Changing lives one classroom at a time

Tucked away in rolling, lush, green hillsides is Irkhu Pokhare, a pretty little village home to approximately 1,100 people. This rural village in Sindhupalchok Nepal is nestled among terraced fields growing rice, corn, millet and wheat..

Yet, despite these picturesque surroundings, when we visited the village school in 2011 we found a sad sight, so common in rural Nepali schools. The youngest children at the school had been allocated the worst room and obviously very little care was going into their learning and well-being.

The room was bare, filthy and thick with dust. Little children were sitting listlessly in the dark, windowless room. I remember gasping with shock as I entered the classroom because dust was pluming around my feet. A small boy jumped up and started sweeping, perhaps out of embarrassment. It brought tears to my eyes. There seemed to be very little supervision, there were no teachers around and these tiny 3 to 5 year olds were sitting on their own.

Sadly, our experience at Irkhu Pokhare village school is not unique. It is a common belief in rural Nepal that early childhood is not important. Little children across the country are relegated to dirty, empty rooms with little teacher interaction.

But happily, things are vastly improved now at Irkhu Pokhare. Just look at the difference! First Steps Himalaya refurbished the spaces for the early childhood classrooms with fresh carpet, bright, clean walls and quality classroom furniture and learning resources.

The early childhood teachers had very little training in how to manage, let alone inspire small children. But now that has changed. After attending First Steps Himalaya training workshops, the village teachers are developing into confident, professionals, able to deliver effective and innovative lessons. They receive regular fortnightly mentoring and support from our team of trained Early Childhood monitors.

It might seem hard to change the world but step by step First Steps Himalaya is getting there.

Help us change the lives of more children in rural Nepal. For just $1 a day, you can become a Friend of First Steps Himalaya ensuring long term support of schools like this. Click here to find out more

Back to school in the new norm

Back to School finally

After 8 months at home, schools are slowly reopening across rural Nepal. For many children, this will be the first time they have learnt anything for eight months. Whilst children in more developed countries have adapted to learning online and have lessons delivered to a device, most children in rural Nepal have had no form of teaching at all since March!

Back in the classroom: Young children from the village of Sangachok finally return to their Early Learning Centre after 8 months at home.

Re-establishing Routines

Our Project Manager in Nepal, Ranjana Giri says that she was shocked on the first day back to see that the children seemed to have forgotten everything that they had learnt including their manners.

‘It was like starting all over again with most of them’ she said. Many of the children are experiencing feelings of intense fear and dread. Younger children are less likely to fully understand news reports and this can cause a sense of panic.

Socialising at a distance: Circle time is an important way for children and their teacher to reconnect with each other after so many months apart.

It is really important to get these young children back into a sense of routine and understanding of how to be resilient. This includes fun hand washing songs, social distance games and learning about healthy food.

New rules for a new normal

First Steps Himalaya has developed strict protocols for opening our early childhood centres in rural Nepal, combined with the Nepal Government school reopening advice. These new rules and routines are in place to reduce risk to staff, children and their families. Most of us now are familiar with these measures, such as social distancing where possible, wearing masks and staying home if unwell.

Hand hygiene without running water: Many rural Nepali schools must rely of water canisters for hand washing. Clean hands are a fundamental part of keeping our teachers and young students safe.

While Nepal battles on with suppressing Covid-19 in the community, we are so pleased and excited to be able to offer our young students a safe and nourishing place to learn and play.

Social distancing at play: Only learning materials that can be washed or cleaned easily are available in the classroom for one child each day. This avoids multiple sets of hands touching the same materials.

If you would like to find out more about the work First Steps Himalaya does in rural Nepal, improving teaching and classrooms, or to support our work, click here.

Transforming educational outcomes

The Syangja District

It’s not difficult to get off the beaten track in Nepal. Before the global pandemic shut down most of the world’s travel opportunities, the road to the Peace Pagoda near Nepal’s lakeside resort of Pokhara was plied by taxis taking tourists to this hill-top monument to peace. However, after the turn off to the busy car park, the number of vehicles falls away. The road twists and turns to a little visited part of Nepal.

For those who did venture there, they were delighted to find the Nepal of times gone by. Pretty roadside villages surrounded by rolling tree-covered hills, the Syangja district is inhabited by farming families producing vegetables and crops for nearby Pokhara.

From the town of Walling, a steep, seemingly insignificant tractor track rises up into the mountains. By four-wheel drive vehicle, this rough track in fact leads to innumerable mountain villages, some nestled above the clouds.

To the visitor it is a Himalayan idyll, but life is not easy. Educational opportunities, the key to sustainable, locally led improvements in living standards, are limited. Teacher training, as we know it in the West is in its infancy in Nepal where, until recently anyone could leave school and become a teacher without any formal training. The effect has left hundreds of thousands of rural children without the education they deserve.

