Teacher training and immunisations

On 26 and 27 February project teachers, Pampha and Kamala Gurung went to Seto Gurans Nursery in Bandipur to take part in a two day workshop.

Pampha and Kamala at work shop in seto Gurans in Bandipur

In school teachers and students themselves have been dubbing the classrooms. This is a traditional method of repairing the clay floors and walls of houses and buildings, with the use of water to soften the surfaces.

teachers dubbing classroom

On 28 February two project teachers, Pampha and Sarita and some mothers, took their kids for immunisations of rubella, polio and measles. Bikram and the teachers took 14 children from school and some other mothers took their children themselves. After the immunisations Bikram treated the children with some biscuits.

kids going to immunization certre

kid taking measles  vaccine

kid taking polio

On 3rd March the school will be having its anniversary day, with lots of celebrations. We are really looking forward to seeing the pictures!

Project update: school plans, school life and visitor from Spain

On 5 February, there was a joint meeting between the School Management Committee and some influential person from community, at school. In that meeting the Headteacher presented the income and expenditure of the Bhailo Programme. The total income was NRP 103,954 and expenditure was NRP 39,000. A total profit of NRP 64,954.

Joint meeting

That meeting decided to call a parent meeting on the 10 February. Also, the school’s anniversary will be celebrated on 3 March. In that meeting Bikram also discussed on School Programme for new Academic Session. By the new session they will start Class 5. The Project will contribute towards the build of the new classroom, alongside the profit from the Bhailo Programme and help from Bandipur Municipality. The school will also need 10 sets of desks and benches for Class 5.

Dancing and singing Prog. at firday

School Class are running smoothly. All the teacher’s are regular they are benefited from Training they have made an using materials which they have learned from Training .Student achievement level is increasing and all the student are happy at school.

Drawing class at class 2Materials prepared by Teachers

Junkari Bhujel to whom project promise to help to rebuild her house has been suffering from tuberculosis for the past 2 months and is taking medicine regularly, that is why she is delaying rebuilding work. Bikram requested her come to Bandipur Hospital for treatment and he promised to help her.

Below are also pictures from the last health camp held a few weeks ago.

Mangali Bhujel and her Relative in Health Camp Mangali Bhujel in Health Camp

Our litter officer Rana Bahadur Bhujel is sick so he can no longer continue in his job. He has been thanked for his hard work and helping keep the community clean. The community, alongside Bikram, will appoint a new litter officer by 10 February, the Parent Meeting.

On 7 February, one Spanish traveller visited our School and she is planning to do some volunteer work in future with the school.

School Staff with Spainish visitor at school

Teacher Training Camp in Bandipur

Last week, from 17 January to 23 January, there was winter holiday in the school. All the five female teachers took part in a 2 day teacher training camp held on 17 and 18 January in Bandipur. This time the training was focus on teaching Nepali. Some of the villagers came to free health camp.

Teacher Training 1

Teacher Training 2 (2) Teachers  with Material

 

Village Litter and Sanitation Program

During Angela and Joli’s recent visit to Aandhimul and following some community meetings about possible projects; the idea for a litter and sanitation program was developed.

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The Objective: To improve the cleanliness and sanitation of Aandhimul village and the community

Program Description: The litter program is the first stage of improving the overall sanitation and cleanliness of Aandhimul village.  The program will involve supplying each household in Aandhimul with a rubbish bin and employing an environmental officer to collect these bins along with rubbish in public areas of the village.  The rubbish will be sorted and taken to an appropriate location.  The school will also participate through weekly rubbish collections and inclusion of environmental issues in the school curriculum.

This program will require involvement from the school management, students and community as well as a dedicated ‘Environment Officer’. A sanitation program focussing on toilets and hygiene will then be implemented throughout the village.

2015-01-26 Litter programme 2

4 few weeks into this initiative and the community have really pushed things forward. Villagers have prepared 58 bamboo dustbins. The project contributed to the cost of making these paying at the rate of NRS 200 per bamboo dustbin. Bikram, our project manager, and committee members distributed these dustbins to all households on 28th January. Also on that day, Ran Bahadur Bhujel from the village, was appointed as litter officer.

2015-01-26 Litter programme 4

You can see that already rubbish has started to be collected. Updates to follow.

2015-01-26 Litter programme 5

Teacher training and new toilet in use

On the 22nd and 23rd of December the teacher training on education philosophy was held in Bandipur and went very well. There were a total of 52 participants and 12 trainers from Kathmandu. Two of our teachers participated, Pampha and Kamala.

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All the materials provided by the Rotary Club of Patan West have been fixed in the school. The new toilet with its handwash basin and the water tank above the toilet to supply the toilets with water. Also the new benches were added to the classrooms.

Slide - Offloading new equipment

 

Post Image - Boy using hand basin

Slide - Water tank above new toilet

Slide - New school benches

Bikram has let us know that from this month they will be starting a regular monthly health camp with Dr. Shekhar Kayastha and CMA Rama Kayastha from the Bandipur hospital. They will so kindly be supplying free medicine to the community.

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Community meeting at the school

After my night in the village and eating morning dal bhat at Kishan’s house, we held the meeting about the Health and Nanglo cooperatives at the school. Bikram came from Bandipur to join Kishan and me. Only some of the villagers came, which was expected because of the festive period and the marriage celebrations, though more turned up later in the morning.

