Visualize A School? Part One

Tashi, grew up in the remote Upper Mustang region of Nepal, an area that shares a border with Tibet. He is a school teacher. He understands the importance of getting an education, of being literate and having knowledge of the world beyond your mountain range. Now in his 60's, with a small shop in Pokhara of Tibet-Buddhist items, he is passionate about helping to educate a group of  some 40 Mustang children who come down from the mountains each year to continue their education during the harsh  Mustang winters.
A brief history of Mustang. This is a region of northern Nepal, deep in the Annapurna Himalayas and sharing a border with Tibet. It has had its own King and Queen in the past, and shares the same Tibetan brand of Buddhism as Tibet. His Holiness the 4th Dalai Lama is every bit as important to them as to their neighbors to the north. And they share with Tibetans life in an extreme environment-Upper Mustang is impassable half of the year, and roads are more like foot paths traveresd by porters and hardy mountain ponies to bring in supplies.
Normally, school simply ends during the long snowy winters in Mustang. It is too cold to go out, and children must wait for spring thaw. But, says Tashi, they often "forget" what they have learned when school sessions are so short. Traveling down the mountain each winter, they board at a rented building outide Pokhara, a lakeside town with much more mild climate. Here, they sleep on the floor, and hold school outside. Teachers accompany the children during their winter hiatus at their outdoor school. Their dream is to someday have a building they call their own, for school and sleeping.
We walked the land today, land that the adults of these children banned together to buy. That was 4 and a half years ago, when they pooled their resources to acquire a loan to buy the land that would someday hold the school they seek. Birds chirped wildly from the jungle backdrop, and there were occassional monkey whoops. We were far from any man-made noise. Wildflowers topped with white butterflies were everywhere. Tashi tied pages of newspaper to the tops of bushes at the four corners of the land so we could see the boundaries. I had brought my friend Patty, who had just finished a trek in the Annapurnas to celebrate her 69th birthday, and my Tibetan side-kick Kelsang Lodue with me to survey the land. We all felt a sense of peace and didn't want to leave.
Sun warmed our shoulders, we felt dozey in the morning heat, the sounds of wildlife and beauty of the area made it seem like an ideal place for children to learn. What a wonderful respite from freezing Mustang winters! I could visualize the school building designed to fit this plot of land, making maximum use of the space. We chatted about the dimensions of the school, and how we could decorate the outer walls with murals of the natural beauty that surrounded us. Now we were had the dream! These people with so little materially could somehow purchase this land and keep their vision clear. Standing on the land, it became more clear to me how this was so.
For now, I am asking you to try to visulaize this school as well-while I try to post the photos I took today. Maybe there's something to this visualization! 

Tashi Deleks Amma La and Namaste!

The hailstorm that pounded the lawn and gardens outside the cafe at Rogkp, in Boudha, Kathmandu, was a big surprise. I expected the usual dry, hot, dusty Spring time weather, but now was wondering how I would keep warm in the villages wearing cotton skirts and tees. Today the clouds piled up again and then let loose with rolling thunder, or as my Tibetan friend Karma would say, "sky dragon talking". I wondered how the children who sit in fields to attend school were doing in this unusual climate.
Yes, there are schools here that have no walls, no desks, no benches to sit on or even water for drink. Or toilet. Yet there it was in today's Himalayan Times, a photo of children sitting in neat rows their books on their laps, having school outdoors, where they hold it every day. The newspaper article went on to report that Adarsha Saraswoti Primary School has 150 students attending it, but instead of classrooms the children carry mats from home that they sit on all day. What happens when kids get thirsty? "They have to walk all the way home to drink water," said one teacher interviewed in the article.
This is actually not the first time I've heard of this in Nepal. Many remote areas in these Himalayan areas are difficult to build in, or the authorities who can help put up their hands with a "Ke Karne?" gesture- translated as, "what to do?"
At least we've been successful in getting four schools built and functioning, plus 2 libraries through our HANDS in Nepal org.  Children in these villages have more than mats now to further their education along.
Today I met Tashi, a softly spoken Mustang Tibetan who has asked for help in building a school on land where currently the children from his homeland sit outdoors, same as the children at the Adarsha school and other outdoor schools like them in remote areas of Nepal. I am guessing when the rains fall, or the wind howls, or the sun is pounding on you, school is cancelled, which makes me wonder how any schooling is achieved at all in the outdoor scenario.
Tashi Deleks, by the way, is the Tibetan greeting, sort of a "I wish you all the best, to your family and future."
After meeting with Tashi today to discuss the palns to bring the outdoor school for Mustang Tibetans "indoors," through a HANDS in Nepal school building, I feel hopeful-for at least these children the sun, rain and wind won't dictate whether or not their education continues.
Yea, "Tashi Deleks, Amma la and everyone!"