First Steps Himalaya is a grassroots organisation working in disadvantaged rural communities in Nepal and is committed to raising local teaching standards as one of the most important factors for improving life opportunities. For the last two years teachers at many of the schools in Syangia have been supported by First Steps Himalaya’s Early Years Programme. Classrooms have been refurbished and teachers trained in contemporary teaching methods suited to the cultural backdrop of rural Nepal.

Himali School

One remote school in Syangia set on a rocky riverbank, draws children from a wide area. Like many rural schools throughout Nepal, Himali School appears very basic and downtrodden, but led by an enthusiastic head teacher, the staff are open to change and keen to learn new methods, supported by First Steps.

Vhawana Khanal has been teaching at the school for the last five years. When she attended the first of a series of eight teacher training workshops, she quickly realised that teaching could be so much more fulfilling and enjoyable if the children were happy. She had never thought about supplementing the national curriculum with fun activities and her own classroom resources. Something sparked in her and she lapped up all the new ideas on offer with great enthusiasm.

Though she was excited about introducing some of the activities that she learnt there were to be challenges ahead. The traditional rote learning methods were so ingrained in the school that parents were shocked to see their children having fun and playing games when they felt they should be writing and doing arithmetic. Nevertheless, her persistence and the support she received from First Steps started to bring about change.

“Community education is part of our programme” explains First Steps Director of Operations, Durga Aran, a Nepali who is passionate about making a difference in his own country. “Once the community saw the remarkable changes taking place in the children’s learning, behaviour and development, they became more inquisitive about what was happening in the school”.

Regular support

Vhawana received regular visits from a First Steps Himalaya supervisor, to assess progress and support her in her professional development. At the next training course, she learnt more about teaching literacy and numeracy using child friendly methods. She started using big books and number cubes as well as introducing learning games in circle time. She created her own posters to decorate the classroom and put up children’s artwork on the walls. Her classroom has become a nurturing environment that children were eager to learn in.

Lockdown challenges

But nothing is easy in Nepal and Vhawana sadly lost her husband just prior to the COVID- 19 pandemic. She is now a single mother with two young children of her own to support. The school has been shut since lockdown began in Nepal in March. Children in Nepal are now likely to miss out on at least a year’s education. Many girls will not return unless there is a concerted effort to reinforce the importance of education in these rural communities.

First Steps Himalaya continues to operate in these tumultuous times, running remote leadership workshops for head teachers and community leaders in rural Nepal. All children deserve quality early education, and we will continue to strive to make this simple goal a reality.

How you can help

This Christmas, you can help us transform the lives of thousands of children and their teachers in rural Nepal by giving a Christmas or New year card that gives back. Supporting the work of First Steps Himalaya by sending a charity gift card to your loved ones is easy, environmentally friendly and will make a real difference to the lives of rural Nepali children! https://www.firststepshimalaya.org/buy-a-gift

Article reproduced with the kind permission of International Teacher Magazine

Eat Teach Love

Fionna Heiton could be Christchurch’s very own Julia Roberts. From getting over a relationship breakup by leaving her job in New Zealand and travelling to the Himalayas, to finding her future partner and starting her own international charity in Nepal: It feels like Eat. Pray. Love got a Kiwi revamp.

Our main character came to a crossroads in her life and, having always loved exploring the Port Hills, wanted to escape and explore the world’s most famous mountainous region: The Himalayas. So, in 1998 the English as a Second Language teacher packed up her rental cottage on Kilmore Street and set off for Nepal.

It was there in Kathmandu, within a few days of arriving, that she met her love interest, Durga Aran, while working for British charity Water Aid. Fast-forward to 2001, the pair were raising their twin toddlers – Rhona and Jamie – when the parents became troubled to learn about the Nepali school system.

In 2001, the mean years of schooling for the country’s 24 million people was just 2.5, according to UN data. In comparison, the mean years of schooling for New Zealanders was 11.5.

“Hundreds of thousands of children across Nepal spend their days in dark, dirty, empty classrooms, taught by poorly trained and demotivated teachers,” says Fionna.

This was the motive that brings us to the climax of the story – the first steps. The family travelled to the village area where Durga was raised, in between Kathmandu and the Tibet border, with the goal of creating a quality early childhood centre.

“We borrowed a jeep and drove up to the remote hillside village each day. Our days were long, hot and dusty,” remembers Fionna.

“But the need was so clear and we knew that simple activities and changes could make a world of difference for the children.”

Thus, First Steps Himalaya was founded, a charity that has been making a difference in transforming lives and working on the ground in Nepal for over 10 years.

