Unite Nepal history and mission statement

Unite Nepal was founded in 2017 by Lee Williams. Lee was first introduced to Nepal by his eldest son Lloyd in 2017. It was supposed to be an adventure motorbike holiday which soon turned into a social mission. The children that were roaming the streets of Kathmandu and mostly glue sniffing a drug that created terrible headaches and paranoia. Lee and Lloyd visited a place in Kathmandu called ‘Chetrapati’ which had a rubbish tip on it inhabited by 16 Nepalese children sleeping rough on the scraps that they could get. Aged between 8 and 18. There were two in particular Bijay and Anil which hung around with Lee and Lloyd. Bijay and Anil said “take us to Pokhara”. Lee and Lloyd did not take them but that’s when the real adventure started. The pair went off to Pokhara. After a couple of days Lee had decided that his mission would be to help these children and planned to get the children off the streets. All within 5 days of arriving in Nepal He agreed to rent a hotel with the ambition of using it as a rehab centre for the children. Given his background as a councellor in drug and alcohol rehabilitation in the UK it seemed an obvious choice.

So on his return to the UK in March 2017 Lee sold up his house, car and even his boat to develop enough funds to start the project and moved to Nepal in December that year. Determined to keep his promise to the children. In the process a lot of support had been put in place for Unite Nepal and so it was all systems go. Our Unite Nepal team has grown from all over the world. Rene our good friend developed this web site for free. J.D. from our rehab unit in London helped enormously at the beginning to help things move. Many donors and sponsors and too many to mention have been behind our mission from all over the world. Paul has been d-jaying all over the world raising funds with his patrons, Kelly and J from New York, Momo from India, Lisa, Jo, Dianne, Kenny and Barbara, Nathalie, Patricia, Aline, Mary, Caroline, Deepak, Julika, Debbie, Jo, Kaye, Martin, Genevieve, Paul, Bob and Jeannie from California, Kelly and Katy from Spain, Michelle, Catrina, Nikki, Keith, Dunvegan Christian Church and pastor, Siobhan, Michael, Sticky, Tobi, En-Lai, Richard and Jo, God and the Elim Pentecostal Church, Brockley London for endless guidance. Its an endless list and apologies if I have missed anyone, just let me know !! The support has been amazing. However it soon turned out that the hotel could not be used for a rehab and so only a few children came and the hotel had to be run as it was as a hotel with just two of the children coming down to start a new life. It was a very sad time for Lee as all his aspirations had failed and met a dead end. Determined to continue with the social work Lee started food programmes in schools. He helped with education and other organisations and medical care for the needy. It became apparent that there was still a lot of good work to do. In the time that Lee was based in Pokhara he continued his tennis coaching at the local club and taught every morning at 7am to the under privileged children and raised a foundation to support them with rackets, shoes clothes and equipment. Lee was and still is the top ranked tennis coach in the country after a long professional career overseas with professional and ex Wimbledon champions and so was very appreciated at the Kaski district tennis club in Pokhara. Also he raised one player to number 1 status in Nepal and helped with the national squad. Most of his boys from that time from 2018 are now all coaching and earning a living all thanks to Lees efforts.

During the covid epidemic of 2020 the hotel was given back to the owners and a new life had started for Lee on his return and Umika who managed Unite Nepal had kept the projects going for the whole time during the covid period whilst Lee was stuck in the UK for nearly a year in 2020. In late 2020 on Lees return they then moved the Unite Nepal project to Lamjung only an hour away from Pokhara to be closer to all the projects and people that they were supporting. It made a lot more sense to be on hand with all the projects and more ‘hands on’ and so based themselves in Lamjung a very poor farming area. Since that time Unite Nepal has continued to feed over 150 children daily, feed and help families in need of food, clothing and medical treatment. Aid the children in their education with books, uniform, school fees etc. Contribute enormously to the local community medical centre providing supply and installation of all electrics, plumbing equipment, water tank and materials, constructing shelving and storage for all the medicines. Organising a government insurance scheme to be sponsored to insure families locally with much needed medical care. Helping and providing for local schools all the kitchen equipment etc, rice cookers, bowls, plates, utensils, cooking equipment, gas stoves and of course supplies for the last 5 years. Constructing library shelves. Organise through donors individual sponsorship of very poor children in these rural areas that receive aid, books, school equipment and uniforms and in some cases school fees paid. In addition Lee spends a lot of his time helping teach English and providing career advice in the local schools to the children to give and aid direction in their future lives.

Every Saturday Lee will go on his motorbike for an hour and a half ride through the mountains to the Pokhara stadium to teach ‘grass roots’ tennis to the under-privileged children from as young as 6 years old to give them a start in their lives to enjoy sport and has had as many as 30 children at these morning sessions when they don’t go to school. As Lee states he doesn’t know where all the energy comes from but with the ever brilliant Umika that manages everything behind the scenes they make all of this work together. Many new projects have been completed now including the community kitchen where the children can get fed and cook for themselves. A whole covered seating area for them to eat and talk and socialise. A covered vegetable garden growing all the veg needed for the children and families and teaching them how to grow their own food. A large concrete play area and stage for dancing and playing and organised activity. A newly constructed outdoor pizza and bread oven so that the children and adults can enjoy every Saturday night a pizza and party night. This really has bought the community together and everyone looks forward to our community spirit and fun.

We have a newly refurbished guest house Palms Cottage Guest House which is outstanding in its beauty and set in the beautiful grounds and gardens overlooking the Madhya Nepal river and all its wonderful nature. We encourage volunteers to join us and particularly during the harvest times and festival times to feel real Nepalese culture away from all the commercial tourism. Please support our Unite Nepal team and join us on our life long mission to help just a little to make peoples lives better, we are all truly blessed and with Gods help will continue.

Thank you to everyone love from,
Unite Nepal Team