Inspiring Children's Day full of excitement, creativity, talent and the launch of "Sangita's Singing" children's book

The Mitrataa family celebrated Children’s Day this year in a style core to what we do – with creativity and the incredible talents of our children as the focus. We hosted 3 wonderful programs at our Wiley Dream Centre in collaboration with Dream Catchers Nepal, our local partner. The theme – “Our nation, our pride” – inspired a lot of positive celebration of the great talents and beauty of Nepal.
 

1)    Inspirations Awards – “Celebrating creative thinking in Nepal’s children” – we invited all our partner schools to participate in this art, poetry and story writing competition and we had entries from 15 of the invited schools which was wonderful. There is some real talent in our group with some very impressive writing and drawing. The English poetry and story writing competition was judged by Libby Hathorn, well-known Australian children’s author. The art competition was judged by Barbara Jones, and Australian artist and art teacher. The Nepali story writing and poetry competitions were judged by Saroj Dhungana, Nepali poet and journalist. Entries were judged in advance and prizes were awarded on the day. We plan to publish a book with the winning entries as a celebration of the creativity of the children. The winners were invited to special workshops the next day hosted by Libby and Barbara to continue their creative journeys.

 

2)  Mitrataa’s Got Talent – A dance and drama competition amongst our partner schools really showcased our children’s talents! After a fierce competition, our judges, Ajit Aryal (director of Achel theatre) for the drama and Birendra tamanag (dance teacher) for the dance, announced the winners. The acts all really brought our theme to life and our visiting guest judges got a true taste of Nepal’s talent!

 

3)  Launch of “Sangita’s Singing” children’s book – Libby Hathorn is an award winning Australian children’s author who has written over 50 books! She first visited Nepal with Mitrataa in 2008 to run the 100 Views program at Riviera. During that trip, she was inspired to write a story about a girl from the village who comes to Kathmandu to study and her journey towards literacy through the challenges of being bullied and a long way from home. The story was illustrated by Bandana Tulachan, an up and coming Nepali illustrator who is currently completing her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Kathmandu University Center for Art and Design. After a long journey, the book is finally complete and was formally launched on Children’s Day at our Nepali pride celebration. It looks fantastic and we are so excited. Two students read an extract from the book, supported by 2 girls acting out a scene at the launch.

 

     Libby has very generously donated all profits from the sale of the book to support Mitrataa’s work. Sangita’s Singing will soon be available through Mitrataa’s website – www.mitrataa.org – for A$25 (+P&H) so please order your copy for a loved one this Christmas and enjoy the wonderful story while knowing you are also supporting the dreams of the girls like Sangita who are supported by Mitrataa in Nepal. We will also be selling copies in Nepal and working with schools here to use the story as an educational tool as it covers so many wonderful themes – the importance of education, rural v city life, bullying, using your strengths to overcome challenges. Thank you so much to Libby who is a great supporter of Mitrataa. We are incredibly grateful to have you as part of the Mitrata family.

 

So huge thanks to our judges for their time and energy and especially to Libby and Barbara for travelling so far and for running the workshops on Saturday too. Thanks to all the schools and the kids who participated in a fantastic celebration of what is some amazing about Nepal – the level of talent and passion was wonderful!

And the biggest thanks to the Mitrataa team for all your hard work in organising this fantastic day which gave us an opportunity to showcase the work we do and the talent of the kids we have the privilege of working with. Without your hard work, none of it would have been possible. While every member of the team was involved, special thanks must go to Bipana and Ganga for leading the organisation for the Inspirations Award and to Subina for leading the organisation of the Mitrataa’s Got Talent competition. Thank you so much.

Thanks for volunteering Amy!

Amy Valender has recently completed a 3 month program working as a volunteer for us in Kathmandu. Amy is a nutritionist from the UK and came to know about Mitrataa through Bec when they both worked for Cadbury. Volunteering was something Amy had always wanted to do and nutrition is an area that needs a lot of support in Nepal so it was a perfect match!


