Fastflow Chief Executive Neil Armstrong has arrived in Nepal to see what a difference his company’s £68,000 donation to WaterAid has made to the people of Biratnagar.
Here is his first blog about his six day visit.
I landed in Kathmandu on Sunday morning and was met by my WaterAid colleague Katie Edwards who traveled from London. Katie who works from WaterAid's London office, will be accompanying me on this field trip.
We got a brief glimpse of life in Kathmandu on the journey from the airport to our hotel. Everything seemed to be happening at a frantic pace on the roads with very old cars, buses and scooters zooming about in all directions, with no visible order and constantly tooting their horns. Everyone seemed to be getting where they wanted to go. I guess this is a good example of organised chaos. Fascinating to watch though!
Following a brief freshen up at our hotel, we met with Ashutosh (Ashu), WaterAid Nepal (WAN) Country Representative and Kabir, WAN's Programme Manager. Both will be accompanying us on the field trip.
They briefed us on their work here in Nepal and on some of the progress being made. They also briefed us on our field trip itinerary. Following dinner and more discussions on the amazing work WaterAid is doing in Nepal, we took the opportunity to get an early night.
The next morning, suitably refreshed, we got to meet the WAN team at the offices in Kathmandu and learned in more detail about some of the challenges facing so many of the people of Nepal. The biggest issue seems to be the rate of urbanisation happening in a lot of the towns and cities, as people migrate from the rural areas in search of work.
Unfortunately the towns and cities don't have the services and infrastructure to cope with this massive rate of development. The result is the creation of slums on the periphery of these cities. Tomorrow we will get an opportunity to see this problem first hand.
Following our meeting with the WAN team we were whisked off once more through the crazy streets to catch our flight to Biratnagar, Nepal’s second largest city and where the project that we sponsored is taking place. There we met with LUMANTI, another charitable organisation working as a partner to WaterAid Nepal (WAN).
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