Nepaltrip March 05. - 13.03
Our trip to Nepal in spring 2018 was primarily aimed at monitoring investments in various schools: Morning Glory Academic School, Kailika English Boarding School and Morning Star Higher Secondary School. Read more about this year's trip in our travel report.
Participants: Principal Stefan Funk, August Renner Realschule Rastatt and former Vice Principal Reinhold Weisenburger
The main purpose of the trip was to inspect previous paid investments in various schools.
Morning Glory Academic School, Bharatphokari
Investment of € 12,000 by the Lions CLub Wangen/Isny (2nd floor - compensation for 8 children)
Kalika English Boarding School, monitoring the investments of the August-Renner Realschule over the last 3 years.
Morning Star Higher Secondary School, Naudanda
Control computer program for teachers and students 2017
(ITC program - teachers and children learn on PCs)
The state school system has been changed from 3 levels (Primary 1-5, Secondary 6-8, Higher School 9-12) to:
Secondary Schools grade 1-8 and Higher Schools grade 9-12. So the Schools that have been offering 1-10 (intermediate school leaving certificate) have to decide whether to offer 1-12 in the future or downgrade to 1-8. Most schools naturally want to offer 1-12.
The following new investments were discussed:
a) Morning Glory School, investment of 20.000€ for 4 classrooms + lab + toilet
Grade 11+12 (Abitur)
b) Little Daffodils English School, Pame
We start with 2 rooms and a chemistry/biology room and the support of an
English teacher. Investment approx. 13.000€
Prerequisites are:
Good school management and correct handling of previous investments (we financed the 1st floor several years ago and the 2nd floor in 2017):
The area has enough children to offer grade 11+12
The municipality is very keen for its schools to be able to offer Year 11+12. This means that the intelligent children who want to do their A-levels no longer need to travel to the distant and expensive capital Pokhara.
The schools already have several teachers trained for grades 11+12.
The schools have a very good reputation.
The schools contribute 40% of the total funding (help for self-help).
The schools have always kept their commitment to us on time.
The biggest investment in recent years has been in the Shree Annapurna School in Sikles, where one of the two school buildings was so damaged in the 2015 earthquake that it had to be demolished. Since then, the school has been run on a makeshift basis in private rooms and community rooms. Sikles is home to an ethnic minority (Buddhists) who receive no support from the Nepalese state. The community is unable to finance the new, vital school building itself.
We agreed with the principal and the community committee on funding of €88,000 (incl. 20% transportation costs. The municipality can raise €20,00. The rest is financed by the Lions Club Wangen/Isny, the company Aliud Pharma, a major donor J.W. and us.
This secures the long-term existence of the community of Sikles. An earthquake-proof, fully equipped school building with 8 classrooms, including a chemistry/biology room, computer room and toilets, will be built in fall 2018/spring 2019.
This is a spectacular, unique project for us:
Amount of funding, location of Sikles, directly below the Annapurna massif, problems of the community.
In a year's time = Easter 2019, we will be back on site with a larger group of interested people to monitor the investments that have been made.
Deurali Basic School, in Deurali-Akski School visit on March 10, 2018:
The August-Renner-Realschule Rastatt is looking for a new partner school, after the Kalika School has already been largely developed. Dr. Krishna Bhandari has chosen this school for us because it offers the best conditions for the future in the large rural area:
Central location
English classes
Enough teachers
Sufficient rooms
The facilities are extremely primitive and inadequate.
All in all, ideal conditions for pure future development by ARRS. Mr. Funk and Mr. Weisenbuger were immediately in favour of supporting this school in Deurali. In 2018, €4,000 (= NRS 500,000) will be paid for new facilities.
Check in 2019.
The school itself needs to repaint the classrooms, tidy them up, put in windows and clean them. On March 11, we met the director of the school, Mr. Rudra Dangi.
The Nepal Children Overlack project is becoming increasingly important in the Kaski region (Capital Pokhara and surrounding area). Thanks to the new investments, an additional 100 children can attend the schools. We will then have around 750 children - over 50% of them girls.
THANK YOU for your help
Rastatt, 29.03.2018
Jörg Overlack