We kept Amy extremely busy for the 3 months covering a variety of projects including:

• teaching English, Health and Science at our Model School;
• working with the staff in the Model School's hostel to ensure the boarding students are being fed healthy, nutritious food every meal of the day;
• running an English speaking program for some of our Dream Catchers Scholarship girls who had been struggling with their English studies;
• tutoring the girls attending our Dream Centres in English, Health, Science and also leading them in some art and craft activities and life skills programs;
• running some activities with the girls from the Project Snow Leopard program;
• working with girls at the children's home at Bal Mandir to establish a Child Club; and
• observing and advising management and staff of the children's home at Bal Mandir on healthy, nutritious and affordable dietary options for feeding the 210 children living there.

The feedback we have received from our partners, staff and of course the girls in Nepal has been overwhelming and Amy obviously made a huge impact on many people's lives. For this we are very thankful and do hope Amy might decide to return one day soon...


For anyone interested in sharing some of your skills and experience with the women and girls in Nepal and in return experiencing a piece of life that will change your outlook forever, email us.

Thank you so much Amy!

100 Views on TV in Melbourne

Just a quick post to let those of you in Melbourne know that Libby Hathorn's 100 Views Kathmandu documentary will be screening on Community TV channel 31 at 8:30pm this Sunday, 31st January.

The documentary chronicles Libby's visit to Kathmandu in 2008 where she introduced her 100 Views program to our Model School. It provides some background to the program and Mitrataa and also shows lots of footage of the people of Nepal. You may remember the documentary was launched at a huge fundraising event in Sydney in November 2008.

Tune in if you are home and let your friends know too!

Inspiring words

Below I have pasted two pieces of creative writing from Kishor Ghimire, a boy we have been supporting in Nepal since we first visited Kathmandu in 2000. Kishor is now in Year 9 at the Model School in Kathmandu and it is amazing to think that his education opportunities have helped him to produce work like this:

Success

To be a successful person is the main aim of every human. But what does success really mean? Could it be a dream that may occur in the life of every human? Yes, or it may not be. The definition of success varies from person to person. It could simply be prestige, power, money or security for many people. Nobody is born successful or tagged with the destiny towards success, but why then are some successful and others not?

As we look back, history might hold the answer; all highly successful people had a clear vision of what they wanted. All had beliefs and determination in the existence of their infinite intelligence and supreme power.

As a Chinese philosopher once said, “our greatest glory lies not in never falling but rising every time we fall”. One of the best examples of this could be Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the U.S.A. He failed in politics and business. He lost lots of elections totaling dozens, from senate legislature to vice president. But finally he became the president of the U.S.A. at the age of 51. He really was the epitome of the saying that “winners never quit and quitters never win”.

Everyone is born with the seed of greatness with the ability to win, but as a human there is some weakness. This weakness in today's world might be defined as intolerance, greed, jealousy, revenge, suspicion and egotism. To make these weaknesses the positive strength we might make a lot of effort, which is absolutely necessary for obtaining success.

To be a successful person, one must build up positive thoughts. He that moves not forward goes backwards so one must always press onwards to solve problems. A clear vision, positive attitude, talent, ambition and initiative are the things really required to reach the top. So, as my last but not least point, I would like to suggest accomplishing greatness we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe, as we know winners don't do different things but they do things differently.


Global warming

Look at my world it’s burning,
So people are regretting and learning.
She’s getting burnt alive,
People look at her tears and please realise.

She’s informing us to be aware,
'Cause the animals and vegetations are getting rare.
She doesn’t want us tolerating the heat,
So please people think about keeping your world neat.

She’s getting hotter and hotter,
Informing about our life getting shorter.
She’s so hot even her tears have turned into vapour,
So please understand and take care of every single wrapper.

She does not have a drop of water for drinking,
'Cause all the water resources are polluted and stinking.
She’s suffocating due to oxygen’s lack,
Even her colourless oxygen has become colourful and black.


Thanks Kishor, some fantastic thoughts and comments here.

