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  Id i

O

Nepal

Kathmandu

 Jirouna

Chitwan District

Chitwan National Park

 ve 

Commonsense 

is not that common

To show you Nepal, I give you our guide and translator 

Puja Singh, communications officer for Heifer Nepal. At 

 age 26, she's fluent in Nepali, Newari, Hindi and English.

 A Newari woman who embraces her family, culture and

Hindu religion, Puja notes her role escorting two foreigners

 across her country—paying their tabs and keeping them

from pitching off cliffs and into roadside buffalo dung—is

 a unique one for a woman here. Her grasp of American

 slang and music preferences (Coldplay and Black Eyed

Peas) are all the more surprising as we get to know her.

 She says 99 percent of her schoolmates sought more

lucrative jobs outside Nepal, but that her work with

Heifer gives her hope for her own future, as well as her 

country’s. She is working to complete her master's degree

in development studies while working full-time for Heifer 

Nepal. Her advice on negotiating the chaos of traffic on

Kathmandu's crowded streets, where pedestrians intermix 

with speeding motorbikes and hulking trucks, illustrates

how she approaches her daily life. “You just have to be

confident and appear sturdy. If you look as if you'll put 

 a large dent in their door if they hit you, they won't.” 

REPORTER ’S NOTEBOOK

Himalayan peaks soar over terraced fields along the main

highway in Nepal, which runs between the capital, Kathmandu,

 and the Chitwan District in the southern flatlands.

20 SPRING 2010 | WORLD ARK WWW.HEIFER.ORG

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  WWW.HEIFER.OR G | WORLD ARK  21

U

rmila Chaudhary of Belsi is a beacon

of hope for me. A part-time college

student and schoolteacher, her properEnglish is proof that she worked very

hard for her achievements. Eleven years ago, Ur-

mila’s mother, Panditni Chaudhary, could afford

to send Urmila to school only because of the in-

come from two goats she received from Heifer.

Educating a girl who would eventually marry

into another family was not a good investment

for this stern Tharu woman. But the trainings

she received said it was the right thing to do. Ur-

mila was adamant and her mother, having some

money to spare, gave in. Today Urmila, a slender young woman, gleams in her bronze skin and jet

black hair as she shyly tells us that she hopes to

start a family with a man who recognizes her as

an equal. In our world, Urmila was the first shred

of proof for me that the cycle of poverty could be

broken with just two goats and some training.

Walking hand in hand with Ganga Khanal in

her banana field, playing hide and seek with the

orange sunset along the rows of her leased land,

I see the reason why girls like Urmila have a fu-

ture they can look forward to. Ganga holds myhand tightly and pulls me strongly; there is too

much to show. But it is not her banana planta-

tions, her lentil shrubs in the moist, red soil, her

tiny but super-hot chilies, her healthy goats or

her coop full of chickens that tell Ganga’s story.

It’s the strength in her speech that stands out against the

music of her clanging glass bangles, the lines in her face that

form both the frowns and the smiles, and her children and

grandchildren for whom she has built strong foundations.

The problem for poor families is that crucial decisions

like paying for school and nutritious food depend on havinga little extra money to spare. One solution is a loan from the

savings fund created by pooling as little as 20 rupees (about

27 cents) per month over a period of time. The fund can pro-

vide enough capital for a small business. Another solution is

a meat goat that can sell for 5,000 rupees ($67) to provide an

entire year’s tuition for one child.

After learning Heifer’s commonsense approach to devel-

opment, I saw that someone finally got what worked for my

country and my people. I guess common sense is not that

common after all. Heifer’s simple solution for poverty is ideal

for simple people, like those of Nepal. It’s these small solu-

tions that hold the secret to solving the big problems in my

country.

A civil war, selfish politics, dysfunctional governments and

brain drain have almost bled my country dry of hope. Toomany young Nepalese see the lack of opportunity and stabil-

ity as reason to leave the country. I see Ganga, the seed of 

hope, and Urmila, the fruit of hope, as reasons to stay. Hav-

ing lived and studied the world through words, I struggle to

find the right ones powerful enough to tell the story of these

women. The story of the women who make me, with my col-

lege degree and reputable job, seem like an underachiever.

The story of how it only takes a small gift of hope and belief 

to change somebody’s life. ■

By Puja Singh, Heifer Nepal

Puja Singh (at left), communications officer for Heifer Nepal,

talks with Ganga Khanal in the field behind her home.