On To Nepal-Mustang-Tibetan School Trip 2015

Namaste Everyone!
I am leaving April 1 to begin exploring our new project-a school and dormitory for school children who migrate down to the Pokhara Valley. Jake Peters, our man in the field, who was visiting our school projects last winter, discovered the children and adults who care for them while in Astam. What he found out was beautifully written about on Jake's blog, and has been transcribed to our HANDS in Nepal web site at www.handsinnepal.org. I hope you take the time to visit our web site and read Jake's story-as well as his video of the children singing and dancing for him.
This trip takes us a huge step forward towards helping the Mustang-Tibetan group realize their dream of a school...and a place to sleep.  Education is front and center to people who live on the land-and seldom have the opportunity to learn to read and write. Add to that the possibility of bringing computers and the internet to this group, as our friend Mark Pinoli of Logged On is working on.
 This is not a solo endeavor of HANDS. For the first time we are partnering with others who also care about helping children of the Himalayas. We are excited to join hands with like-minded orgs who feel like we at HANDS in Nepal that education is the greatest gift you can give people who are asking for help out of poverty. Please check-in as I begin the first leg of this project by flying over to Nepal to meet with the people, visit the land and plan out the details of this project.

Namaste and thank you so much for your support, love and help!

HANDS Update for 2013-2014

         HANDS update: What about HANDS in Nepal today?

(Please click on this site to read the entire article)
HANDS and eyes? HANDS and jackets? HANDS and books?
Greetings and Namaste!
It has been awhile since I have sat and recapped the many projects HANDS has, well, had its hands into. This past year, 2013-and on into the current one, shows how much can be done with a lot of heart and a little money. It seems to become our mantra at HANDS-good intentions, creative thinking, and a strong support base can bring about big change for many Nepalese, some of the poorest people on this planet.

Street children who benefit from a hot meal and education at the Bal Sarathai School in Kathmandu

We continue to get requests from villages where we have been, and from those who have heard about our org and the educational opportunities we bring. The desire to learn has never been stronger in Nepal, where modern technology, like smart phones and ipads, have trickled into enough remote areas to show villagers what is available-if they had the ability to read, access learning and get "connected."

Do you have books for us?

Children at Buddhist Child Home Orphanage, where HANDS brings scholarships, solar lights, supplies and clothes

         The more we open libraries, repair and help build village schools, sponsor scholarships, bring materials like solar lights and books, and listen to what the villagers want, the more we see how vital the work of spreading literacy and literacy programs are to helping a people find their future.  The challenges for a small org like HANDS are many, its true, not just because of limited funds, but time for volunteers to work in the villages, and finding resources that can be used to stock up libraries and schools, but everyone at HANDS works with passion-and a firm belief that we can make a difference.  Of course, there are many challenges in doing needs-assessments in poor villages, and the physical logistics of travel in Nepal, a country where "level" means "a little up and a little down".  Most homes and farmland are dug into the steep sides of the Himalaya foothills. Travel to and from these areas is always an adventure.

Building and roads in Nepal can take on creative adjustments to "little up and little down" terrain

HANDS volunteer and Board member Leigh Livick helping a senior Tibetan woman at Jawalakeil Refugee Camp

This past year we used our donations to accomplish three major jobs. The first was taking more library educational supplies and solar lights to the village of Fulkharta, in the Dhading Besi area of the Ganech Himals, where we had built school #2 and our first library. We also had the added benefit of volunteer Holly Nadar, who brought five boxes of reading glasses to distribute to villages we visited. 

