone enough for joining the Challenge and supporting us. We also want to thank the people who have supported us with monthly sponsorship or one off donations this year, your much needed support also does not go unrecognised. You are all such beautiful people. Thank you from all of us at WTMY, we’ll see you again next October!

Shopping Positive

WTMY UK team turns e-shop to real shop in Hackney.

Shop Positive This Christmas

This Christmas why not shop positive! Get fantastic stocking fillers and a great range of gifts for the whole family and support street children and Young people in Nepal to have positive futures. And put your feet up, shop at home and get everything delivered direct to your door! It doesn’t get better than that does it! 

Plus you will receive a free recycled bag made by the young women we support with every order whilst stocks last.

Visit our e-shop http://welcometomyyard.com/eshop.html

Close Up: Narayan

Suman Our Social Work Intern caught up with Narayan to chat with him about his experience entering the climbing competition and to find out why providing activities like our Climb For Kids programme is an important investment in young people’s futures.

Tell us about Narayan’s experience of the climbing competition

He was so happy and excited to take part in climbing competition. At first, seeing other climbers he felt somehow nervous as he had not experienced anything like this before. He felt that he had to win anyhow in order to make his name popular. He felt uneasy as he had not taken any training regarding climbing but later on he managed to build up his confidence and his inner courage. Other climbers seemed to be confident and professional. He believed that he could not compete with other climbers so he decided just to stop comparing himself. Finally, the moment had arrived when he had to compete in the first round of the competition, and using his own skills and inner courage he was through and selected for the next round. That was the moment when he felt that he was the happiest person in the world, on top of the world even. Now he started to believe in himself more, that he can perform well and as a result, he was through again and selected for the final round. This was the moment when he started to think the about possibility of winning the competition. He tried his best but unfortunately he could not win. He had come fourth out of twenty three participants. He felt sad and started thinking that if he had taken the climbing training he might have won the competition, but then he realised that he had to be strong and move forward, carrying positive things from this competition. He also realised that he had spent his valuable time working in Pashupatinath instead of doing better things with his life and he does not want same thing happening with his child. He wants to educate his daughter and wants to insure a bright future for her. Overall the experience of the climbing competition was very good as he got the chance to know himself better, had the opportunity to meet with new people and see the behaviour of different people as well as learning new climbing skills. He wants to thank WTMY for this opportunity.

How did Narayan feel about climbing?

Before climbing he thought that he could not do anything in his life. He was nervous and has always had low self- esteem but during the climbing he had felt a sense of inner power and confidence. Now he thinks that nothing is impossible in this world if we work hard. He feels he has the courage to do good things in his life and has shown this to himself. He wants to start a new life as soon as possible leaving the life of Pashupatinath behind. He wanted to win the competition but could not this time, but he has not lost his hope. He believes that he will win next time.

How would he like to proceed with his climbing in the future?

He has to work hard in order to feed his family so he has not has much chance to think about it, but he would get the opportunity of climbing training then he will surely join it and will do his best.

What does Narayan do in Pashupati?

He searches for wood or gold in the Bagmati River and sometimes he helps in the crematory building fires in order to feed himself as well as his family. He lives nearby with his wife (17) and his daughter (2).

What are Narayan’s aspirations for the future?

He thinks that always working in Pashupatinath is not good for him and his family. So he wants to open small retail shop or momo shop as soon as possible. He is positive that he will be success in his plan. He is positive towards his future.

What is life in your view?

Life is for once so we have to do good things.

Finally he wants to say that WTMY is doing good work for  children and young people and he hopes that WTMY will carry on these activities on a regular basis.

Narayan joined us for our Climb For Kids activities just twice before he requested to enter into the Climbmandu Climbing Carnival. He was able to enter with the support of WTMY and kindly sponsored by Protrek and Sherpa Adventure Gear. We at WTMY are proud to support young people like Narayan and we hope that we can continue to help him to further his talents and fulfil his ambitions in the future.

If you are an experienced climber and looking for volunteering opportunities  check out our latest vacancies at WTMY, we are seeking people to come to Kathmandu and support the training of our young people  at the local indoor wall  See our opportunities

We also have a fantastic Rockclimbing (with a difference) climbing/volunteering holiday in Nepal (we need a minimum of four people to run it). Check it out here