Maths Made Easy and Fun

During our very busy November in Kathmandu we were visited by Anne Willmann and her husband Willi. Anne has recently retired as the principal of an IB School in Auckland, New Zealand and she and her husband are both Maths teachers. They were visiting Nepal to do some trekking and to visit their old favourite places as they lived in Kathmandu for 2 years a number of years ago. They generously volunteered their time to help with some teacher training at Riviera, our Model School.

We were very keen to accept this offer as many of the teacher training workshops we have conducted have focused on English and the Social Sciences. This has simply been the result of the expertise of the volunteers we have had in the past. Whilst the Maths teachers at Riviera have attended all these workshops they find it more difficult to apply the skills they learnt to the Maths classroom. This is compounded by the fact that many school students in Nepal struggle with Maths because unlike many other subjects, you can not do well by simple rote learning. Maths requires that you understand the concepts in order to be able to solve problems. As a result, Maths is an unpopular subject and one that teachers find very challenging to make fun. Let’s face it – this is not only an issue faced in Nepal! How many of you had fun in Maths classes when you were growing up?

Fortunately Anne and Willi were experts in this area, and their energy and enthusiasm immediately had the teachers at ease and eager to learn. As part of Riviera's Model School program, we invited 3 teachers from nearby government schools to benefit from the workshops as well.

Two workshops were conducted over two days and included an array of games, magic tricks and other activities all designed to make learning Maths easier and also fun. The teachers were having so much fun doing the activities I'm not sure they wanted to go back to teaching! It was also fantastic to see teachers from different schools working and learning together, sharing their ideas and experiences. One of the comments from the teachers was that they had so much fun that they didn't realise they were learning Maths! In one activity, the students would have done hundreds of calculations without being aware of how much they’d learned because they were racing to complete a competition against other teams. That’s exactly how learning should be – fun and relatively pain free!

At the end of the two workshops Anne and Willi donated copies of all of the exercises and activities they had worked through with the teachers meaning we will be able to share the concepts with other schools in our network. For this as well as for their time and effort, we want to say a huge 'thanks' to Anne and Willi. In the weeks since the workshops we have seen a great improvement in the moral of Riviera's Maths teachers and many of the students are now looking forward to going to Maths class - we can't ask for more than that!

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.

Creative Writing for Kids in Kathmandu

On our recent trip to Nepal we were joined by our good friend, Australian children's author Libby Hathorn. This was Libby's second visit to Nepal after her wonderfully successful 100 Views Kathmandu program run at our model school in 2008.

This time Libby ran a one day creative writing workshop for class 7 and 8 girls living in the orphanage at Bal Mandir. The program was also joined by 4 specially selected students from the model school, 3 of our Dream Centre facilitators, and two children's authors working with Room-to-Read.

Libby started the workshop talking about different types of creative writing and had plenty of her own work on hand to show as examples. The children were so excited to be sitting in the same room as a published author! She next delved into poetry and had everyone standing and jumping around to act out the words in some poems. Continuing with the focus on words the students were divided into groups and had to work on describing two contrasting feelings/emotions using other similar words. This really got the students thinking and once this was finished, they then had to devise and perform a short drama illustrating the feelings described. Most of the groups chose to mime their dramas and ask the class to guess the feelings being conveyed which led to some hilarious results!

After some quick lunch the final work for the day saw the children begin to write their own poems. Libby shared a number of different techniques for structuring poetry with the class and the results were fantastic! Many of the students really managed to capture some strong feelings and descriptions in their short piece of writing. The class was left with a homework assignment of writing a short story of about two pages in length which they were all eager to begin immediately.

We must once again thank Libby for sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience with us and really making a wonderful day for the students. I'm sure it gave our Dream Centre facilitators and the Room-to-Read writers lots of great new ideas too! Thanks also to Libby and Room-to-Read who both donated books for the children at Bal Mandir to enjoy.

Lots happening in Kathmandu

Just a quick post as I have been off the air for a while due to internet difficulties here in Nepal! Bec and I have been here for the last 10 days or so and in that time we have been run off our feet with volunteers, workshops, meetings and lots of exciting things being planned for next year.