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But before the meeting went ahead, some of the school’s children came and sang the traditional Nepal song ‘Resham Firiri’ to us, and some danced too, while Kumar, the school’s caretaker, played the madal (a traditional Nepali instrument).

It seemed to go well, though much debating did occur and many questions asked. It seemed as though the Nanglo cooperative, which would help the Aandhimul people generate more income from selling their nanglos, had positive reactions. But it was the details that they were unsure of, and as none or only some had experience of how a cooperative works, it would take quite a lot of work to set one up. Bikram said that he would do his best with the experience he has working in a cooperative and help the community.

Another issue raised between Kishan and Bikram was that many of the adults lacked in numeracy and literacy levels that they would need to help make this successful. However, Bikram did mention that the government has an initiative that gives training to adults, for free, to improve their reading, writing and basic arithmetic. Bikram said he would investigate this further.

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As for the health cooperative, it was only discussed a little and they were keen but again the logistics of setting it up correctly would be quite difficult right now. However, Bikram’s continued health camps and training will continue and other health related courses would be arranged and the community were happy with this. And on a lighter note, the picture above shows one of the girls taking advantage of using a pencil in a non conventional way for keeping up with her own personal hygiene 🙂

We hope that over the coming 6 months they may be able to arrange some training and have further discussions about these potential cooperatives, and then go from there. And once the meeting had finished, Kishan, Bikram and me walked down to Aandhi Khola to catch a bus to Bandipur. The two girls in the picture below wanted one last photograph before I left. The next time I seem them I hope they still have smiles on their faces and will be continuing to learn in school.

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Updates from Aandhimul

Our new project manager Bikram Piya has been busy with the school and community. Last week he bought some instructional materials for the school. The materials includes a madal (traditional Nepali drum) and some sports equipment.

Also, last sunday Bikram and the school committee organised a free health camp in school. There were 2 doctors from Bandipur Hospital and ten MBBS students (future doctors) from Kathmandu. They examined 55 people and distributed free medicine to them. Two of them were found to have hydrocele and one of them they found a hernia who needed an operation which is only possible in Pokhara or Chitwan.

Next week they are organising a micro health project with the help of the MBBS students in the village. This will be about how to wash hands properly and how to prepare ors that is used when someone is dehydrated. They are also checking the purity of the drinking water in the community. And after organising the health camp they have decided to train one female from the Aandhimul community as a community health volunteer. She will be going to Bandipur Hospital for the training.

Bikram and the community continue to discuss and communicate about what is best for the children and regularly involve the parents and hold meetings.

Visit to hospital & Goodbye Nepal

My final day in Nepal and in Kathmandu with Bikram, Kumar (the school caretaker) and Manoj (11 year old boy from the village) to the hospital – Till Ganga. We were lucky to get in, thanks to the connection with Bikram Piya as only 250 patience get seen per day, and they queue from 4 a.m. to get a ticket, still it took about 3 hours until we got back without food!

Kumar is going to be seen by specialist on 30th of April – only after consoltation with a specialist. He will then get to know if surgery is possible to save his sight. (He suffers from corneal disease).

Manoj is going to be seen on 23rd April by 2 doctors also same issue like Kumar (corneal disease) and a pediatric specialist. He has a scar in his eye, so it is impossible to improve his vision. Also he has came too late so one of the eyes has divination, ( lazy eye etc …) so again after this meeting they can find out what can be done. He is staying with Jay Bahadur Bhujel (his dad) in hotel for 2 nights at Kalanki and Bikram will take him on Tuesday morning.

My time here as passed again so quickly, and I will miss Nepal but cannot wait to return again. Hope you enjoy the pictures in the slideshow above.

Jolana

 

Suku’s progress

Suku has reached 6 years old, and is now a little girl who can stand and walks towards us – something quite unimaginable only a year ago. Her whole world has changed and also her family’s.

She has spent almost 2 and half months in Pokhora hospital, supported by employees from Himalayan Encounters (HE) last year. Finally adopted by Kamal and moved to live in Bandipur – an up and coming touristic jewel.

She has been enrolled in Setograss – and will start from the Nepali New Year – April 2013. This is a well run montessori, private nursery which prepares children for the very well known and respected Notra Dame school.

Her school fees and living costs will be supported by Niraj from HE’s brother and Christina Levanas. It was thanks to her pictures she took last year and the support from HE, that has led to this fruitful development.

Suku is also supported by many in Bandipur – the manager of Old Inn, Ramsaran is teaching hygiene basics.

Sadly her own family is not supporting her and they have sold land and their house in Aandhimul  and are now living close to the main road. One of her older sisters has possibility got work in the Old Inn Bandipur. But after 3 days training she left and returned back to her family.

On our visit we did notice a wound and demanded that she gets to the local hospital for treatment – it took a great encouragement, but she got checked and was given creams to treat the wound and pills to fight the infection, created by pressure in the protease leg. Christina has also noticed her lack of clothes, so she has bought her some new clothes and I will take them to Bandipur tomorrow. 30th March 2013, this time not only giving clothes to her but also to her new siblings.