International Women’s Day: a day to speak up and out for women’s rights!
Today is International Women’s Day – a chance for all of us to reflect on women’s situation in the world and take a chance to listen to their experiences and voices. Women in Nepal and all across the world are routinely excluded from equal representation, status, and respect and suffer from a range of women and girl specific social, cultural and health problems that rarely receive the attention they deserve. Therefore, Helambu Project would like to take this chance to promote Her Turn – a girl’s education and empowerment program that aims to teach girls the importance of education, empowerment, and equality. Help spread the word about Her Turn by distributing and hanging up this flyer, fundraising, and telling your friends about the importance of the Girl Effect!
Her Turn flyer - click to download
We also want to promote the following resources, documentaries, and NGOs that cover a wide range of women and girl specific issues that we think deserve more attention:
MissRepresentation – a documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film explores how the media’s misrepresentations of women have led to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence.
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men “Asia now has 163 million females “missing” from its population. Gender imbalance reaches far beyond Asia, affecting Georgia, Eastern Europe, and cities in the U.S. where there are significant immigrant populations. The world, therefore, is becoming increasingly male, and this mismatch is likely to create profound social upheaval.”
www.Her-Turn.org – our girls’ education and empowerment program.
Girl Effect – if you want to end poverty and help the developing world, the best thing you can do is invest time, energy, and funding into adolescent girls. It’s called the Girl Effect, because girls are uniquely capable of investing in their communities and making the world better.
Because I am a Girl – Plan International’s Because I am a Girl initiative is a social movement to unleash the power of girls and women
to claim a brighter future for girls in the developing world. When a girl is educated, nourished and protected, she shares her knowledge and skills with her family and community, and can forever change the future of a nation. It’s that powerful.
First Annual Himalayan Olympics comes to a close!
High jump
Children in rural schools rarely get a chance to meet and compete with students from other schools and the event was a great opportunity for students from different communities to meet and form new friendships. We had near equal participation from boys and girls, and students had a chance to compete in over fifteen events: sack races, javelin, shot put, high jump, long jump, soccer, essay writing competitions, song competitions, speech and debate, chess, badminton, volleyball, tug of war, long and short distance running, and of course football. For many students it was their first chance to play some of the sports and HELP arranged to have some sports celebrities come from Kathmandu and teach the participants some pro-tips. One student after playing his first match of football (soccer) said, “I had only ever seen football in books and pictures, I had never a chance to play it before.”
Events like these are an important part of any child’s education. Not only do sports and games motivate and inspire students, but they also give students a chance to bond with other students across schools and create a sense of camaraderie and school spirit. Perhaps one of the most moving moments of the event was when a young girl who was initially too shy to compete in the sack race because she had never competed in front of so many people before, took home the gold medal in the event. Every school eventually took home a medal in at least one event and by the end students had renewed determination to do even better in next year’ s Olympic
s.
All participating schools also received a set of sports equipment donated by Helambu Project to take home and practice for this and next year’s Olympics, which will surely be an even bigger success.
Special thanks should be given to all of the sponsors and participants of the events. HELP did a wonderful job organization the event, and MondoChallenge Foundation also generously contributed to help cover food for the all of the participants and guests. International Teachers Foundation and Children of the Earth made contributions to the event, which was also covered by Kathmandu’s newspapers and media.
Congratulations to all the participants and winners!!
High jump
Long jump
The First Himalayan Olympics Approaching!
Himalayan Olympics begins on the February 18th!
An exciting event is just on the horizon – the first annual Himalayan Olympics. Over 15 schools have been invited and over 200 students will be participating in a three day sports and games tournament. Competing teams will be equally composed of both boy and girl participants. They will compete in a range of events that challenge them physically, mentally, and artistically. Events range from soccer and badminton, to chess and speech, to song and dance. Helambu Project has donated sports equipment to all participating schools and prize money for the winning school. The winning team will be able to spend the money on school related events and materials, and all participants will receive certificates for competing.
This is the first regional inter-school event in Helambu and a rarity in Nepal. All the participants are very excited and have been practicing their skills.
Helambu Project is pleased to be partnering with our friends the Helambu Education and Livelihood Project (HELP), a local NGO, and MondoChallenge Foundation, who will be covering food related expenses for the student’s stay. Good luck to all of the contestants!
If you want to contribute, there is still time!
Hit one of our donate buttons and be sure to mention the Himalayan Olympics in the subject line.
Morning exercise at Nakote school
Practicing for the event!
HP’s Beau Miller and Danielle Preiss on University of Exeter’s “Think IR” blog
Development projects extending public services and infrastructure in Nepal are good, but doomed if not stemming emigration
and fostering economic prosperity.
To read the whole article, please click here.
Helambu Project’s Beau Miller on PolicyMic
PolicyMic is an online platform for political news and debate.
Beau Miller has just published his article on development in Nepal there.
Check it out: In a Globalizing World, Nepal’s Solution is Local.
Pearl does it again!
Pearl Wight ran her third race in as many years to fundraise for the Helambu Project, raising £400 at the Skye Half Marathon in the early summer of 2011.
Pearl has been involved with Helambu Project for over 3 years as a nursing adviser, health camp worker and fundraiser, raising nearly £2000 for our Nepali friends – thank you Pearl!
Helambu Project has Gone Nomad in the Press
Check out this informational article about volunteering with our school in Nepal.
GoMad Nomad Travel Mag is the magazine for those who want to get off the beaten path, and really experience a new place.
It was the perfect place for Helambu Project to promote its volunteer and intern opportunities.
We hope this article piques the interest of potential volunteers who may want to come to Gangkharka, and play an active role in its development.
A special thanks to Anna, one of our volunteers for the photos!
A New Partnership
Now you can make secure, tax-deductible donations to our school online at www.wideawake.org. Wide Awake International is an organization that promotes the work of grassroots NGOs from around
the globe, and VEC is honored to be among those chosen.
Don ate to
a project of your choosing, and watch videos from the school.
Just over a year has passed since we built Gangkharka’ s fir
st school! Help us keep up the momentum.
New School New Name!
The boarding school in Gangkharka
is pleased to welcome a new Tibetan language teacher to its faculty.
He is a Buddhist monk associated with the Tibetan Government in Exile, which has expressed a desire to collaborate with us on future projects that help preserve Himalayan cultures.
VEC will also file its name as Pasang Sherpa Memorial Boarding School, in memory of the donor of the schoolgrounds.
Food prices in Nepal have increased drastically in the last week, requiring that even more of our budget be allocated to purchases until the school’s garden yields crops.
However, word is spreading about VEC’s work, and the district government, along with many in the Sherpa diaspora are expressing their support.
Several families who once left their villages in Helambu have now voiced a wish to return to the region, and build in Gangkharka.
Future Plans for the New School
At the moment, there are 104 students study ing
at their new school
in Gangkharka. A further 26 are studying in Kathmandu.
In addition to a standard Nepali curriculum, the students are also taking Sherpa and Tibetan language classes.
We are applying to the United Nations to help supply food to our project, while expanding the garden and farmland in order to accommodate the recent increase in the population there. Our goal is for the school to be self-sustaining in terms of the food provided to the students.
The planning phase completed, we are also fundraising for a eco-friendly hydroelectric system that will provide a local source of energy for the school and two nearby villages.