I'll be posting updates on each of these things in the coming days. In brief, we have had a volunteer run a two-day workshop for women journalists, two volunteers run a two-day workshop for Maths teachers, witnessed the graduation of the first group of girls from our pilot Dream Centre, finalised the location for the next Dream Centre, hosted a workshop on dreaming for graduates of our Daisy Chains project, the list goes on!

Stay tuned...

Photo Essay Exchange

When in Kathmandu recently I had the great pleasure of collecting a finished photo essay from class 8 at the Model School. The children had been assigned the task of taking around 60 photos of their local community, interesting cultural icons, and the people of Nepal. They were given disposable cameras to do this and they were then taken on various excursions to find appropriate subjects. Once the photos were taken and developed they then had to put them together into a book and write a brief description for each one. It is amazing to see some of the familiar sights of Nepal described through the eyes of the children. This book is now on its way to Eden Marine High School in Australia. The Year 8 students there will then do the same thing to send back to their friends in Nepal. I can't wait to see the results, what a fantastic way for children from two entirely different worlds to share a piece of their lives and cultures!

Back to Riviera

Friday was the final day of the volunteer program for our visitors from Australia and after two extremely chaotic picnic days I think they were very relieved to be returning to the relative peace of an afternoon spent at the Model School with the teachers and some students!

Some of the group continued with their workshops from Tuesday but there were some new workshops on offer this time as well. We had a workshop for Social Sciences, a workshop for primary teachers, but the star of the day was Heather from Flinders St Primary School in Adelaide who hosted a fantastic art workshop for around 20 students. In less than an hour the group were churning out all kinds of colourful works that were used to decorate their classroom! It was obvious that as well as brightening up the place the kids were really enjoying what they were doing.

A group of Year 9 and 10 boys joined the Science workshop as word had got out from Tuesday's workshop that Science could actually be fun! And as I walked past the English workshop I was sure I heard them reading a story about a platypus?! There was much excitement in the Maths workshop as not only did we have electricity but someone actually got the internet to work. This was important as Keith from St Catherine's School in Waverley had arranged for the school to be given user codes for HOTmaths, an online Maths education program. The teachers were instantly engrossed in trying to complete the questions online and were amazed at the way the system would enable them to track their students' progress - a lot more fun than learning from a textbook! We must thank Keith and HOTmaths for organising the licences for us.


With visitors, teachers and students all having so much fun the afternoon passed far too quickly and it was soon time for our farewells. It was clear the advances the school had made since MLC's visit a year ago so it is exciting to think of how this trip will have benefitted them even further. After a quick thank you speech from the principal and the presentation of a 'token of love' in the form of Riviera school badges for everyone, it was time to once again board the bus and return to Thamel.

This concluded the formal program for the group. However that evening there was a quick trip to the tailor to collect some traditional outfits that some of the group had ordered. Then on Saturday morning I took a small group to visit Kathmandu Animal Treatment (KAT) Centre, where street dogs are taken in and 'cleaned up' before being adopted or returned to the street. This was of course a confronting experience for the group but by the same token it was great to see that things can and are being done and that there is hope. Those who did not join the visit to KAT no doubt spent the morning doing last minute shopping in Thamel, hunting for that 'special morning price'!

On Saturday afternoon I waved the group farewell as their bus left for the airport. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the group for the amazing contributions they made throughout the week, all of the programs ran like clockwork and gave some insights into life in Nepal and how we can help. I would particularly like to thank Rosemary King from MLC School who organised the trip and did a great job of keeping everything in order for them once in Nepal!

Volunteer Teachers Get To Work

Tuesday saw the beginning of a 4 day volunteer program by a group of teachers from schools across Australia. Organised by Rosemary King from MLC School following on from their wonderful visit last year, and with the help of the IB Organisation, we welcomed a group of 13 to Kathmandu. The group included 3 parents and 2 students from MLC, the remainder being teachers from MLC as well as schools from Perth, Orange, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. The group had spent a week trekking so they were already very rapidly coming to terms with some of the bizarre and wonderful aspects of life in Nepal!