At Fulkharka, where we had built a school and library in the past two years, we were delighted to find the children waiting with great anticipation for three members of the HANDS crew: Jan Sprague, Leigh Livick and Holly Naylor. We had come with a jeep of books, class supplies, reading glasses, solar lights, and a sewing machine for a village sewing cooperative. Children lined the school grounds and had been waiting patiently all day for our jeep, flower garlands in hand and red tika paste ready to paint our foreheads, as is the tradition in Nepal for honored guests. Many speeches lavished praise on HANDs in Nepal for helping the villagers with education and then the unloading of the jeep began, boxes opened and treasures reveled, carried into school and library, and books eagerly placed in small hands outstretched to hold them dearly as read alouds filled the air along with excited chatters.

             Children with their new solar lights, thanks to Unite to Lite and Rotary Club contributions

Jan Sprague shows Nepali school children where they are in the world on an ipad

Our host in this village is the very kind and gracious Bhupendra Adhikari, who 's family has feed and housed us on past trips to his village. After a night of home-cooked dahl bhat and many cups of tea, we awoke ready to drive on to our second site. But first, Bhupendra had a favor to ask, could we stop by the village "next door"  and see the sorry state of their school-a collapsing old heap of mud and stone, worn down by monsoon rains and winter storms.

Leigh Livick with village children in the Ganesh Himals

This middle school would be the next stop in the education curriculum for local children after completing elementary schooling at our HANDS school in Fulkharka. We walked over dirt floors, stuck our hands into huge cracks of the mud walls, and pushed on the frail tin roof-a roof that had blown off many times in storms and had to be retrieved many times and put back in place with slate rock to hold it down. This rebuilding of a vital school for the area became our next project for 2013-14.

Buildings in Nepal villages are often mud, tin, stone and wood when it's available

A day's jeep ride away to another part of the Himalayas, the Annapurnas, took us to a village that sits atop Pokhara, with stupendous views of the 3 Annapurna mountain peaks. The steep  road is only accessed by 4 x 4 jeep or walking-we choose the former with our pile of books and solar lights, as well as more reading glasses and school material. 

The road to Astam village is paved with good intentions-and disregard for road safety rails!

Our gracious host was Bishow Adhikari, who runs a splendid, cozy and very unique Eco Lodge in the area. HANDS headquarters was quickly set up in the stone cottages, with many nights spent by the wood burning stove in the kitchen/dining room. Hot tea and hot water provided by a solar panel made our stay seem luxurious-and the vegetarian meals kept out health tip-top. An added bonus was finding out the kitchen help was also a trained yoga instructor. That kept Jan's back and hips limber enough for the longest hikes, along the dirt roads to the village of our third project-a two room addition to a Dalite school that badly needed more room-and a library. 

                                             Reading in the HANDS library in Fulkharka

We met the villagers for the room addition to the Dalite school in our usual meeting place-an empty field. It always amazes me how tea is served no matter where we meet, and the villagers gracious and humble about providing the hot steamy cups in tin, sugary sweet. 

Once we outlined with the key people of the village what HANDS could realistically provide, dimensions of the building and other key factors to keep the cost within budget, we were able to take our report and return home to the HANDS board to make our presentation.

                                           The views of Annapurna from the Eco Lodge

Bishow in our HANDS library, with a banner thanking HANDS for the library and books


Our Board approved the remodel of the cracked and falling apart middle school in the Dhading Besi district and the addition of rooms at the Dalit Village school we visited so they may have more classrooms and a library. By working with Mark Pinoli, who runs the excellent NGO "Logged On Foundation" we hope to bring computers to the school as well.
The combined efforts of those of us who believe in education for helping people rise out of poverty, and the belief that all children-all people-deserve the right to read, we continue to make amazing inroads into some of the poorest and most remote areas on our planet. We are so grateful to our benefactors: The Dworak Family, Sam Kolbee, who works on fundraising in Australia for us, and for the many, many people who make contributions at our fund-raisers and talks, contributing not just money, but music, food and contributions to our silent auctions. To you, we raise our hands in 'Namaste', and cannot say thank you enough times for the opportunities you give to those who benefit the most from our work.

                                                                 "NAMASTE!"

