CFFN Updates

Update 1: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Please accept our sincere greetings from everyone in Canada Forum for Nepal (CFFN) for the New Year 2008.

Some unexpected events beyond our control had delayed our communications with you temporarily. However, we are here and standing as strong and we promise that you will hear from us with same intensity and frequency as before.

1. Our Executive Secretary, Alys Muckart, passed away in December 18 unexpectedly. She was diagnosed with brain tumor in late October. Alys was not only a friend dedicated to the causes of Nepal but also was the President of the Canada Tibet Committee and she brought a long and distinguished experience gained through Canadian labor movement. We are devastated in losing her. Please click here to learn more about Alys. Also with this message we invite individuals with similar energy and passion to get involved in our organization in such capacity and be proud contributor to worthy causes of CFFN.
2. The Issue Five of our publication Concern Nepal is hare. This issue summarizes our activities of the Year 2007, features four articles on international volunteer experiences and on rural economic dynamics of Nepal. The abstracts of the papers accepted for our October 2007 conference on Nepal are also included here. Instead of flooding you with Word or Pdf documents, we would like you to read or download it directly from CFFN.ca website. Please click here to read Concern Nepal – Issue 5.
3. We are organizing an interaction program titled "The Issues of Social and Economic Justice and Peace Building in Nepal and their Policy Implications" on February 06, 2008 from 6:30PM to 8:30PM in Ottawa, Canada. The main speaker of the program will be a dynamic and prominent intellectual Dr. Arjun Karki, President of the NGO Federation of Nepal. This program will be coincided with our member's meeting. You are not required to be a member of CFFN to attend the event. Please click here for the event information.
4. We are running a pilot school project in Baglung, Nepal, to provide opportunity to grassroots people of North America to get directly involved with the grassroots people of Nepal without involving governments and big organizations in the middle. Our aim is to let the people themselves evaluate the utility of the activities and tune them appropriately with time. Two volunteers David Campbell and Zachary Gaydos of Illinois, USA went for three months mission to the area (Sept-Dec 2007) followed by Kelsey Wood of Pennsylvania (Dec-Jan 2007) and have established Internet connection and servers for gaining off-line access to significant amount of public educational material in two schools. They also did need assessments in the process. We would like you to be part of this worthy endeavor. Please click here to lean more about the project.
5. CFFN Calendar of Events for year 2008 is published. As you will notice, the annual conference on Nepal will be organized in the first week of July of this year. Please mark your calendars and organize your holidays accordingly. Please note that July 1 is the most celebrated day of outdoors festivity in Canada and especially in Ottawa. We welcome you to come to attend conference, present papers, and have fun in Ottawa at the same time. Please click here to view the calendar.

Sincerely,
Pramod Dhakal
Executive Director
Canada Forum for Nepal