On Tuesday we spent the morning visiting the stupa at Boudha and then having lunch there whilst discussing everyone's plans for the afternoon which would be spent at Riviera, the Model School. Then it was a quick walk down the road to Riviera so the real fun could begin!

Our visit started with an introduction to the school by Milan Dharel, director of the school and also director of our partner organisation, CWISH. This was followed by a quick tour of the school including the much expanded library. The teachers then divided themselves into 3 groups covering Maths, Science and English. It was then up to the Riviera teachers to choose which workshop they would like to do for the afternoon.

All of the workshops went very well with a lot of involvement from the Nepalese teachers and loads of new teaching methods and ideas being shared by the teachers from Australia. Science was of particular interest as Judy, a science teacher from Ravenswood in Sydney, had brought a plethora of interesting and easy to source items that could be used to create experiments. Science in Nepal is typically taught by simply studying the experiments from the textbook, learning the hypothesis, methods and expected results. In some cases the teachers may demonstrate an experiment but this would still not allow the students any practical experience themselves. Judy opened the teachers eyes to numerous fun and exciting experiments that the students could easily do with some guidance from their teachers, making Science more meaningful and enjoyable for everyone.

It was a similar story with Maths where teachers were learning to make models with plasticine and matchsticks as well as fun and easy ways to quickly solve apparently difficult calculations without the use of a calculator! In the English workshop the Australian teachers were really put to the test as the Riviera teachers demanded to know how it was possible to incorporate more interesting and learner focused teaching methods whilst still covering the curriculum. Fortunately, the teachers from Australia were prepared for this and were able to share a lot of great ideas with the enthusiastic Nepali group.

As always happens with these programs the afternoon finished all too soon however the group will be returning to Riviera on Friday to spend another afternoon with the teachers and some of the students from the school. Updates on the other adventures of the group coming soon...

Adam Speaks at UWC in Singapore

On Tuesday (24th February) I visited the students in Grade 5 at United World College South East Asia (UWCSEA) in Singapore. The visit was the result of a discussion with one of our friends here whose son, Dash Baldwin, attends the school. The school is an IB school and his class had already been supporting an organisation in Nepal for some time as part of their global concern program. The organisation is CWIN (Child Workers in Nepal) which works with child domestic labourers in Nepal, a problem that I have mentioned in a number of previous posts and that we deal with every day through Dream Catchers and other programs.

We thought the class might enjoy hearing from someone who works in Nepal and we also took the opportunity to show some of the 100 Views Kathmandu documentary. Dash introduced me to the other students and he gave an excellent run down on Mitrataa and what we do – he had obviously taken a good look at our website and prepared very well! Next I had invited a number of students to prepare questions they could ask me so that the session was as helpful and relevant for them as possible. A number of them came up on stage with some very inquisitive questions for me; for example:

• how many child workers are there in Nepal? (about 100,000)
• how many kids live on the streets in Nepal? (about 5,000)
• what is the standard of education in Nepal? (pretty good for those who can afford it)
• how young are the children when they become domestic labourers? (can be as young as 3 but typically about 8-10)


I then briefly introduced the 100 Views program and how it tied in with the work we did with our model school and teacher training in Nepal. I explained that most teaching in Nepal is still very much based on a rote learning model and that we were working to try and change this.

It was then time to show the documentary. I could tell that the kids were engaged as they were quiet the whole time and I often heard gasps as they saw scenes of children collecting rubbish, carting large baskets on their heads, sitting in tiny classrooms with dirt floors. I think the whole presentation was well received and I certainly enjoyed the visit. We are exploring ways that some of the Grade 5 classes may be able to have an ongoing connection with some of their peers in Nepal, most likely at the model school.

I want to thank Dash for his fantastic introduction and to his teacher, Kari Twedt, for welcoming me and being so helpful with arranging everything to make the session such a great success! Thanks also to all the Grade 5 students who showed such an interest and inspired me with the involvement they already have with Nepal and their desire and eagerness to learn and do even more.

