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.