Children of the Dalit (untouchable) village who will benefit from the school addition

 HANDS in Nepal was started by a young man, Danny Chaffin, who had one wish-to help a Nepali friend build a school in his village. The project rolled into the next school, the next library, and we will continue to build and bring literacy as long as people believe in us enough to help us fund the projects. I know I speak for myself and our board when I say this is some of the most fulfilling work we have done in our life.

                     Danny Chaffin with village children in Dharka Village, Dhading Besi, Nepal

                                                 Shiny new HANDS in Nepal school!

Please see our facebook page for current photos and up-to-date information on our projects. Just type in HANDS in Nepal when you log onto facebook. We are able to keep the facebook page updated far more frequently and more easily than our web site, thanks to our board member and loyal facebook editor Heidi Spencer.
Please leave any comments, questions or ideas here, or email me at:
jansprague2@gmail.com
Thank you for reading my blog-thank you for your interest in children everywhere. They are our future and I truly believe how we treat children reflects on our evolution as a species sharing this planet with fellow humankind. I like to emphasis the last part of that word!
With kindness,
Jan Sprague
HANDS in Nepal

Logging Into Logged On

  (please click on the article to read the entire piece)

                                   A Nepali farmer and his children prepare a field for planting


  Why would a poor, disadvantaged Nepali child need a laptop, when clean water and food are a daily goal?  Why even a school then in a village where people struggle to etch out a living that can provide enough protein for their families with a few crops left-over to sell or trade for other provisions, such as cooking oil?
  People like Mark Pinoli, the enthusiastic founder of the Australian Logged On foundation, and we at HANDS in Nepal, are often asked these questions. At one fundraiser, a man who had been in the Peace Corps putting in wells in villages in Africa so the villagers there could have drinking water, asked if our efforts and money were not better spent doing clean water projects. Another woman at a different occasion, after seeing my slides of beggar children and their parents before and after when the children were able to come to a school for a daily meal and teaching, asked how people in Nepal feel about me exploiting their children for money. This was a baffling question to me, as I was trying my best to show through pictures the struggles the very poor of Nepal endure, and why education can be such a hope for a better future for their children.
  Two different types of questions, difficult to sort out the intention behind each, and many more inquiries from those not familiar with Nepali culture or the extreme poverty there, from those who often have not traveled there or been in the villages.  Yet these penetrating questions are always on my mind. What is priority for a poor village in the Himalayas? Books or water? A bathroom next to the school so girls can attend, or seed money for the villagers so they can have crops? A generator so they can mill their grain into flour when no electricity is available or a computer lab so their children can get the exposure to the outside world that enables them to expand their horizons?
  Mark has a vision and so do we at HANDS. In meeting Mark, it has been refreshing to have someone who also walks our path and believes as much as we do about education, and literacy, being the key to a sustainable and bright future for children in impoverished countries.

Something seldom seen in Nepali villages-computers!

Inside Logged On's Computer lab in the village of Astam, outside Pokhara in the Nepali Annapurna Himalayan foothills

  One day, after trekking in Nepal, Mark, who had worked in the computer industry in Australia, had an idea. Seeing the poor condition of many of the schools and lack of supplies for school children, and especially the nonexistence of computers anywhere, he wondered, "what sort of world could be opened up to these children, and what type of educational opportunities could they have, if they were able to log onto the internet?" Imagining how it would open the world to them, as well as build bridges to educational programs and learning opportunities for these children in the Himalayas, Mark returned home to ask friends and business contacts how they felt about donating computer equipment to a village in Nepal where he found two requirements he was seeking-a willingness to try something modern, and electricity. 

  That village was Astam, where a tenuous strip of electrical cord ran up from the closest city, with promise of more to come. It was enough power to try his scheme out-and with loads of enthusiasm from both sides of the planet-the Himalayan village excited about having the ability to connect with the world this way, and Australians who were keenly interested in how to help by donating equipment, Mark was off to creating his Logged On Foundation and following his dream.

  I met Mark one day in Kathmandu at Himalayan Java in Thamel. He happened to be in the big city briefly before traveling on to Pokhara and Astam, but had enough  time to share a coffee with me. We found we shared many similarities between both our iNGO;s (international non-government organization) . Both Logged On and HANDS in Nepal feel strongly that education is the path out of poverty and by providing children of the next generation with learning tools, we can help them help themselves. 

