100 Views Kathmandu

Libby Hathorn’s 100 Views has arrived in Kathmandu! Recently Libby and her friend, Pat Granville Smith, visited us in Nepal and together we introduced the 100 Views program to the model school. You can read more about the program itself at the 100 Views website – http://www.100views.com.au and also on our website - http://www.mitrataa.org/projects/100views.htm.


The program is a celebration of the arts through a local icon so fittingly we chose Mt Everest for the first run of the program in Nepal. From our perspective the program also provides a great opportunity to work with school teachers in Nepal to develop more creative and learner centered methods of teaching which fits in perfectly with the training we have been conducting over the last 6 months with the model school.

Libby and Pat spent 3 days with the teachers from the model school leading them through workshops for teaching both poetry and art. This turned out to be a more amazing experience for the teachers than we could have imagined. In a group of 21 teachers we discovered that only 2 of them had ever held a paintbrush! Imagine their joy and excitement as Pat had them sketching, painting and on the last day building a paper mache model of Mt Everest. Libby conducted the poetry workshops and she had the teachers performing different poems as well as creating their own – again a definite first for the majority of the teachers. According to one teacher, before the workshops he thought that poetry was something you did if you were bored in your spare time, not something so powerful and creative!

We know that the program was an instant success as on the 4th day we held a launch event at the model school and we were inundated with teachers and students wanting to read their poems to the entire school! Such enthusiasm is exactly what these programs are all about and I don’t think Libby and Pat could ever have been prepared for the gusto with which the teachers took to their work.


The next step in the program involves the teachers passing on their knowledge to their students and helping the school to collectively assemble a body of work that celebrates Mt Everest and its meaning to the school and the wider community. This will then culminate in a festival to celebrate 100 Views of Mt Everest and we will be posting the poetry, art and other works to the 100 Views website so that it can be viewed by children all around the world. We are also working to develop a regular connection between the students of the model school and school students in Australia so that they can both benefit from sharing their ideas and thoughts as well as their art.


As if conducting this program was not enough Libby had also arranged a documentary crew to record the entire thing so that 100 Views Kathmandu and our work through Mitrataa might be viewed by even more people. Stay tuned for details as to where you might see the finished documentary!

We really must say a big “thank you” to Libby and Pat for all of their hard work to introduce this program to Nepal – we are honoured that Libby agreed to run the first 100 Views program outside Australia in Nepal. The program has provided invaluable teaching skills and ideas to the teachers and I am sure it will be a huge hit with the students too. Neither woman had been to Nepal previously and they dealt with all the excitement and challenges that this country throws at you with great humour and compassion. We hope this will be the start of another wonderful long term friendship between Nepal and Australia.

Thulo April is drawing to a close

It is the last Saturday in April and I am sitting in a quiet cafe in Kathmandu trying to comprehend the most amazing month of programs we have just completed. At the beginning of this trip to Nepal we announced Thulo April 2008 meaning "big April", and it has lived up to this billing and more. Hopefully you will have read some of my recent blog entries and there are plenty more to come. With the amount of things going on in the past 2 weeks in particular Bec and I have barely had time to sleep let alone write blogs!


We have this morning bid farewell to the group of students, parents and teachers from MLC Sydney after they spent the last week doing some fantastic work in a number of different projects. Their energy and enthusiasm was inspiring and they have left a mark on the lives of many Nepalis - more on this in the coming days.

The week before last Libby Hathorn and Pat Granville Smith launched Libby's 100 Views program at the model school here. This was a huge success and we are already seeing some awesome poetry and art works coming from the students at the school as a result of this. Again, I will post more details shortly.

At the beginning of the month (which now feels like ages ago!) Janet O'Connor conducted the Women Journalists Workshop which I have written about previously and which was also a resounding success.

The best thing to come from all of these wonderful programs is that we have had the opportunity to introduce more people to Nepal. Working on all of the programs and sharing them with others has opened our eyes to even more ideas and possibilities for the future which is always a good thing.

