Don't throw out your Christmas cards...

Christmas cards make fantastic resources for art and craft classes and we are always on the lookout for these for our schools and Dream Centres in Nepal. So if you are finished with your Christmas cards, instead of throwing them out we would appreciate it if you could send them to us. Please cut off the back side with all the personal stuff on it and just send us the front with the picture/design. You can post the cards to:

PO Box 1765
North Sydney
NSW 2060
AUSTRALIA

or if you are in Singapore email me at adam@mitrataa.org and I will organise to collect the cards from you.

The kids in Nepal will love them!

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Inspirations National Children's Award

On Saturday, 28th November, we hosted in conjunction with Riviera (the Model School) the inaugural award ceremony for the Inspirations National Children's Award. This is a new program we have launched to promote creativity in the school children of Nepal. It is part of our broader program of introducing different methods of teaching and styles of learning into Nepal's schools. It follows on from many of our other projects including Libby Hathorn's 100 Views, various teacher training workshops, and visits from volunteers including teachers and students from MLC School, Sydney.

This year's award consisted of three categories:

1. Art competition for classes 1 to 3 on the theme 'My Happy Time'
2. Story writing competition for classes 4 to 6 on the theme 'Peace for Children'
3. Poetry writing competition for classes 7 to 9 on the theme 'Peace for Children'

We received over 300 entries from schools across Nepal, both government and private. The overall standard of entries was very impressive. As always, we were surprised and amazed by the insights and different viewpoints children can bring to any subject. This really was an inspiration.

Prizes were awarded for first, second, third and consolation in each category and the top ten finalists in each category also received a certificate. The awards were presented by the Vice-Chancellor of Tribhuvan University, a very well respected academic in Nepal.

The award ceremony was a wonderful celebration of the energy and enthusiasm of children with a variety of dance and song performances, story and poetry readings and even some dramas. A particular highlight from our perspective was a drama performed by the first graduates of our Dream Centre program. They were specially invited to the ceremony to perform a drama they had created on the importance of friendship and including others with differences. Considering the overall theme for this year's award was 'peace' this drama fitted perfectly and the girls' performance was outstanding.

We plan to host this event every year and expect it to grow each time, continually encouraging Nepal's school children to dream and be inspired.