We both also believe the programs have to be self-sustaining: villagers need to be engaged in the creation of these programs for themselves, not us coming in to dictate our cultural views or norms.

CHILDREN IN ASTAM ENJOYING THEIR BOOKS AT THE NEW HANDS IN NEPAL LIBRARY

So as to the questions of what is most important, computers and books, food or clean water, I take my answer from my Nepali friend Rajan. One day we were discussing the long list of Gods and Goddesses in the Hindu pantheon, and I asked Rajan, how do you ever learn about all of them? He is found of saying " Om Shiva" for just about anything, so I knew he had a special connection to the God Shiva. He did shrug though, and tell me, "Jan, there is no way you can know it all or do it all. You pick your God and that is your focus." Om Shiva.

So, I guess we pick education. As a small iNGO, with a budget under $10k a year, with no operating cost for an office stateside, and many reliances on volunteers and other who believe in education like us, we are able to do a lot of things in Nepal in this area. We have built two schools and two libraries, have supported orphans in their education, and have supplied about 8 sewing machines at last count to a women's sewing cooperative in Jorpati. This is also education-for those who are seeking a vocation. 

  Logged On is doing their part as well, with their speciality. If you go to Mark's home site, you will see their Mission Statement, neatly worded towards providing education through the internet to the outer world-and all the opportunities that will provide. 

Giving a hand to  some new friends in Astam

One more little saying that comes to mind, from one of my favorite teachers, the Buddha. "There is enough abundance in this Universe for all things". I do believe that-there's no shortage out there of money, energy, enthusiasm and ideas on how to help others. I choose education and libraries, Mark chooses education and technology-we all believe in the power of education and literacy to help those who need to learn how best to help themselves.

Women in the Sewing Cooperative give a hand to HANDS recent donations of sewing machines 

 However you choose, which ever path you find yourself on, I hope it brings you great happiness and satisfaction in doing something to make this world a better place, for that seems to be what it is all about. And we can all do it by helping and supporting each other towards that goal, whether it's your family, or a family in the Himalayan foothills asking for a hand.

Please check out our website as well at:

www.handsinnepal.org and you can email me at:

jansprague2@gmail.com

I am always happy to hear comments and ideas from blog readers!

Why Do Children Beg?

A young beggar with her baby on the streets of Kathmandu

(Please click on the photo to read the full blog)

When my friend Malla met me for tea yesterday, she was obviously distressed. Mala, a young middle-class Nepali woman who I met a year ago, had started a school for beggar children last year by gathering enough donations to rent a dilapidated, old building on the outskirts of the ghetto/slum neighborhood of Pashupati in Kathmandu. The children attending the school came from the riverbanks, where they lived under plastic sheeting or if lucky, on plywood hovels held off the wet ground by bricks. Their parents are the scarred, crippled, "dalite" (untouchable) beggars plying the streets for any rupee they can find. Often the children are forced into working in any way they can to keep the family at a survival level. I have seen children work as "rag pickers", haul heavy packages for shop keepers and work as tea wallahs delivering tea to businesses instead of going to school. Worst case scenario, they get picked up by child-traffickers and sold as slaves. This is an all-to-common reality in very poor countries like Nepal and India.

Why can't they go to the many government schools in the city, I asked my friend Rajendra, who was himself at one time a child of the streets. I have come to greatly admire Rajendra and all he has accomplished in his life. He has brought himself up from street urchin to University graduate, but it wasn't without some help from an American, Allan Aistrope, who gave Rajendra a chance at education. "The government schools won't take them," Rajendra told me, "they look like trash, they are dirty and dressed in rags. They don't want them in the schools with other kids." As horrible as it seemed, I thought about the same stigma we have in the States with homeless children not dressed in the latest styles being ostracized by other kids.
"Also, they are addicted to the streets," said Rajendra, who's wisdom and experience with Nepali culture I've come to trust. Mala agreed. The children have a certain freedom on the streets that they don't have in school-and some are literally addicted to glue, or huffing.
Mala decided to try and do something to help the street children of the worst slum area in Kathmandu because when she went to the temple at Pashpupati, she wondered what was the future for these poor children who would remain illiterate and in servitude to anyone willing to pay them for the rest of their lives. She gathered enough donations to rent a tall building and talked enough of her friends into volunteering as teachers to start up her school which she called "Bal Sarathi". She said at first she had to lure children to school with food. The promise of a hot meal of dahl bhat (lentils and rice) was enough for the parents to bring their children, whether the children wanted to go or not, to the school, because the parents wanted to kids to have at least one meal a day. The children were washed, clean clothes put on and food given, then the learning begins.

