Did they make it?

An email received today from Andy tells us that the group is back in Namche Bazaar. Apparently only 14 out of the group of 30 made it to Everest Base Camp, mostly due to the "usual" reasons of poor acclimatisation, sickness & diaorrhea. 

Unfortunately he doesn't tell us whether he and the rest of our supporters made it themselves!(The photo shows Andy on a previous successful trip).

We'll just have to wait for three more day's till they get back to Kathmandu!

Nepal Government to launch literacy campaign

As committed in the policies and programmes, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is preparing for the first phase of National Literacy Campaign (NLC) from January 14 next year, which aims to make the population literate within two years.

The ministry said it has finalised 'National Literacy Campaign Program Implementation Directives-2008' for implementation of the programmmes at various levels.
In a press meet Friday, Ram Swarup Sinha, acting secretary at the ministry, said they would collect fresh data on illiteracy rate in the country before the execution of the programme.

Textbooks for the campaign will be in local languages like Abadhi, Maithali, Bhojpur, Tamang, Tharu and Dotel apart from Nepali.
The teaching materials will be managed by the local literacy class and funds will be provided to the VDCs and municipalities through district development committees.

Two phases of campaign will be of three months each. The classes will be run by volunteers, as per the government commitment.

Almost there ...

Well here we are at sunny Dingboche, a bit over 14000ft, been up to 15,000 this morning as part of acclimatisation process. Some rest day. Weather still good but it is very dusty up here. Sandra has copped a dose of D&V but is otherwise coping very well. The mountain views are pretty spectacular. Otherwise we are ok and heading off tomorrow to Lobuche and moving ever nearer Everest base camp.

 

Andy & Sandra

Trekkers reach Namche Bazaar

Hello and Namste !

Well here we are safe and sound in sunny Namche Bazaar. Weather is very good and bloody hot! Which is a bit of an issue as we have packed for colder conditions, but we will deal with it.

 

Had spectacular views of everest this morning. Needless to say the cameras have been busy.

 

We are all coping well with the altitude and trekking at the moment.

 

When we were in Kathmandu it was quite an eye opener visiting the school with Champa and Madan. The kids were great, always smiling. The conditions they have to learn in and the teachers have to work are not good. From what I can understand it is only through us supplying their books that they are able to keep the schools open. There is more work to be done.

 

We were also given stationary, pens, crayons, paints etc by some of the other trekkers to take to our schools. Champa is doing this whilst we are on the trek.

 

We will email again at the next opportunity........whenever thet may be.

 

Andy & Sandra

Kartik Nach

This fascinating picture shows Kartik Nach, an important traditional tantrik dance performed in the Nepali month of Kartik in the Kathmandu Valley. The dance portrays various incidents in the life of Kartikeya, also known as Bhairav who is the patron deity of the Newar people of Patan where we have two of our supported schools.

Andy visits Kathmandu schools

Making his fourth trip to Nepal and his third Everest Base Camp trek, Andy one of our trustees and his wife Sandra visited three of our schools in Kathmandu. Across a whole morning they whizzed around Patan and Balaju seeing for themselves the nature of each school and the effect our support is having. There's just no substitute for seeing it like it is which resulted in Andy "volunteering" to o some teaching work on his next trip.

Today they flew to Lukla to begin their trek and we are hoping he will email us with news on day 3 when they reach the Sherpa capital, Namche Bazaar.

Nepal Education-Policies and Taxation

Two news stories are dominating the political education scene in Nepal at the moment. Both are flowing from the office of Dr Bhattrai, the Finance Minister and second in command of the Maoist party. Also ....... Champa's nephew!

The first item concerns Bhattrai's statement of intent that all education in Nepal will henceforth be state funded, organised, managed. So far so good, except the sting in the tail that all private education will be abolished ..... within two years! I'm not sure why the Finance Minister is making such pronouncements as part of his fiscal policy, but it has sent a wave of bemusement around the capital, Kathmandu. The reason is that a significant proportion of all education is private here, since without it there would virtually have been none at all. The state had singularly failed in it's duty to the people and the creation of most schools came from business and community pockets.

The second item is Dr Bhattrai's decision to begin the immediate taxation of private schools! This has caused outrage in the city and led to a challenge in the High Court as to whether it is even constitutionally possible for him to impose such a tax. Apart from the legality of it this seems a strange way to stimulate increased education in the country. Remember that Kathmandu private schools are not like ours. The issue of paying fees covers in many cases only the basics such as teacher salaries, exercise books, textbooks and so on which the state aren't paying! This is why WE are paying three teachers salaries ourselves, because the State isn't doing it.

I think Champa had better have a word!

