Room to Read Blog

It's Nothing But the Best for this Local Community in Nepal and their New School

The temperature outside is dropping steadily as the ominous sound of an impending rain storm grows nearer.  In the middle of what has already proven to be a particularly cold month for Nepal, this is not good news. But despite the bitter cold, bicycles, the best transportation for the flat plain of Tarai, cover the parking lot -- left there by people who have come to witness the half constructed school building that is still missing a roof.

Nearby, a bonfire rages with members of the community, somewhat under-dressed for the day’s cold, huddled closely around the heat source. They are, of course, talking about the weather but, in stark contrast to the gloom of this frosty day, the mood is decidedly celebratory.  The huddled crowd has more important things to do that sit around lamenting the icy weather…they have a school to build!

“We’re trying a new approach here,” says the sub engineer Nirmal Kumar Tharu while pointing to the building at the end of secondary school’s current structures. “We’re applying a fero-cement channel roofing to these buildings.”

The school, located in Bardiya in the district Gulariya, is a 2 ½ hour drive from on a road that could easily be mistaken for a swimming pool after a rainstorm, which was the case last time Nirmal was there to supervise the final leg of construction. “The great thing about this method,” he says of the fero-cement channel roofing, “is that it is much less cost-effective than RCC roofing and it is also much stronger.”

“It looks great too,” says Man Bahadur Tharu, the head teacher of the school. “I cannot wait for the construction to finish so we can welcome the students inside. They are already too excited and keep asking about the progress of the building every other day.”

“The best thing about this community is that they are totally committed,” says Tharu.  And it was true – the mothers, sisters and daughters had all helped heave the concrete roofing materials up to the second story of the building, at which point the fathers, brothers and sons hoisted them up onto the roof where others were waiting to put them in position.

One by one, the assembled members of the community hoisted and heaved every concrete channel up to the roof level –- an enormous task, given that each individual fero-cement channel weighed over 1,000 lbs!  There were no complaints however, the mood was festive and the air filled with laughter.

After a grueling day, the entire team including Nirmal Kumar Tharu and his expert masons, the head teacher of the school, and the community members paused to admire the fruit of their hard labor.

Through the  pouring rain, the building  appeared to glow. Satisfied, one of the workers heaved a long sigh. “Looks good, eh?” he remarked.

Silence.

“Good?”

“It’s our school, we build. It’s nothing but the best.”

-- Rishi Amatya (with Shauna Carey)

To learn more about our School Room program, click here.

Karmic Blessings from India: One Father's Thanks

From the verandah where we were sitting I could see him sitting on his haunches under a tree across the dusty road and squint to keep out the sun.  He had been sitting there in the hot sun for more than two hours and I thought he was waiting to escort his child back from school.

We had barely finished talking to other students, but perhaps our movement of picking up our files gave him the cue -– for in a jiffy he was standing on the edge of the verandah with his palms pressed together in a namaste.

The moment he caught my eye, he walked towards us with his hands still folded. He looked tired and a little dehydrated and before we could ask him anything he said: “My name is Nagaraj, K Nagaraj,” emphasizing the ‘K’ as if is his whole identity hinged on that one letter.

He sat on the periphery of the grass mat and looked at the floor as he spoke.

“I know you are busy but I will take just two minutes,” he said before continuing, “When I learned that you were coming to this village, I asked your Room to Read staff to help me get an appointment so that I could personally thank you all for all that you have done for my child.  I don’t know how or why you chose to help our village, but I am sure my daughter has done some good karma to be blessed with this opportunity. If Room to Read had not helped my child, today she would be sitting at home and I would have been cursing my fate.  Please convey my family’s gratitude to all your staff for doing this good deed.”

When he looked up his eyes were wet but he was not finished.

“I have three children and I could only afford to educate two. Since the older two were already in school when Kripa, my youngest, was born, they continued with their schooling.  When Kripa was five, I found it difficult to tell her why she should not go to school. What made it even more difficult was her enthusiasm for school. She would get up early and even before her mother could cook breakfast she was ready with her school bag!”

Nagaraj is a farmer and has a small piece of land on the outskirts of the city. It is not a very fertile patch but he manages to coax a groundnut harvest each year from that. The little earnings from that is all that the family has for a livelihood.

“This land is all I have and if I sell it or pawn it, my family will starve. I was in a dilemma because from my own experience, I knew too well that education is the best gift we can give our children.  I was helpless.

“It was then that Room to Read came to my rescue. Since my daughter was a good student, she was selected as part of the Girls’ Education program and Room to Read helped to find her a school with a boarding facility so that she does not have to travel long distances.”

Nagaraj’s voice breaks but his broad smile conveys his happiness. Currently, all three of his children are in school and he is a proud father. Kripa is a brilliant student and is now in 8th grade.  Her elder brother is about to graduate grade twelve and her older sister is in grade ten.

“We get to see Kripa two or three times each term.  Her mother misses her especially when there is a festival or family gathering. Sometimes I catch her crying softly at night and I know she is missing Kripa.  But, I chide her and remind her that we are lucky that our child has this opportunity and we should encourage her to do well instead of making it difficult for her.

“For me it is important that my children study because when I was growing up, my parents did not realize this. My father thought it was more important that I tended to the cattle. As a result, I only studied through 5th grade. When I see my old classmates now, I cringe with shame but because of my children, I don’t have to cringe any longer.”

-- Reena Luke

To learn more about our programs in India, click here.

Nepal: A School for Her Granddaughter

Bishnu Maya Gurung, age 60, woke up a little early that day anticipating what was on the horizon.  She cooked and cleaned around the house, hoisted her granddaughter on to her back and made her way on foot to the Shree Lamaguru Secondary School.  It takes her approximately 15 minutes to walk from her house to the school; it was the school her kids attended and last she heard, it was now in shambles and needed major attention.