Right now a little rest is needed but we wanted to post this entry to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of the people that have made this past month of work the huge success that it was. We thank not only those who travelled to Nepal to offer their support but also the many at home who also contributed in many ways to making this all happen. Thanks to all of you!


Stay tuned for more posts on the details of how the various programs played out...

Day with dogs and a donkey...need therapy anyone?!

Yesterday afternoon provided us with one of the most enjoyable experiences here as we visited the KAT centre, just north of Kathmandu city. KAT is an organisation that rescues street dogs, provides them with vaccinations against rabies and other health care and also gives them the ‘family planning’ operation. When appropriate, the dogs are then fostered out to families or in some instances returned to the street. Kathmandu has a relatively large street dog problem although this has noticeably reduced in the past few years thanks to the work done by KAT. It is very important work as rabies is a serious problem when you have dogs roaming the streets amongst people and particularly children. It also helps to reduce the spread of other diseases which has to be a good thing for everybody.

We are working with KAT to introduce a Pets as Therapy program to Kathmandu. You can read more about this on our website - http://www.mitrataa.org/projects/pets_as_therapy.htm. In 2 weeks time we will be taking 3 of the well trained dogs from KAT to the Bal Mandir orphanage to let a small group of children play with them. The long term plan is to have these dogs provide stimulation and support to the disabled children at the orphanage, and then to expand to other orphanages and maybe even hospitals around the valley. We will also be providing a fun education program to the kids on appropriate ways to treat animals and the importance of looking after the health of animals to protect all of us.

As a part of this project we are also helping KAT with their animal education program that they give to school groups who visit the centre. In order to help them with this work we will be taking a small bus of around 10 children to the KAT centre to see the work that they do and also to learn about the importance of this work.

When at the centre yesterday afternoon it was so much fun to see all of the rehabilitated dogs and play with them for a while. Of course there were a number of less healthy dogs and this was difficult to see. In some instances their situation was the direct result of human abuse, an extremely disappointing and frustrating thing to witness. An unusual patient at the centre is a young donkey. It was found discarded in a rubbish pile with a broken leg – the result of being overworked and underfed in a local brickworks. Its situation was dire when it was rescued however it is responding very well to treatment and is surprisingly comfortable with human contact. We are looking at various possibilities for a long term home for her and already have some great potential locations!

If you are ever in Kathmandu, a visit to KAT is well worth your while. It gives you an uplifting and rewarding experience as well as a very different insight into Nepal and its culture.

Women Journalists' Workshop

Last weekend saw the inaugural Workshop for Women Journalists which we ran in conjunction with WWJ (Working Women Journalists). Janet O’Connor, sub-editor with the Financial Review in Australia, traveled to Kathmandu to conduct the training which was attended by 18 women from various media backgrounds. The course ran over 2 half days, covering topics such as basic story construction, editing, investigative reporting and freelancing.


The passion and enthusiasm shown by the attendees was infectious, especially as Janet had them turning nursery rhymes into hard news stories and other adventurous activities! It was surprising to see that despite in many cases significant education and experience and being able to recite the theory, the women found it challenging to apply some of the principles being taught. This is a problem reflective of the education system in Nepal, where the method of teaching does not place any focus on comprehension or application but rather only on memorising facts.

The position of women in journalism is indicative of the wider situation for women in Nepal in that they are not given the same opportunities and pay as men and often struggle to be recognized as experienced, credible journalists. The women journalists we have spoken with tend to want to report on issues close to them such as children and social matters and these are things that desperately need wider coverage to raise awareness in Nepal. We will be continuing to work with WWJ to develop more expansive programs to help up skill these wonderful, inspiring women so they can help increase awareness of the issues facing women in Nepal.

Thank you so much to Janet for stepping outside her comfort zone and running this program. It was a great success and we hope to be able to continue to run more of these types of programs with her in the future.


We must give a big ‘thank you’ to Equal Access here as well. They are an NGO (non-government organisation) working in Nepal, as well as other countries, to provide greater access to information and education through community based radio programs. Equal Access provided the use of their conference room and in-house catering facilities for the 2 day course and this was a fantastic help.