Teachers Salaries Increase By 50%

The headline gives a message classically “good news and bad news”.
During one of Champa's visits to the Bal Bigyan Junior School the head teacher, Parsu Ram Baral, took her quietly to one side and told her that the new government has increased teacher's salaries by a whopping 50% which is great news for them. Remember that the bottom rung teachers get about £500 per annum and this takes them up to £750.
However, this is perhaps not such good news for us, since with three sponsored teachers that means that if we are to continue to fully fund them we need an extra £750 per annum above the £1500 we already donate.
Obviously Champa gave no promises except that it would have to be discussed by the Trustees collectively as to whether we can commit to such an increase before we have increased the size of our Trust Fund giving guaranteed income.

Champa Visits Bal Kalyan Primary School

This school is situated along the banks of the River Bisnumati where there is a shanty town of many temporary huts. The source of children for this school is therefore obvious, migrant workers, extreme poverty, a culture where education is low on the agenda.
The school building is just a “shell” without clearly separated classrooms, the creation of which was aided by one of our Operations Team in Kathmandu, Laxmi Tuladhar. Despite the children's good behaviour this leads to quite noisy classes interfering with each other.
There are about 200 pupils at this school and they are receiving some food aid for lunch snacks from an Israeli source which in many cases is the only meal the children get. The children have nowhere to play except the building itself. They seem highly respectful and are taking good care of the textbooks we have provided them with so that they can be reused by new pupils next year.

Champa Visits Kesh Chandra Primary School

Another very, very poor school run by the local Newar community. The building itself is a Bahal, a kind of shrine/temple building so there are strict rules about its use which includes NOT having a toilet in the building. This means that staff and children have to use a plot of waste land about 500 metres away!
The part allocated to the school is corridoor-like with sheets of hardboard used to create partitioned classrooms. So, from an overall viewpoint their plight is very precarious with no security of tenure, five classes in a corridoor, no toilet or normal services, no government support for building, salaries or materials.
This all therefore puts our support into some perspective. We supplied textbooks as well as exercise books which are being extremely well looked after. We are also paying the salary of one female teacher which is encouraging more girls to attend.
The headteachers' parting words to Champa were “we cannot survive without your help”

St James School Off To A Flying Start

A visit to St James school, Millom, this week showed how committed they are to exploring Nepal as a country as part of their curriculum. Just before half term the Head Teacher Nerissa asked pupils to do a little homework with their parents to find out as much as they could about Nepal. On their return there was a massive amount of information that the children had arranged into documents, pictures and collages. Some had decided to display their findings as pictures of Everest, Gurkha soldiers, Buddhist and Hindu temples, where others has concentrated on factual information such as population, geographic position, current prime minister and .... one pupil finding out about the recent festival of Tihar. My visit to the school was real fun but a bit of a nightmare having to select the top three work examples to receive the prizes. Thankfully everyone who participated got something including merit certificates and some sweets!

Champa Visits Bal Bigyan Junior School

This school is in a good community financially who have funded the land and building. It is in very clean surroundings with classrooms, play areas and toilets, unlike most of our other schools. The parents are very poor however and cannot read. But, they are very proud to receive exercise books and textbooks funded from the UK and sign for each book their child receives! We also have a sponsored teacher here, Basu Maharjan, who teaches English and Maths.
According to Champa the children are “very friendly, keen, and beautiful” and are going to create some coloured cards to bring back to the UK. The teacher Basu is good with the computer so there is a good possibility of setting up a communication channel with a UK school.
We are told from this school that they are especially impressed with our Nepal Operations Team, especially Dr Madan who is particularly respected.

Champa Visits Sramik Primary

This is our poorest school situated in the ajoining city of Patan. We have a sponsored teacher here, Rajendra Maharjan whose salary we pay. He is the only male teacher with five female teachers.The attendees are the children of migrant workers, the majority of whom are peasants and illiterate. It is therefore a very big step to send their children to school especially from a financial viewpoint. The attendance has risen markedly however since we began supplying all their exercise books and testbooks as well as our teacher teaching maths and English.

The school is run in a small building which they do not own and they are pleading with the government to give them some land so they can then seek commnity support and finance to get funding to put up a building they will own without fear of being thrown off.
Champa delivered a lot of cards and papers created by the children of Haverigg School in Cumbria and she is arranging some coloured pens and crayons so the children at Sramik School can reply.
This school will be visited by our Everest Base Camp trekkers who arrive at the weekend.

Champa visits Himalaya School

Yesterday Champa made her first visit to one of our five schools in Kathmandu. At Himalaya School she met with the Head Teacher and staff as well as many pupils. This is a junior and secondary school with our support being focused on junior children who cannot pay the fees but are given places at this school. The Head will be joining Champa with the heads of the other five schools later in the week to discuss future support and setting up communication with UK schools.