Mala Kharel

You can email her at:

Mala Kharel@gmail.com

and see her web site about her school at:

www.balsarathi.org.np

Now the children love to go to the school, Malla said, and their beggar parents wait patiently each morning for the school to open and their children are delivered before they go off for their day of begging. Like parents everywhere, they are happy their children have a school, are safe and getting some nutrition.
But Mala's funds have run dry. Her eyes overflowed with tears, and without meaning to sound too melodramatic, Mala and I held hands and comforted each other, knowing what this meant to the children, their parents and to her and her staff of volunteers.
I was able to give Mala enough money for a month's rent and rice from HANDS in Nepal, and a volunteer. Kelsey Clark, a young phd graduate from Stanford, who is currently traveling around Nepal, had been tagging around with me for the day, getting a glimpse into the life of NGO work in Kathmandu. She promised Mala she would spend time helping at the school, and with more people like her, I know we can come up with some solutions for Mala.
If any of you have any ideas, please contact me or HANDS in Nepal. This type of volunteer school is just want this country needs for the very poor and the very disadvantaged.
Namaste to you dear readers!
Jan

You can watch a documentary my friend Rajendra made about Mala's school by going to You Tube and typing in Bal Sarathi.

A Library in the Anapurnas-Part 2

To build a library and bring books to the Himalayas is a little more complicated than you might imagine. Since no one at HANDS lives in Nepal, we rely on a few very good friends who are a tremendous help, one being my Tibetan son, Kelsang Lodue. Kelsang has made many trip form Kathmandu to Pokhara in our interest, taking photos for us, sending us updates and communicating with the villagers at our project sites. He does all this for the cost of his travel expenses because that is about all we can afford with our small budget. Yet he is happy to do that for us

Having Tea With My Didis

. We also depend on reliable and trustworthy villagers who can clearly understand our expectations and the limits of what we can offer, since once again, we are not UNICEF or any such big NGO. For the villagers out here in the Himalayas, anyone from the West looks like a bank, so we carefully research and make an agreement before we commit to anything. We look for the villages that need the help the most (of which there are endless choices here in the Nepal outback!) but the final decision is often who can we trust and feel our money is helping the best. We work very hard to earn those donations, and some come from very compassionate families who give generously because they believe so much in education, especially in rural poverty-stricken Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. 

Kelsang is indispensable to us! 

Getting out to the villages is hard work, and often involves pushing our jeep, or dealing with overloaded buses

We offer so many thank you's and Namastes to all who give to our education programs, from our Board of Directors who volunteer for free, to those who put $5 or $10 in the envelope when weak for help, to bigger donors such as the Dworak family who have financed entire schools. We feel a huge responsibility to those who trust us with their donations, and so part of my time in Nepal is educating those here on how it all works, from our fundraiser dinners to other benefits we do. Believe me, the Nepali people are always deeply grateful for any help.

We feel very strongly that Bishwo and the villagers of Astam are the type of village we find great pleasure in helping. Their gratitude and help in our project with them makes me feel that is what HANDS is all about-not only bringing literacy to a village, but building cultural bridges across the seas, from our country to this tiny village in the Annapurnas. Because of that exchange, any one wanting to volunteer in Astam at the HANDS library, at the Logged On computer center or at the school is most welcome by the good people in Astam. That actually goes for any of the villages we have built in.

 Kelsang will be going back next week to purchase student workbooks as we actually had enough money left over to buy those for the school teacher.  We are so happy we can help some 200 children in this small way.  We aren't UNICEF or even Room To Read, another mega-giant NGO, but we can honestly tell you where every dollar you contribute is spent, and often put you directly in touch with those your money is helping.

                         It's all worth it when you see how much joy the books bring to the children!

Many Namastes!
Jan and the HANDS in Nepal crew