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.

Forum for Daisy Chains Women

On our recent visit to Kathmandu we hosted a reunion and forum for all of the women in the first group to complete our Daisy Chains project.

Around 30 women attended the program representing 6 of the groups to complete the education and training component of the program. The first item on the agenda was an opportunity for anyone to share their experiences of the program and running their business. We were quite surprised to see the excitement and enthusiasm in the women as they shared their stories of hard work and determination to make their businesses a success.

There was one group of women that really stood out. They started a candle making business which is a fantastic idea in Kathmandu where there are regular blackouts! This group had already paid back their seed money loan, and had even started a second bank account where they store profits that can be used by any member in their group as a loan if they want to start another business. From this second loan account one of their women then started her own bakery/coffee shop. She has now paid back her loan and made enough to open a second bakery/coffee shop - she is franchising! What is even more inspiring about this story is that the woman with the bakeries was married at 9 years of age, she is now 29 and has a 15 year old son. When she started the program she was completely illiterate having never been to school.

There were some similar stories of success however there were also some groups who were struggling. The second session provided a chance for them to share their challenges amongst their peers, who could then provide moral support as well as practical suggestions. The challenges some of the women were facing were not unusual in Nepal and could really be summarised as a lack of confidence combined with inability to commit the time/effort necessary to get the business off the ground. Remember many of these women come from domestic helper backgrounds and must continue this work whilst they are setting up their business. A number of the women also face hostile attitudes at home which can be very demoralising.

The more successful groups were a great support to these women. They told them that they had faced similar hurdles but by sticking together and supporting each other in the group they were able to succeed. I think this message really got through to the women and it was wonderful to see a real mentoring relationship developing.

After a quick lunch it was time for some of the group who had new business ideas to share them and get feedback and suggestions from the group. This again proved to be very productive and you could see the increased motivation and determination in the women as their confidence grew knowing they had the support of everyone present.

The final session for the day was given by Bec who introduced the concept of dreaming and how one small dream can lead to some amazing inventions and business ideas. Following on from this she introduced our Defying Gravity scholarship program and strongly urged the women present to think about applying. The program provides larger scholarships to women who have a larger business plan that will benefit many through employment and the type of business it is. The program includes financial assistance, ongoing mentoring, skills training if needed, and market sourcing. A number of the women were extremely keen to get involved in this program and judging by the successes so far, it is going to be huge!

As everyone left in the afternoon it was heartening to see women exchanging phone numbers, obviously new friendships and support networks had been formed, and existing ones were strengthened. It was an honour to spend the day with such a hard working and inspiring group of women. It left us with no doubt that it is women and girls who are the future of development in countries like Nepal.

More Journalist Workshops

A few weeks back Janet O’Connor once again joined us in Kathmandu to conduct two half-day workshops for women journalists. This time the topic was feature writing which proved to be a far more challenging course than the previous journalism basics Janet had given.

The workshops were attended by around 25 journalists from in and around Kathmandu covering a range of backgrounds including newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, freelance and student.

The first workshop covered a range of topics including ethics in journalism, differences between hard news and features, different types of introductions and their importance, the importance of structure, and the morning finished with an exercise in mind mapping the structure for a feature article.

The second workshop covered feature analysis, editing and the importance of word choice and being economical with words, and finished with some exercises and discussion on interviews. This last part raised a lot of interest and questions as interviewing is something that many in the group found difficult. Janet had plenty of practical suggestions for helping them to better prepare for and get the most out of their interviews.

All of the topics covered in the workshop really challenged the attendees as many of them had little formal training, instead learning 'on the job'. Also, the general standard of feature writing in Nepal is not high and so it was a great help for the participants to be exposed to examples from international publications as well as having the opportunity to discuss their ideas and raise questions with an experienced journalist.

We must thank Janet profusely for all of her hard work in putting the course together as well as travelling all the way to Kathmandu to share it with us!

Family Trek Update - bookings close soon...

We've had a wonderful response to our planned Family Trek for 2010.

Due to the majority of people expressing interest being adult, we've decided to go to the culturally more interesting Helambu for a 7 day trek and we'll be staying in village lodges and meeting the locals. It is shaping up to be an interesting and diverse group of like minded souls all interested in Nepal and the betterment of women and girls (in particular!) there.

This means for those of you who were concerned about camping, fear no more! All of the accommodation will be in lodges and guest houses. The structure of the trek also means there will be less walking than before, only about 4 hours per day on average.

We need confirmation by way of deposits by the end of November and there are a few spaces left so do get in touch if you are interested!

Dream Centre Graduation!

Last Friday we were honoured and excited to attend the graduation program for the first group of girls from our pilot Dream Centre. The Centre has been open for almost 5 months and 15 girls have successfully completed the 4.5 month course covering 'skills for learning, skills for life'.

The day was a chance to share some of the things they have learned as well as a celebration of their new-found confidence and pride. Key topics covered during the program include communication, motivation, co-operation, leadership, confidence, gratitude, appreciating differences, inclusive thinking, optimism, emotion management, critical thinking, decision making and problem solving.

Some highlights of the program included a drama written by some of the girls to highlight the importance of friendship (appreciating differences, inclusive thinking and gratitude), a number of dances choreographed by the girls, and some speeches from a few of the girls on their Dream Centre experience. It really was startling to think it was the same group of girls we had met a short while ago who were then very quiet and shy. Now their determination and improved self-esteem was on display for all to see!

The program concluded with the presentation of graduation certificates and memory books which the girls had been working on during the program. The Dream Centre facilitators had included an inspiring message in each of the books as a keepsake for the girls to remember their Dream Centre experience. We also presented some small prizes for the girls who excelled in certain areas such as creativity, spelling, speaking etc.

With the second Dream Centre set to open shortly the day was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on the success of the program so far as well as building excitement for it's growth in the future. A huge thank you must as always go to our three facilitators who have done an amazing job in transforming the lives of this first group of girls!

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...