Volunteer Society Nepal (vsnnepal@ntc.net.np)

As I alluded to in my last post, I have been working more and more with the management side of VSN, than with actual Health Care. This basically means that I have spending about half of my day working in the clinic or teaching mother's groups and then on different projects here at VSN. VSN is an amazing organization that was started about 4 years ago, by a few really committed and sincere Nepalis. They had this idea, that they could do it all better, help more people, give volunteers a better experience, all for doing it for much less money. And I totally agree that they have succeeded. Most international groups that work here, would charge several thousand dollars for volunteers to get less training, and similar experiences.

After seeing the Nepal political and business culture described above, it has been wonderful to find a few people who are really working to change things for the better. Now are some things still problems? Yes. But at least they are really trying to change things.


Anyway, VSN is great, but they need help. Mainly with managing possible volunteers through email, the finances, and also the website has major problems. So, I have been emailing all of the potential volunteers, and also those who will be showing up in the next month. We are working on correcting some of the content and look of the website, but it really needs someone with more knowledge than me.

Any budding web designers out there who want to donate some time??? Also, I have been trying to set up a tracking system to actually see how many people are coming to the VSN website, and if some new marketing techniques are really worth the money. It has been really fun to work with it, and I feel I can make the organization better off overall with some help.

VSN would really like to get some other donors from the States, but VSN needs to get their house in order first to be able to approach people with good data to support what they are doing. I have been working with them to be more open with their income and experines and making budgets etc. Liz, who has worked for a few non-profits has pretty good grasp and doing these finance types of things, and so she will be spending some time working with them on this stuff. She will also be starting to encourage a little more organization of personnel responsibilities and duties. Getting lists of what staff members actually do, and what they should be doing etc. Hopefully, we can add some of our skills to make VSN a better place for all, and a by product will be to have a better picture to show people wanting to donate money.