By Rajindra: The Dhading project: Where do we stand?

In mid-August, I went to Dhading to monitor developments with our project there. I met with all the children, their families and of course the Principal of the school and the teachers.

Rajindra

The little hostel has been operated by the Principal of the school since mid-June and our 8 “boarders” are very happy to stay in the hostel. I had my meals with them, and the food is very good. The school hired a very nice lady, in her forties, who cooks for the children and stays with them at night. The hostel students go back to their home once a week, on Saturdays.

I brought with me the 4 bunker beds that SEA bought for the hostel (beforehand the kids were sleeping on the floor) as well as sports items for the hostel students. The kids were very happy to have these sports items.

It was fairly difficult to reach the school, as the river had risen due to the monsoon, so at some point I had to swim.

My shoes were damaged but I managed to get to the school.

What I found most difficult this time was to collect the bunker beds, as the person in charge of the beds did not give me the exact location of the workshop in Kathmandu where the beds had been fabricated. Moreover, when it was time for me to fetch the beds and load them onto the truck that I had arranged, he had switched off his cell phone. I had to search the entire place to find the workshop asking people around (the truck driver was kind enough to wait). So while the plan was to leave Kathmandu at 7 am, it was already 11 am when we left Kathmandu. But after that everything went smoothly. It was mostly the parents of the kids who helped me to transport the beds to the school by carrying them.

In Dhading, I first rested a bit (my body was torn down by the walk), and then talked with the kids and their parents about the difficulties that their children were facing. I told them that good health was for us a priority, so that if their children were to fall sick they should be taken to a doctor or a hospital and that SEA would cover for the expenses. There was no special problem with the parents. I told them that they should be aware of their children’s studies and that they should not complain if the SEA sponsorship were to be stopped after grade 10, because of their children’s lower exam scores than the pass SEA group, or due to lack of funds at SEA. I emphasized that this was a great achievement to complete secondary education (grade 10) and to pass the SLC exam (School Leaving Certificate) and that this should enable them to find a job and to do well in life.

Then it was already late at night so I had my dinner with the kids and headed to sleep. While the juniors study in the evening and go to sleep at 10 pm, the 10-class students complete their home work very late at night: they study until 12 pm. This is checked by the Sir (the teacher) who stays at night in the school. Next morning, I woke up at 7 am only to find out that the students had been up since 5 am. Everyday, they wake up at 5 am to attend tuition classes. So I washed my face and roamed around the school, and the students were having classes. I then looked at the student’s first-term results.

(*) denotes failure in the subject as 30% is the pass percentage.

Except for a few cases the results were not good. According to the teachers the main problem of the students, especially the seniors, was very weak academic base (largely due to poor patterns of school attendance till this year given their family background) as well as extremely poor English. Otherwise, teachers gave good comments about everyone. All of the children are regular at school (except Susmita Adhikati who was absent for a week because she was suffering from typhoid), do regularly their homework, and are attentive in the class.

As I was worried about their results, I started to call them one by one to talk about their difficulties. I also consoled them and told them to remain focused in their studies and not to be discouraged. It is important to wait until the second- and third-term to form a judgment as to whether or not we should continue the sponsorship of the seniors (after grade 10). I warned them strictly about the importance of remaining focused in their studies.

Akancha Aryal stood again first in the class and she writes beautiful poems.

Akansha

Susmita Adhikari is also a quick learner.

Susmita Adhikari

Ganga Lal is good in giving speeches.

Ganga Lal

Roshan is an average student.

Roshan

The rest of the girls are trying their best and they insisted that we should wait for the second-term school results and that they will show us their progress by then. This is the minimum that we can indeed do. I trust that they will do better next time.

Among the juniors we should note Ram Maya Mijar’s excellent performance:

Ram Maya

A score of 92% has to be warmly greeted. She is in grade 1.

Ram Kumar Thapa (grade 1)

Ram Kumar

and Phool Maya Tamang (grade 3) also did well.

All the kids promised to keep working hard.

I had to leave Dhading in the afternoon, as I needed to fill up the forms to apply to my college. So I returned to Madhebasi at 3 pm, but I had a lot of excitement this time and was happy to see the kids settled down.

Tagué: association caritative, Ecole, Education, Enfance, Enfants à parrainer, Filleul, humanitaire, Népal, voyages