Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

On 21 December the school published second term results. And the School Management Committee discussed the learning achievement of the students. Class 2 and 3 students are doing good. Some students of class 1 and 4 are weak.

The proposed teachers training was postponed and is rearranged for the 17 and 18 January.

Nepal Orthopaedics Hospital, Kathmandu, is going to organise a 2 day free health camp in Bandipur hospital. Bikram has conveyed this message to the villagers and teachers and requested them to take advantage of this opportunity.

Total cost of nursery building is NRP 498,452.00 school is ready to share NRP 149536.00 and the project will contribute NRP 348,914.00. The School has started to provide a different khaja twice a week.

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Bikram has bought some new school material for the school. And below is a photo of Raj Kumar Bhujel’s house.

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School visit and update on rebuilding work

student playing

Bikram visited the school and village yesterday. All the teachers were present and there were the following students present in school:
Nursery : 17
Class 1 : 12
Class 2 : 11
Class 3 : 9
Class 4 : 17
TOTAL : 66 students

students collecting litter students washing hand after collecting litter

On that day teacher Nirmal (new government teacher) and Sarita took class 3 and 4 students to collect litter of the public place nearby the school during break time. The Headteacher and Bikram discussed about the upcoming half yearly exam. Except compulsory Nepali and social studies, students have to attend exam in English medium. This is the resource centre level exam. The topic of discussion was to prepare students for the exam.

 

Headteacher and me (2)

The students seem happy in school. When Bikram reached the school on this visit he saw Sarita was drawing a picture on the white board in Class 2, she was teaching art.

sarita teaching Art

Bikram mentioned that if we give a different khaja it will increase the cost. We hope to find some extra funds to do this.

kamal's house sita's house

Kamal’s house rebuilding work is almost finish. Only fixing doors and windows have been left. Sita’s house rebuilding work is in progress, you can see it in the photos. Hira is fixing roof and until now Bikram has given Krishna Bhujel NRS 25,000.00, Hira Bhujel NRS 20,000.00, Kamal Bhujel NRS 20,000.00 and Sita Bhujel 15,000.00.

Teacher training will be run by the Rotary Club of West Patan on December 29 and 30. Our teachers will be attending.

krishna's toilet under construct

Rebuilding update

The Rebuilding has increased Bikram’s responsibility quite a bit. The first phase of rebuilding work has been finished. On the first phase 7 families have benefited. In the second phase, Krishna Bahadur Bhujel has finished rebuilding work and Hira Bahadur Bhujel will finish his within the next few weeks. Kamala’s rebuilding work is late due to transportation problems with materials. He is planning to use cement block for his rebuild. Sita will start within this week. And with the festivals being over, rebuilding will build up speed. Hopefully all rebuilding will be finished within the next month or two.

Hira' house kamal's house Krishna'house making window and door for sita's house sita's house

Project update: School, House rebuilding and new Nursery

Khaja program after smc meeting 1 Khaja program after smc meeting

On 12 October there was school management committee meeting. This meeting endorsed to collect 20 percent resource of total cost of the new nursery building, along with 20 percent from the local government, and 60 percent from the project.

Now in Nepal the winter season has began so the school with project money will buy thick mats for Nursery and Class One to be put under the carpet and prevent the cold coming through.

room scrubed

With the help of students all school room have been scrubbed.

room scrubed 1

The school is going to be closed from 13 October for Dashain holidays and it will reopen from 27 October.

Krishna' house rebuilding

Krishna Bahadur Bhujel has almost finished his house rebuilding work. Hira Bhujel has finished half the work. Bikram gave him NRS 5000.00 as second instalment. Kamal Bhujel has just finished the foundation work for his house. After finishing these 3 houses, the others will be started.

Hira's house rebuilding 1 Hira's house rebuilding Kamal' house rebuilding

More houses in need of rebuilding and repair work

It has come to light of further properties that new rebuilding and repair work after April’s earthquake. We are not sure why they have not come forward previously, but as we still have funds available, we are willing to help them out. And the choice and decision for who gets the help has been made and supported by the community.

Below are examples of some of the damage to these properties.

rebuilding-and-repair-work-photos-01 rebuilding-and-repair-work-photos-02 rebuilding-and-repair-work-photos-03 rebuilding-and-repair-work-photos-04 rebuilding-and-repair-work-photos-05

 

Educational tour in Kathmandu and school update

As mentioned in the previous post, the teachers had a 3 day educational tour planned in Kathmandu. So on 21 July our 4 teachers Pampha, Kamala, sarita and Gita, plus 13 teachers of another project visited Kathmandu on a teacher educational tour. They visited Kaasthamandap Vidhalaya of Ela Piya, a teacher trainer, one public school and one Montessori school run by Dr. Bina Gurung. They spent 3 days and 2 nights in Kathmandu. It was a very fruitful trip for the teachers. All the expenses were covered by the Rotary clubs involved. Thank you!