Kids sharing their lives

Two of the projects the 3 volunteers worked on during their recent stint at our Model School were a pen friend program and a geography/cultural exchange program. Both programs are being run between students studying at Riviera and their peers studying at 2 schools in Australia.

The pen friend program is being run with kids from Year 3 at Bondi Beach Public School in Sydney. The first letters have been written by their pen friends in Nepal so these kids will soon be receiving a wonderful surprise in the mail - contact with a friend from an entirely different culture and part of the world!

The geography/cultural exchange is being run with kids from Year 7 at a high school in Eden on the New South Wales south coast. This program required the kids in Australia to prepare a postcard which detailed some of the geographical characteristics of the area in which they live. We then delivered these postcards to the kids in Years 7 and 8 in Nepal who had to create their own postcards to send back. The postcards from Nepal are on their way to Australia right now! This program has been particularly rewarding for the kids as their views of the world and what is 'normal' vary so much. The Australian kids obviously focused on beaches, bushland and native animals as features unique to their environment whilst the kids in Nepal have focused on the Himalayas, the many rivers in Nepal, and their religious customs as being unique to theirs.

As I was reading some of the postcards from Nepal I was very impressed with how perceptive the kids were and also how inquisitive. They were very quick to pick up phrases and expressions the Australian kids had used and also asked when they did not understand something. Some good examples were:

"What do you mean by AFL?"
"I don't understand your meaning when you refer to the bush."
"How big is a rugby field, can you play other games on it?"
"I am not sure if we have kangaroos in Nepal but let me tell you about tigers. They are flesh eating and I am afraid of them!"

Kids sharing such seemingly day to day subjects will benefit both sides enormously and help them to broaden their views of the world. We are hoping to expand these programs this year and are always keen to hear from schools interested in pursuing this type of exchange with kids from Nepal.

New Volunteers

Last week we welcomed 3 young Australians to Riviera International Academy, our model school in Kathmandu. Indigo, Francesca and Patrick are all from Sydney and are travelling together after recently completing the HSC (final school exams before university). They will be working as volunteers with the teachers and students at Riviera for 2 weeks. We have had previous volunteer programs at the school and the kids absolutely love the novelty of interacting with foreigners in their classes.

Monday saw the volunteers start their work in the kindergarten section of the school. This can be the most fun but also the scariest place to start. With kids as young as 3 years old running around screaming, singing, shouting and delirious with excitement it takes a lot of courage to enter the fray. Nonetheless our volunteers were fearless and soon had their respective classes singing together, reading stories and doing some art and craft work. Some amazing classroom decorations and posters were the result!

Later in the week Indi, Fran and Pat moved on to classes 1 to 4 and after surviving their baptism of fire they found this much easier. Much of the challenge of course is that the very young kids do not yet understand much English - one of the reasons that contact with native speakers is so valuable for them. But in moving to the older classes the volunteers were able to do much more conversation work and help the students with all aspects of their studies. When we returned to the school on Friday afternoon it was extra-curricular activity time and all 3 volunteers were involved in intense games of badminton and skipping. They had settled in very well and the kids clearly loved having them there!

Saturday was a particularly exciting day at the school for 2 reasons: firstly it was the day in which offerings were made to Saraswati - goddess of education, and secondly it was report card day - the kids find out how they went in their 2nd term exams. This was a wonderful event for the volunteers to witness as it was a real insight into the culture and religion of Nepal as it is played out in daily life.

Bec and I left Nepal on Sunday but we have left Indi, Fran and Pat in the very capable hands of our family at Riviera and I am sure they will continue to have an amazing time in their second week there. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for volunteering to work with Mitrataa - their time and energy will benefit the school enormously. If anyone else is interested in volunteering we would love to hear from you. Email me at adam@mitrataa.org.

Two more volunteers have landed!

Two more volunteers have arrived, and they’ve had a fantastic first week in Nepal. Sarah and Delaine both arrived from London early on Monday morning. Sarah is English and Delaine (or ‘D’) is from New Zealand. They had spent the weekend in Delhi so Kathmandu seemed like a peaceful and less crowded place to be after the chaos and crush of India!

