Visitors from Australia

Judy and Lindsay have been monthly donors to the Mirge School Environment Improvement Program since September 2012 - THANK YOU! Last month they had the opportunity to see where their donations had been going. So they visited Mirge and met the teachers and students at both Majhgaun Lower Secondary School and Kalidhunga Higher Secondary School. They also stayed at the new accommodation built to house mainly volunteers (we haven't had any yet). They have now returned to Australia, after what they described as being treated like royalty and having a wonderful time. I am sure that they will comment on this blog and share their story with you. Thank you again Judy and Lindsay and through your support we are able to continue our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Mirge.

Inviting volunteer English Language Trainers

yahoo!! We are ready to start training teachers and community members in English Language skills and mentor teachers in their classrooms. All we need are some volunteer trainers who would love to live in a rural village in a homestay with the Lama family. Please consider the opportunity and share this with as many people as you can. We would really like to start this year and then keep a steady stream of trainers over the next few years.

 

Volunteer accommodation ready to go!

Well, after more than 12 months since we started the foundations, the accommodation is ready to house our first visitors and volunteers. Two of our recurring donors will be the first supporters to visit Mirge since the School Environment Program was launched in 2010. They will arrive in September and hosted by our partner Dawa Sherpa from Adventure Thamserku Treks & Expeditions Pvt. Ltd and Phulkaji, my friend and colleague who started all this! This is so very exciting - good on you Judy and Lindsay, I hope you have a great time. It is so wonderful to be at last sharing this beautiful place and the recipients of every supporter's generosity with those who are making it happen.

Also, Classrooms in the Clouds have completed their most generous gift to Majhgaun by building the new Majhgaun Lower Secondary School. It looks great! ECCA have helped the Nature Club plant a Herbal Garden and to consider some plans for future environmental beautification of their new school. More news ASAP about Nature Club activities. I have authorized the MLSS Early Childhood Development teacher to enroll in training in Kathmandu during November and I have negotiated support from THRASS Australia to assist in supplying resources for the up-coming THRASS training for Mirge school clusters in December. We are hoping to influence the delivery of a phonetics program for teachers of class ECD to 2. That's all for now but expect an update in the next few weeks when ECCA gets back to me about their most recent activities.

2013 Mentoring Focus at Majghaun and Kalidhunga

I have been back in Nepal since December 13th 2012 and have visited the schools and undertook some work on the volunteer accommodation.

Nature Club Training

I am happy to report that both schools have continued to maintain momentum with the programs, especially the WATASOL and Herbal Gardens (Kalidhunga) but it was clear during our site visit on January 3rd, that mentoring is still needed with both the Nature Clubs and staff. However, the Kalidhunga Nature Club is firing on all cylinders and continue to maintain a clean school ground and have doubled their sales of WATASOL to the local community; Majhgaun on the other hand need a little more skill development to equal the results of KHSS. Thus we have agreed to conduct some further training for Nature Clubs and increase monitoring and mentoring contact. Student participation is a very new concept for these schools, as is staff participation in anything other than teaching. Therefore, it is expected that they would require continuous support for a while yet. We have asked the schools to provide us with more regular reporting of activities so we are always aware of the actions and processes undertaken at  each school.
I am excited to announce that we have formed an informal partnership with Classrooms in the Clouds, a British Charity, who is building the new MLSS classrooms and facilities. Our team approach to supporting school improvement at MLSS will now be a little more effective. We conducted a formal meeting with the MLSS School Management Committee and with this combined front we have shown to the school community a better support structure than before. It is anticipate that the new 8 roomed school will be completed around April 2013, just in time for the new school year.

Central Court at Volunteer House

View of 'Sunny Sitting Area'

I have previously written about some ideas and completed programs for Teacher Training in past Blogs. Now ECCA and Classrooms in the Clouds are going to approach this need in a coordinated manner and may involve other Training NGO's especially utilizing trained Nepalese trainers supported with western educational professionals. Sarah Hagen from CitC will be coordinating this with our support and with the use of ECCA's connections with local authorities. Volunteers and trainers will be able to stay in our new accommodation that we have been slowly developing over the past 12 months. I hope that we can offer accommodation and living support to up to 6 volunteers at once from April 2013. This means that we will be able to confidently provide a comfortable place for volunteer staff to stay when they help with training programs. We anticipate that we will have two seasons of training, one focused on the peak holiday periods for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
So the next blog entry, I hope, will be photos of a new school and new accommodation with details about volunteer trainer opportunities and a holiday in Nepal in an authentic foothills Tamang farming village. Till then, Namaste.