Bollywood comes to Haverigg!

Well, not exactly Bollywood but the music was from Slumdog Millionaire! The 30 min video of Sharon & Michael's wedding in Kathmandu went down a storm on the last day of term at Haverigg school with a great deal of interest from the children if their questions were anything to go by. "Why do they wear sarees, why do they wear red at a wedding in Nepal, what is the red scarf for, why did they walk around the temple three times, why was the bell ringing .........."

All good questions and it has prompted us to take our video camera on our next visit annd to film more everyday life in Kathmandu which can be arranged into small educational clips.

Sramik Links With St James School

Our aborted trip to Nepal recently still gave us a chance to deliver a package of letters and cards to Sramik School and they have already responded to St James via the internet with a scanned selection of children's drawings. 

Hopefully this will promote regular contact between specific children as well as large parcels on an occasional basis.

 

"Water" Training Ends

Reports from Kathmandu indicate a highly successful programme for all participants. Key points apart from the obvious content learning appear to have been the application methodologies learned and the motivation from a human values based approach. Teachers have now returned to their schools to begin implementation and we will report on this in a few weeks.

Good News From Nepal!

At last some good news from Nepal  received via my nephew Anuj in Kathmandu; the power cuts, called load shedding in Kathmandu, have been reduced by 50%.
So, as of now the power cuts are ONLY 8 hours per day!!

Perfect Timing

Yesterday we began a weeks training for some of our teachers in Kathmandu to help them add "Water & Sanitation" education to the school curriculum. Perfect timing as a report today from the charityWater Aid shows. Once again charities are getting the WRONG priorities ......

"Millions of children's lives are being put at risk each year because aid agencies and governments make wrong choices about health care priorities.
This is the conclusion of a new report from the charity WaterAid.
It says that diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation is killing many more children than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
The report says the global spending on HIV/Aids hugely outweighs the amounts spent on providing better sanitation. "

Full report on the BBC here

Water & Sanitation Programme Launched in Kathmandu

Today is a big day for us in Kathmandu, the launch of the five day training programme "Water & Sanitation in the School Curriculum" for 12 teachers from our 5 schools. The programme is being run by our partners in this venture, ECCA, a long standing and respected NGO in Nepal.

Across the week these 12 teachers will learn how to enable values based education for their pupils in the issues of clean water, hygiene, sanitation etc to be added to the general curriculum. This addition to the school curriculum was piloted in Kathmandu for 10 selected schools at the end of 2008 and we have been "agitating" to get this applied early across our own supported schools well ahead of it being nationally launched.
Now, thanks to two of our supporters, Dave Moss in the US and Mark Townsend in the UK, their generous donations have made this a reality and we are extremely grateful for their direct funding of the programme.
The programme naturally focuses on the specific content of "water, hygiene, sanitation" but just as important is the professional education our teachers will receive in the five teaching methodologies of "silent sitting; painting, art & craft; role play; music & singing; story telling." In addition there are inputs regarding the wider context including a session from a member of the Education Ministry on the national curriculum, and further sessions on the role of the community and integration into the existing curriculum.
Further updates as the week progresses.

The Wedding Party

Definitely the final set of images from "the wedding". The top two speak for themselves as Sharon and Michael in more traditional British dress wait to greet guests at the evening wedding party. Held at the Kathmandu Radisson, drinks and snacks were served in the main banqueting hall before the Nepali banquet was served in the outdoor Waterfall Garden. The bottom picture shows Sharon greeting her cousin Hisila Yami who is the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation in the Maoist Government. Her husband Dr Bhattarai, the Finance Minister, was unable to attend being involved in the meetings with the prime minister regarding the sacking of the army chief.

Nepal Erupts!

For those of you following our progress in Nepal this is the quickest way to advise everyone that we are all back home in the UK!
Just prior to the wedding political tension had increased due to a row between the prime minister and the head of the armed forces. The reason was that the army chief was refusing to integrate 19,000 Maoist "troops" into the regular army saying they did NOT meet entry standards and were politically indocrinated. The Maoist PM sacked him (unconstitutionally), the President reinstated him (unconstitutionally) and the PM resigned from the government as did all the Maoist ministers. Maoist supporters then began a campaign of intimidation, strikes, road blockades with a strong possibility of an army coup. Yesterday a video was leaked to the press showing the PM discussing with his senior advisors how he had fooled the UN into paying for 35,000 Maoist troops in holding compounds when in fact there were only 7000 and planning the next campaign of intimidation and violence.
By Monday morning our family were advising us to leave as quickly as possible, so we did!
If anyone wants to follow the news from Nepal the two best websites are at www.nepalnews.com.np and www.kantipuronline.com

Trustees Wedding-Ceremony Slideshow

As reported below the wedding took place of Sharon & Michael in Kathmandu last weekend and this is a link to a short slideshow and a short writeup on the ceremony:
The ceremony took about 2.5 hours and contained 5 stages. The first was "Purification" in which the Buddhist priest and Michael spent almost 45 mins in a ceremony to purify the temple space/area prior to the wedding ceremony itself. Next, the marriage lasting about 20 mins in which the couple came together in the centre of the temple for rituals and exchange of rings etc. Next a blessing by the Guruju/priest involving the couple taking about 15 mins. Then a lengthy "receiving" of the family and "respecting" the marriage as each attendee came forward to offer a token gift of respect. Finally a ceremonial departure down the temple steps with everyone following before circling the car three times for luck and transport to the lunch reception. The link to the web slideshow click Nepal Wedding-The Ceremony

Trustees Married In Kathmandu

Three photos from the millions that were taken during a very long day in Kathmandu when two of our young Trustees were married in a Buddhist ceremony at Swayambhu Temple. The ceremony itself took about 2.5 hours and was followed by a "small reception" at the Yak & Yeti Hotel for about 50 guests. Later that evening a larger family party was held at the Kathmandu Radisson for 150 family members and friends.
More pictures and news to follow once we've recovered! Keep watching and commenting.