“With the help of generous donors, classrooms are developed from dirt floors to carpet. Rooms are cleaned and painted. Wooden pallets for seating are replaced with low tables suited to young children. Most rural Nepali early childhood classrooms start with only a single chalkboard, but after being refurbished by the charity, the children have access to crayons, paper, books and quality, culturally appropriate learning resources.”

Having built a teacher-training centre in 2015, the team now run effective, hands-on teacher training courses across Nepal, empowering rural teachers to create simple, engaging lessons.

After learning how to make resources from things they can find in their village, teachers can then transform their own classrooms into safe and stimulating learning environments.

“We strongly believe the key to bringing about positive change in rural Nepali schools is the quality of the teaching,” says Fionna.

Recently returning to Christchurch, after a period in Nelson, reruns of the past came flooding back to our protagonist.

“I am so grateful for all the support we have had from friends in Christchurch, the rest of New Zealand and around the world. There is such a massive need in Nepal, and we are only just scratching the surface. First Steps Himalaya will be there for the long haul.”

So, what’s next for Fionna Julia Roberts Heiton? We would not be surprised if Hollywood came knocking on her door with a story like that.

For more information or to donate visit the charity’s website. www.firststepshimalaya.org

Reproduced with the kind permission of Metropol Magazine, Christchurch

Nepal's bleak outlook

Thousands of Nepali people are arriving back in Nepal each day from overseas due to the COVID -19 global pandemic. Some arrive exhausted across the border from India having experienced harrowing long journeys. Others, are on repatriation flights from the Gulf States or Malaysia. Few have little idea of what will actually happen when they arrive home.

The stories of what is taking place in quarantine facilities are shocking. Returnees arriving in Kathmandu by air are given a list of facilities and a highly inflated price list, only to find dirty rooms with filthy bedding. Those crossing the border in Western Nepal are being put up in makeshift quarantine facilities where they sleep on hard concrete floors with very little food. In Western Nepal, a woman who gave birth in quarantine, tried to buy food but her money was rejected in case she spread covid. The effectiveness of the quarantine system is being questioned as testing is badly organised, ineffective and not backed up by contact tracing.

Widespread protests erupted in Western Nepal and the capital, when a woman was gang raped in an empty school that was being used as a quarantine facility. Despite arrests, multiple levels of corruption were uncovered, and demands made by the public to bring change in Nepal’s handling of the COVID-19 response. The Enough is Enough youth led campaign has seen peaceful demonstrations in the capital and in cities across Nepal. Well organised and nonpartisan groups are protesting at the governments alleged gross mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation continues to worsen.

As these returnees travel back to their villages, many having skipped quarantine or having failed to be accurately tested, the risk of spreading the pandemic to far flung corners of Nepal is huge. The number of cases stands at close to 12,000 and is rapidly rising each day.

The socio-economic fallout is enormous. Remittances from migrant labourers used to make up 25% of Nepal’s GDP. This will be greatly diminished with mass movement back to Nepal. The strain on the all ready struggling economy, coupled with social unrest and lack of good governance will not help matters.

The need for strengthening community level resilience is vital. Families with fathers returning to uncultivated land will need support to overcome new challenges in the wake of the pandemic. Children, who are most at risk need nurturing and given the best possible educational opportunities.

The First Steps Himalaya COVID-19 Response and Resilience programme will target rural communities through workshops and awareness campaigns to bring about sustainable change at a local level. First Steps Himalaya’s vision is that families are stronger, able to generate income and their own food from their land and that there children have the best possible start in life. Find out more about the COVID-19 Response and Resilience Programme here.

Donate now

www.firststepshimalaya.org

Ready to hit the ground running!

Back in March, Director of Operations, Durga Aran jumped in our project vehicle to leave Nepal with a couple of hours. It was not clear then when he would be able to return and this is still unclear. However, although we do not yet know when the FSH management team will be able to return to Nepal, a great deal of work has been done during “lock-down” to prepare so that we are able to hit the ground running as soon as possible.

Over in Nepal, our Nepal team are all at home in lock-down and our top priority is their safety. Our project manager, Ranjana Giri has been in daily contact with the NZ team.

Our communities really matter to us and the need for our support will be greater than ever in the coming years. Preparation is the key now.

When asked what he thought were the biggest problems facing Nepal right now, Raj Gyawali who runs a sustainable tourism company said “Right now, i think its uncertainty - of infection, jobs, economy, food, security. We are in the beginning stages - delayed as it was because of the crippling lock-down - so the combination of lock-down, lack of clarity, mistrust of authority, and general lack of awareness is fueling this uncertainty.”

Director of Operations, Durga Aran in Himali school, Syangja in March

New Zealand based office where we have been spending much time improving our processes and creating new programme material.