I spent the first 2 days giving them some orientation and doing a few tourist things such as Swayambunath (the monkey temple) and Patan. We were all ready to start work at the model school on Wednesday morning when we were greeted with the news that there was a strike. My heart sank. There had not been a strike for the past few months and I really felt that things had been improving since the election. It seems however that the Maoists have been up to their old tricks recently, abducting a businessman on some spurious charge and ‘questioning’ him to death. More disturbing for his family is that the Maoists have admitted to this but will not release his body or tell them where it is so that they can perform the proper funeral rites. So in an interesting turn of events it was those with anti-Maoist sentiment who called Wednesday’s strike, I think they were quite uncomfortable having a taste of their own medicine but it remains to be seen if that will change anything.

So Sarah and D were instantly introduced to the uncertainty of trying to get things done in Nepal! With a quick change of plans we instead made the day another tourist day and went on a rickshaw ride to Kathmandu Durbar Square. We followed this with a long walk through the back alleys and streets of the old part of Kathmandu, it was a lot of fun to see daily life here up close!

Thursday saw everything return to normal so we headed off to the model school in Maijubahal. After meeting the school’s principal, Madan, and having a quick tour of the school it was straight down to work for the girls. They had brought the entire set of Mr Men books with them to read to the children so first stop was UKG (Upper Kindergarten) and an entertaining rendition of Mr Nosey. I’m sure the kids had never seen anything like it and their enthusiasm for their new teachers was palpable! Once the story was finished the kids had to draw their own version of Mr Nosey and there was a flurry of activity as there was a prize for the best drawing.

Next stop was class 1 and they heard the tale of Mr Happy, again followed with a drawing contest. Before we knew it lunch time beckoned so after a quick break it was time for a different task. The Foundation has been working on setting up the library at the school and there were some books there but there was no catalogue or system for borrowing. We set to work recording the details of all the books and putting them into some kind of order. After about 4 hours doing this we realised it was going to be a much bigger task than first planned and exhausted, we decided to call it a day.

Friday morning saw us return to the model school and it was time for classes 2 and 3 to have their turn with a Mr Men story. Class 2 understandably enjoyed Mr Noisy whilst class 3 went crazy imitating Mr Tickle! After lunch it was a free afternoon for the kids to do any activities they wished but all the young kids wanted was more Mr Men stories. First was a visit to the Nursery kids to play a fishing game with them, followed by a sing-a-long of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Do Re Mi'. It was then back to reading for classes 1, 2 and 3 and the girls managed to get through quite a few more including Mr Good, Mr Chatterbox, Mr Snow and repeat performances of Mr Happy and of course Mr Tickle. All of the kids had an amazing time having stories read to them and they were chomping at the bit to get to the library to be able to read them themselves, which is a great sign. First, we just have to finish recording them in the new library catalogue system!

With some light left in the day we decided on a return visit to Swayambunath as the previous visit had been very crowded due to it being Buddha’s birthday. This time it was much quieter and Sarah and D were able to enjoy the serenity of the place, as well as seeing a few more monkeys. I hope the girls get a good night’s sleep tonight as tomorrow we are going to the school in Phulbari to have a picnic with 30 or so girls with scholarships from that area!

Lastly – thank you to those of you who have already offered support for Kalpana, the girl whose story I wrote about in the last entry. We still need more help though so if you are able to contribute something or know anyone who could, please get in touch – adam@mitrataa.org

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MLC Sydney - Nepal Service Project Day 2

Day 2 of the MLC service project was the first of 2 days spent at our model school, Riviera.

This first day involved the MLC girls taking various teacher training classes and working through some ideas for lessons covering topics such as social studies, Australian wildlife, prisms (maths), and the importance of education in developing countries. The girls were extremely well prepared and the teachers at Riviera really enjoyed sharing their thoughts and ideas for how the classes could be constructed to combine more creative methods of teaching. This was a logical progression from the teacher training we had already been providing to these teachers.

