Volunteering Program at Makar Mela

The Makar Mela, that happens only once every 12 years started on Saturday (January 15), the first day of the Nepali month of Magh. It is celebrated for the whole month of Magh ie 12th of February but will possibly be extended for few days until the end of Swasthani Purnima as per Ward President. It takes place at Triveni Ghat river which is the junction of three rivers namely Punyamati, Lilawati and Rudrawati river. It is believed that taking a dip in this river during the mela washes away all the sins. Due to this reason, people from all the over Nepal, India and even foreign countries comes to this mela. Pilgrims bathe in this river and worships Basuki Naag that is said to be the snake around lord Shiva’s neck and the protector of Panauti. After worshipping basuki naag people carry water at their hand and climb the Gorakhnath hill to offer the water from triveni to Gorakhnath temple. After that the devotees visit Indreshwor temple  to worship Indreshwor Mahadev.  Due to this reason also huge mass gather in this mela with a belief of washing away all the sins.

Due to the expectation of huge number of people attending this Mela, foundation team planned to do a volunteering program on last Saturday of Magh month. As per the local resident of Panauti, it was expected to have more crowd on last Saturday and volunteering that day would help to manage the crowd. That is why the staffs of foundation team went to field on Thursday to observe the area and place before the program and also to drop letters at Municipality and Ward Office of Panauti to take permission for the program. We also hired volunteers who showed interest in this program and were willing to work with us. We conducted orientation program for the volunteers where they were informed about the program schedule and also about the rules and regulations to be followed during the program. In this program, we kept a booth to distribute water to the devotees and also gave them mask keeping in mind the risk of Covid-19. The groups were divided so as to cover other areas with massive crowd. Staffs along with the volunteers went to temple area to manage the crowd and some stayed at water distribution booth. In this way everyone was actively participating in helping the devotees in every possible ways.