Mountains make for life change

By Kath Gannaway
A CHANCE meeting at a country market set Yarra Glen grandmother Ruth Davidson on a journey which has changed not only her life but the lives of hundreds of Nepal’s most vulnerable women and children.
Ruth and husband Allan trekked through Nepal’s Himalayas in 1999 as tourists but it was two years ago in Tocumwal that she learned of The Women’s Foundation of Nepal from two young women raising money for the foundation.
Since then Ruth has spent three months as a volunteer working with abused women and children at the foundation and, with the backing of the Rotary Club of Healesville, raised almost $4000 to save the foundation’s medical clinic which was in danger of closing through lack of funding.
The plight of the women and children, and the work being done by the foundation’s founder, Renuka Sharma, has inspired the Davidsons to work to raise both awareness and money to ensure the foundation’s work continues.
Many Nepalese women, particularly widows, Ruth said, suffer shocking abuse in their communities.
“The majority of children are in the shelter because of abuse of some kind,” Ruth said recalling one young girl who had been sexually abused by her father since the age of seven.
“The organisation provides food and shelter but their main focus is on educating children and women and getting them prepared so they can provide a living for themselves,” she said.
As a volunteer Ruth helped in the office translating letters and helped the children with their school work.
Living in Boudhanath on the outskirts of Kathmandu was a dramatic change of lifestyle – the accommodation consisting of a single room with two gas burners and ‘a bit of a sink’.
“I lived in comparative luxury because I had a squat flushing toilet,” she laughed.
Allan, a Rotarian, said Healesville Rotary has got behind the project and, in addition to supporting the foundation at a local level, had put it forward for registration as a Rotary Australia project.
The Women Helping Women luncheon organised by Rotary in March saw more than 80 local people, mostly women, rally to raise the money needed to keep the clinic open and both Allan and Ruth are confident that the support shown on the day will continue.
Ruth left on Friday for a further three months voluntary work and Allan will visit later this month to look at setting up projects and to see what Rotary can do to help.
Over the past 12 months Ruth and Allan say about $15,000 has been donated to the foundation through the efforts of Rotary and others touched by the plight of Nepal’s women and children.
Anyone who would like further information can contact the Davidsons on 9730 1608.