Sumesh Shiwakoty, a 2013 WMF Scholar from Nepal is studying Political Science at the University of Delhi in India. Sumesh began a clothing donation campaign at his former high school in 2012. Even though he has graduated from the Nobel Academy, Sumesh continues to return and lead the clothing drive campaign.
Sumesh writes…
This year as well I am trying to mobilize students of my former high school the Nobel Academy for a clothing donation campaign for the Chepang community. The Chepang community is a marginalized community in a mountain region of Nepal and every year due to the extreme cold many people, especially children die due to extreme cold. From the last two years in my leadership we are initiating a campaign to collect used yet wearable clothess from students and faculty member of Nobel Academy to distribute in Chepang community. We are trying to collect clothes at this time. I will keep updating you how my campaign goes. You know what, in last years when the campaign get success it gave me a lot of satisfaction as I think our small contribution had saved the lives of many children and I am trying to continue the same this year as well. Hope everything will go well!
Sumesh and Nobel Academy classmates are pictured in the Chepang community.
The origins of the project…
“I was in grade 12 and it was lunch break at my high school. As usual, I was surfing the headlines of newspapers in a library when an unclothed picture of a child grabbed my attention; children from the Chepang community on the verge of death due to extreme cold and unable to afford warm cloths.
The incident took me past several years and made me remember what my mother had said me once. I had asked my mother for a silk jacket similar to that of my friends. She showed me torn jacket of some poor kids asking me to be grateful for what I had been getting. I felt blessed for having a jacket better than those poor kids. But that self-consolation couldn’t keep me from thinking about the hardships of those children, especially after the onset of winter.
While I was still reminiscing, a close friend of mine came to the library. I noticed her cloth was different from what she had been wearing the day before. It was not only her, but most of my fellow classmates had the luxury to afford new clothes at their will. Going back to the plight of the poor Chepang kids, it made me feel the need to do something.
The next day, I went to see the chairperson of the college and showed him the newspaper. I asked him for his support and told him that if we just sat back and watched the despair as mute spectators, more would not be able to live through the next winter. My chairperson then replied in a very diplomatic way, “Sumesh, you have picked up a very good cause but we don’t have allocated funds for the purpose like such. So I don’t think I can help you.” To that, I replied, “We might not have funds but we have resources.” I further explained that if we can ask students, faculty member and other staff to donate used yet wearable cloths then that would easily serve the cause. I was sure that if motivated, most of the students wouldn’t hold back from joining the initiative. And finally that work. The campaign also gone viral in social media like Facebook and Twitter and, as expected, in couple of days, we had about 3000 wearable clothes in the college.
After we handed out the cloths to Chepang community, the same newspaper published a pictorial of some Chepang kids dressed in warm cloths and the caption ran, “After we published the picture of the Chepang children, some students of Nobel Academy helped them.”
It gave me pleasure and lots of satisfaction that my small effort had saved the life of many needy kids. It might not have made any significant effect to the issues of world but definitely it had made a significant effect on the world of those kids and my effort has become a trend setter in my high school. Along the way what I realized is if were able to recognize the right resources, it could make more difference than plain money.”
Some things are so much better than a new silk jacket. Thank you Sumesh of reminding of this!