Dr. Bina Gurung with our teachers in Montessori Gita in Kasthamandap schoolkamala in Kaasthamandap school sarita at Kaasthamandap schoolsarita at dinner in Ela Piya's house in Kathmandu

Back to the Aandhimul school, it reopened from 26 July after the summer holidays. On that day all the teachers were present but due to the first day after the holidays there were only 50 percent students present. Bikram has paid for the school to have one daily newspaper for one year and one monthly magazine named TEACHER.

teachers on the first day after summer vacationpampha in Kaasthamandap school

Bikram, along with Kumar, the caretaker, took the new furniture to the school ready for the new term.

Kumar onloadind school furniture  new furniture in class 3 (2) new furniture in class 3 new furniture in class one

Except Lalimaya Bhujel, other people have finished the rebuilding work on their houses

progess of lal maya's house rebuilding progress of Dhanraj and Shankhaman's house

It is maize/corn dry harvesting season and the villagers, children included, were very busy taking off the dried kernels ready to be ground into flour or feed for their animals.

it is the time of maize harvesting in village

One village family enjoying running their family business of breeding and selling chickens.

Mrs. Ramkrishna in her poultry firm

The re-building continues

Below are some pictures of more re-building in the village. Jaya Bahadur and Gyan Bahadur both have started to stay in their rebuilt houses. Dhanraj and Shankhaman have made new houses jointly. They have almost finished construction works. Harischandra Bhujel has almost finished the construction works but Lal Maya’s rebuilding work is little bit slow due to lack of workers and she is a single woman whose husband left her.

Re-building Shankha Man & Dhanraj's houses in Aandhimul Harischan' house on 14 July

Re-bulding Harishchandra's house in AandhimulBikram with Urmila & Puspanjali in Bhujel village Jay Bahadur's house in Aandhimul

It’s lovely to see many older girls still studying at school!

Older school girls from Aandhimul

Other news. Our teachers are leaving for Kathmandu for an educational tour on 19 July. They will spend 3 nights there.

Earthquake Update 4

We have now finished raising funds for supporting both Aandhimul and other earthquake affected areas. Money has come in from the UK, Europe and Australia. Again, we want to thank all of you who have donated. So we have put together a summary pdf of the money raised, and where it will be going. Please click this link to view or download it aandhimulproject.info/Nepal-Earthquake-Aandhimul-Project-Thank-you-for-your-donations.pdf

However, we will still keep you updated on the progression of the houses being rebuilt in Aandhimul as things happen. Below are some more pictures sent across only this morning.

gyan bahadur's rebuilding house 1600px
Gyan Bahadur’s rebuilding work is progressing well.
Lal Maya's house 1600px
Lal Maya’s house demolishing has now started.

 

House demolishing and rebuilding continues

Last week Dhan Raj finished demolishing work on his house. Gyan Bahadur and Jaya Bahadur have both started to rebuild theirs, and Hari Chandra is doing demolishing work but Lal Maya has not yet started. And the work is going slow because of lack of manpower.

2015-06-06 – jaya bahadur house demolishing
Jay Bahadur’s house being demolished
More of Jay Bahadur's house being demolished
More of Jay Bahadur’s house being demolished
The completed demolishing of Dhan Raj's house.
The completed demolishing of Dhan Raj’s house.
The rebuilding of Gyan Bahadur's house.
The rebuilding of Gyan Bahadur’s house.

Below is a picture of Gyan Bahadur receiving NRS 5000.00 as first instalment on 2 June. Bikram, our project manager, will pay others when they start to rebuild and according to their work progress.

2015-06-06 – gyan bahadur receiving nrs 5000.00 in Dumre

Village life continues

house rebuilding meeting

First a quick update on the rebuilding of the earthquake damaged homes. We have now sent across 150,000 Nepali Rupees (RS), 25,000RS per house. The image above shows the owners of these houses in a meeting with our project manager Bikram about a plan of action. It was decided the first house would start to be dismantled on this coming Sunday. We will keep you updated as the demolishing and rebuilding take place.

kids collecting vegetable in leisure

Above, some village children on their return from buying some vegetables from a local shop further down the valley. Food supplies after the earthquake are running okay in and around the Aandhimul village. Though support from Kathmandu has been offered to the Bandipur VDC.

parent meeting

A meeting was held on 15 May to elect parents to form a new School Management Committee (SMC) for this school year – however they could not choose the SMC and PTA due to the following reasons :
a) There were not enough actual school attending children’s parents present in the meeting. According to the Nepalese Education Act, at least two thirds of parents should be present to choose the SMC and PTA.
b) The school sent a letter home to parents only 2 days prior to the meeting. Not giving the parents enough warning.

The plan to resolve this issue is as follows :
a) To send letter a week before to all the parents requesting for their compulsory attendance in the parent meeting.
b) To call only the parents of attending school children, to prevent long debates.
c) To invite school supervisor and resource person in the meeting to facilitate as suggested in the education act.

The new SMC and PTA is set to be chosen by the second Nepali month of Jestha, meaning by 15 June.

sample desk for class one

As there are now more students attending the school than the previous years, it is necessary to purchase more desks for Class 1 and desk benches for Class 4. The project will cover the cost of buying these.

Urmila buying shoe

Above is an image of Urmila, a Class 8 student being supported by Angela in Australia, buying some new shoes and a bag for school.