At our Club Meeting on Zoom on 27 July Members were delighted to welcome back Orla Fawcett to report back from her Project Trust 1 year assignment in Nepal.
Orla, is pictured 6th from the left in this photo with garlands to thank her at the end of her assignment. She talked us though the photos in her presentation – please click on this link to view: Orla Fawcett – My Year in Nepal
Orla wrote a Blog in the year she was away – you can read it here – orlanepal.blogspot.com/ click on “More Posts” at the bottom of the blog to read more.
Orla was living and working in a school in Harpe, in the foothills of Annapurna mountains. She told us how life was hard but happy. She lived with a mother and her child, and another volunteer and they became her new family. She was teaching in the school 6 days a week. Orla had never taught before and had to learn Nepalese to be understood.
She wrote a review of two different women’s lives – both were clever. One woman married at 18 had children young, didn’t complete her education and works the land, the other married at 30 and is the head teacher of the school. She feels strongly about the opportunities that are denied women who marry young.
Project Trust is unusual in sending students on overseas assignments for a full year and it appears that this is a great way for young people to get an immersive experience and for both the student and the hosts to benefit the most from these cultural exchanges.
Orla has been studying Spanish and Chinese at University in Manchester for the last year. She is currently in Spain teaching English as a foreign language and plans to go to Taiwan for a year after her 2nd year at University. We hope we can put her in touch with some of the Soroptimists in Taiwan.
To see the news item on the website from Orla’s fundraising Club visit before her travels please click here www.sigbi.org/st-albans/2018/hs/
We were all “blown away” by Orla – she really is an inspiration, and we hope she will stay in contact with us. After she left the Zoom call we had a regular Club Meeting.