For Rotary member Mary Brell, the motto "service above self" is something she takes quite literally.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Brell travelled to Nepal alongside members, including some from Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak, in November 2022.
Rotary has been organising Nepal Friendship Project trips to the South Asian country since 2011 with a focus on the Maidi Area in the Dhading District.
Ms Brell began making the annual journey to Nepal after her translator Prakash Aryal asked her to provide training in his village.
Ms Brell, a former teacher, has run her own business Keys to Success for 23 years.
Their aim is to help adults who want to improve in business and the workplace, and it's a job that has taken her across the world including China, Europe and the United Kingdom.
After a brief COVID enforced hiatus, last year's trip was one of their biggest yet.
But as Ms Brell explains, it's all about "capacity building" rather than just going in and building things.
"Last year was the culmination of a lot of projects we've been doing," she said.
"The idea initially was to create capacity building in the local community of a really remote village.
"So for example what we take over are teachers to train teachers. It's not about doing it for them.
"Then my contact asked if we could bring someone to help support women's health, so I've taken some local nurses over for training.
"David Watkins, a local dentist, has gone over. Mark Hansen the local optometrist as well, has gone over. It's been very much an Orange-centred thing.
"Over the years many people from Orange have made the trip."
Over that time they have assisted in building schools, teaching educators, providing medical training, improving agriculture practices and even earthquake assistance in 2015.
That earthquake caused untold damage and saw 8,964 people lose their lives.
Ms Brell organised for builders from Orange to head over and help construct earthquake proof houses as well as teaching locals how to build them.
In addition, $200,000 was raised and sent directly to the Maidi village.
Those efforts, in addition to her work over the years, saw her awarded the Order of Australia in 2018.
One of the projects the group worked on in 2022 involved installing water tanks in a remote village in order to provide enough water to grow green vegetables.
Ms Brell said it's something that we in Australia take for granted but could make all the difference for that community.
"When we went last year what we found in the village was that the nutrition levels were really poor," she said.
"They can only grow one crop at a time, it's absolute subsistence farming. They have no greenery.
"So what we've done is provide water, every house now has water. So they can grow their own vegetables during summer.
"They grow millet, corn and rice to make flour but they don't really have all the other nutrients like protein.
"We've done a lot of work agriculturally so it's been an ongoing project for a long, long time.
"It's pretty awesome."
Since they began a decade ago over $1 million has been delivered to Maidi and there are no plans to slow down with another trip locked in for November 2023.
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.