She was well aware of the school's existence since it had been established in 1974 -- some 35 years ago when it was one of the first schools to be opened in her native area of Jugedhara, Dhading, Nepal. Jugedhara is a 2-hour uphill walk from Dhadingbesi, the district headquarter of Dhading district, which itself is about a 3 hour journey to Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu.

Bishnu Maya remembers when she first heard that the school was in decline. “There was even the talk of shutting it down,” she remembers. Around the same time, circa 2001, the school elected a new management committee and a new head teacher. The new management committee, along with the local members of the community, vowed they would restore the school to its former glory.

Starting in 2001, the new management committee scoured various ways to improve their educational status in the district. They knew that the Shree Lamaguru Secondary School was the only school in the nearby vicinity so it was vital that they take charge because failing to do so would mean that their children would have to walk for hours to attend another school. The school explored numerous options and alternatives for fixing the situation; they called in various organizations to help –- which some did.  However, one day a member of the local community heard about Room to Read and their Challenge Grant model and thought this would be a wonderful  opportunity to rebuild the school.

“The community needs to pitch in,” Bisnu Maya remembers thinking out aloud. The last time the community got together was to advocate giving the barren patch of land to the school. Now it was again their turn to help the school but this time they needed to be more proactive and engaged to ensure its sustainability.

The school called a meeting with the community. In the meeting, the members passed a motion that they would all come together to help build the school.  And, that same year, they did -– joining hands to clean, excavate and help in whatever way they could.

On November 24th , when the school was on the last leg of construction, Bishnu Maya, along with rest of the community, came waltzing in with a special spring in their steps. They helped to smooth over the land that would house the future playground for their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. Like swarm of bees, they came in droves and immediately started to work. Some of them brought their own tools, some used their hands and did whatever task was required. Despite their senior age, many grandparents like Bishnu Maya, also pitched in to help.

“It shows that how eager they are to build the school,” says Som Nath Nepal, the head teacher of the school.  It was due to him and Kaal Bahadur Gurung, the School Management Committee head as well as Musa Ghale, the head of the Construction Committee that the school is in such a progressive phase. The hard work and dedication put forth by these three was matched equally by the local community. The head teacher believes that the community, most of whom are under-educated or illiterate, “instinctively know the value of education” and came to help in the physical construction of the school.

Kaal Bahadur Gurung voiced the same opinion. “The community,” he says, “are more than happy to help.”

And, on the day when she hoisted up her granddaughter on her back, Bishnu Maya was joyous and celebratory. “I’m doing this for my granddaughter,” she said and then motioned to a cherub sleeping peacefully on her back. "One day, when she grows up, she will be able to look back fondly on her school. It was the school her grandmother help to construct."

-- Rishi Amatya

To learn more about our School Room program, click here.

Age of Enlightenment in India: Muslim Village Breaks the Illiterate Cycle for Girls in their Community

On the border of the Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan sits a small, rural and very remote village of Mirzapur that claims they found enlightenment -– enlightenment from education.   I was fortunate to visit this village last week.

It’s a 5 hour drive to reach Mirzapur from Delhi along the highway and dirt roads packed with cars, trucks, 3-wheeled “autos”, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, camels and many, many people.  We are being taken into this protected Muslim community with Room to Read’s partner organization Alwar Mewat Institute of Education and Development (AMIED) who encouraged this once illiterate and uneducated community to support education and particularly, girls’ education.  They have found success -– since India gained independence 60 years ago, this will be the first generation of girls to attend school in this community.

In Rajasthan alone, Room to Read’s Girls Education program works in five districts and supports over 800 girls through five partner organizations.  In partnership with AMIED, Room to Read helps close to 200 girls remain in school -– some of those girls attend a pilot “bridge course” which tutors those forced to drop out of school and helps assimilate them back into school by catching them up with the mainstream curriculum.  When we visited the Mirzapur bridge course, we met over 40 young girls who are desperately trying to find their way back into school.

I saw one girl -- possibly 12 years old with a small infant and wondered if this was her own.  No, it was explained: this girl brings her baby brother to the course because she is responsible for taking care of him and if this means she has to bring him to school, that is what she does.  The teachers in the course encourage this; they encourage anything to help these girls transition back into the school system.

It’s not just the financial struggle for the family that keeps girls out of school.  Even more so in Rajasthan, it is cultural barriers among the Muslim communities that gave this community a statistic of a 0% literacy rate among women.   Girls are not encouraged to study and if there is school, it was typically taught by religious leaders outside of the mainstream school system.   But AMIED would not hear of this and a few years ago began an underground movement to ingratiate themselves into this community and start a “wave of enlightenment” -– starting with the men of Mizapur and teaching them the value of education.  AMIED felt if they could just convince one of the stronghold Muslim communities to change their ways, they would act as a model for others in the region who would want to follow their lead.  And, it’s been working! 

 

We sat with the men’s educational council who explained after many years they have recognized the value of education and feel comfortable with girls attending school because they have trust that it will help their community in the long run.  Just four years ago before the campaign began, only fifteen children attended the local primary school – all of them boys and since 1952, only 20 men in all had graduated.  Now, after AMIED’s campaign and with Room to Read’s support, there are 575 children in the school and 275 of them are girls and with so many students attending, they built a secondary school so students could continue their learning!  In fact, we met Rajbala, the first girl ever in this community to complete 8th grade and she is now being treated as the local celebrity.   She told us, “when I graduate, I hope to become a teacher and give back to my community who has provided me this opportunity.”

-- Rebecca Hankin