Of course when you take all of a school’s teachers out of their classrooms it is imperative that you find some way to occupy the students. Fortunately a number of the girls as well as teachers from MLC had this covered. Firstly Karen Carey, music teacher from MLC, gathered a small posse of the MLC girls, teachers and parents, and took charge of entertaining all the kids in classes 1 through 6 by teaching them some typical Australian songs. The Nepali kids returned the favour by sharing some local songs and traditional dance moves. Before long the sounds of music came bursting from the music room and it was clear that everyone was having a fantastic time.


Two of the MLC girls took the brave challenge of entertaining the little ones in the kindergarten section. These kids range in age from 3 to 6 years old and so their English skills are not that well developed and they have pretty short attention spans. Nonetheless the girls tasked with minding them had them singing “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes” including actions before too long. Once the singing started the kids were on a roll and they launched into a full volume rendition of what I think may have been the Nepali national anthem, the volume and acoustics of the small room making it difficult to know for sure!

Another particularly brave student from MLC accepted the task of keeping the students from class 9 and 10 occupied by having a discussion with them on a number of current topics including the recent election in Nepal, the prospects for the future of Nepal under a Maoist government, the impact on Nepal of instability in Tibet etc. These were pretty heavy things to be discussing but they were peppered with talk of favourite sports in each school, sporting heroes and other pop culture items. I’m sure this sharing of thoughts and ideas was a very rewarding experience for both sides and I think each of those involved came away with some interesting and diverse points of view to digest – a true cultural exchange!


The ring of the school bell was accompanied with the welcome news that cold drinks were ready for everyone in the main school building. As we sat and cooled down it was amazing to hear the number of questions being fired across the room between each of the MLC girls and their teachers, and the teachers from the model school. It was clear from these questions that the afternoon had opened many doors to new and exciting ways that the schools may be able to collaborate more closely in the future as both sides realised they could learn so much from the other. And on that note, another successful day draws to a close.

Teacher Training Workshop

We have had the most amazing time over the last 2 days conducting our frst teacher training course in the new model school we will be working with. The course was entitled “Teachers’ Workshop on Learner Centred Education” and was attended by around 20 teachers from the Rosy Garden School in Maijubahal, Kathmandu.

The first day of the course included an introduction to Howard Gardner’s model of “multiple intelligences”. The seven main intelligences in this model being linguistic, logical/maths, visual/spatial, musical, bodily/kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The teachers explored how they can use this model in their classes to help their students learn in different ways. On the second day we put this into practice and delved into the importance of lesson plans and thorough preparation to ensure the teachers use as much learner focused activity as possible. It was very practical and the teachers went away with many examples to help put what they had learned into practice in their classrooms.

We were heartened and encouraged by the enthusiasm and commitment of the teachers involved. Many of them had not had any formal training but nonetheless approached each of the tasks and activties with vigour and a can-do attitude.

At one stage Rebecca had the class standing in a circle outside and throwing a roll of toilet paper at each other whilst asking questions and shouting answers. I’m sure they have never encountered such a thing before and may well have been hoping they will never do so again!

Nepal’s education approach is based heavily on rote learning to pass exams and we hope to break open this way of thinking with more of these courses in the future. We have tentatively scheduled the next courses for March/April 2008 and beyond then we will be providing advanced training to some of the teachers with a view to them then conducting the course on a more frequent basis for teachers from other schools. We also plan to make the course available to teachers from outside the Kathmandu Valley through some form of sponsorship program for teachers from remote schools in disadvantaged areas.

The Rosy Garden School has only recently been taken over by some people that we have been working closely with through CWISH. They are extremely passionate about developing a school that is cutting edge in terms of its approach to education and it is for this reason that we have become involved. We have many great plans for the model school (including a name change!) and are so excited about the possibilities it presents for the development and growth of the Foundation through the number of people whose lives we can touch.

We will keep you posted as plans progress but it certinly seems as though 2008 is going to be a huge year for the Foundation and we can’t wait to share all of the experiences and excitement with you!