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.
Community Leader and School Founding Donor Passes Away
Spring has brought Helambu the gift of education thanks largely to the generosity and leadership of the woman pictured to the left. Referred to affectionately as “Evee”, Pasang Lamani Sherpa, charity president Dorjee Sherpa’s aunt, was the donor of the lands upon which now stand Gangkharka’s first boarding school. She passed away this week from an unknown fever.
She was however, able to live long enough to see the school completed and the students and teachers arrive to begin classes. The school will be her legacy for as long as it stands, as will the good its students will do for their country years after they graduate. She will be missed by her family and neighbors in Helambu, as well as the volunteers who were lucky enough to share tea with her.
The next few months will see great advancement and milestones in development for Helambu. Construction will soon begin on a micro-hydroelectric system th
at will provide power to the boarding school, the village of Gangkharka, and other nearby areas. This will be a consistent
and environmentally-friendly source of power that will allow for multi-media lessons at the school.
The importance of this cannot be understated. In this remote area, where there are not even roads, the people of these communities will have regular access to electricity, as opposed to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city, which now enjoys as little as four hours of electricity everyday.
School begun!
Following the completion of a construction process that began in September, the first wave of students in Gangkharka’s new board ing school arrived
in the village from Kathmandu.
The students were thrilled to return to their home region after living and learning at a private school in Kathmandu. Now closer to culture and family, they will have access to a quality education that will simultaneously encourage the preservation of traditional practices and lay the foundation for the skills they will need to keep their villages pristine and prosperous for generations to come. For now, there are 55 children enrolled at the school with another 35 to follow soon.
Their ages range from as young
as 4 to 11.
Construction of the school begins.
From a dream that started many years ago the construction of the school and boarding facility finally started in September 2008.
For the next six months there will be over thirty labourers working away to complete the building work, with an estimated completion date of Spring 2009.
Without Western luxuries such as electrify or petrol driven machines, the school will be built completely by hand.
A permanent squad of twelve labourers will rema in on site with many others
involved in portering the building materials from the valleys below.