The Current Situation in Nepal

In Nepal, the situation becomes bleaker each day with a rising number of Covid-19 cases, the first deaths and the fact that hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrant workers are desperately awaiting repatriation or trying to flee back across the border from India. Testing is poorly managed and largely unavailable. The lack of good governance further compounds the situation.

Hunger due to lack of fresh food, unemployment and untested returning Nepalis is creating frustration, anger and fear. The immediate future is looking bleak.

Building Community Resilience

Our focus, in the near future, will be on raising health, hygiene and well-being awareness in rural Nepali communities. We have initiated a COVID-19 Response and Resilience Programme which is aimed at young children, their caregivers and their wider community by using peer to peer education and mobilising community educators share important health and well-being information and support.

Our Goals

The New Zealand based FSH team have been working on a detailed five-year implementation plan. This will consolidate our position and steer the organisation as it expands its services to communities across Nepal.

In order to achieve tangible results for remote Himalayan children and their communities, FSH needs to:

• Achieve financial sustainability to achieve the goals of an expanding and dynamic programme;

• Enhance existing capacity within FSH to administer and deliver a demand driven and enlarged programme;

• Sustain and reinforce innovative, evidence-based early education approaches, thereby transforming traditional teaching practices;

• Expand the number and quality of core teacher groups adopting and utilising innovative and international best practice teaching methods in local schools.

How You Can Help

We’ve created a fun, new downloadable fundraising kit, packed full of ideas to help our global fundraisers. Whether you want to hold a cake sale or run a marathon, we would love to hear from you. There are lots of other fabulous ideas too including wedding and birthday gifts, quiz nights and fitness challenges.

We’d love to have you on board! Find out more by clinking HERE.

Leave a Gift in Your Will

Others may wish to consider marking their life by leaving a legacy in their will. Our comprehensive ‘Leaving a Legacy’ guide can be downloaded from our website, or by clicking here. Imagine how your gift could transform thousands of lives.

Beyond The Clouds tours

While global travel has gone on the back-burner for the last few months due to the pandemic, we are now getting new enquiries for Beyond The Clouds tours in Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and Ladakh. These popular tours create income for First Steps Himalaya and we are so looking forward to taking travellers to this beautiful part of the world as soon as it is safe and possible to travel again.

Thank-you to our Generous Supporters

And finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to all the generous supporters who have donated over recent weeks. This has been a challenging time for many and we are so very grateful for your kindness and thoughtfulness.

COVID-19 response

As most of us face the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we remain safe in our own homes, enjoying good food, exercise and contact with friends via the internet.

As we approach the five year anniversary of the first devastating Nepal earthquake, Nepali people once again face major adversity. Communities still struggling to recover from the earthquakes, now face severe food shortages, rapidly rising prices and the fear that their community health services would be completely over stretched when and not ‘if’ COVID-19 reaches these remote households.

With Nepal in lockdown for the last month, desperate internal migrants attempt to walk across the country returning to their villages. Last week, a young man died en route. Overseas migrant labourers face the prospect of being sent back to Nepal or remain hungry and terrified in the gulf. Even if they are able to return, Nepal is inadequately prepared to get them home to their villages or quarantine them appropriately.

Remittances from migrant labourers made up one third of Nepal’s GDP pre-COVID-19. The harsh reality is that many migrant workers were duped into positions far different to those that they were promised. An average of two Nepalis die each day overseas, mainly in Qatar, Saudia Arabia and Malaysia. People are now becoming aware of the hideous circumstances that so many Nepali have endured for years.

Visit Nepal Year 2020 has been cancelled and the million Nepali workers in Nepal’s tourist industry now have no source of income. It will take months or even years to rebuild Nepal’s tourism industry.

Nepal Director, Durga Aran said “ Nepali people need to return to farming their land, staying in their villages. They need to look at becoming more self sustainable and finding crops that are in demand whilst adopting environmentally friendly farming practices.”

Durga said ‘“ I am really worried about what will happen to young children in times of stress. There is likely to be a rise in alcohol consumption and domestic violence. Children will be stressed and fearful, requiring careful and nurturing support at school.”

The First Steps Himalaya COVID-19 Response Programme will assist vulnerable rural communities with awareness campaigns, health and hygiene advice and provide additional educational support for early years children. “Putting this programme together now is crucial for the well being of communities already living on the edge” said Fionna Heiton, Founding Director.

Click here to find out more about the First Steps Himalaya COVID-19 Response Programme. With your help these children will have access to a better education in a supportive community.

Impact of coronavirus on our work in Nepal

As I write, the global situation of COVID -19 (coronavirus) is changing rapidly. As countries close their borders and shut down, we are pulling our Nepal Director, Durga Aran back home to New Zealand, hopefully before it is too late to travel. Our volunteers in Nepal are heading home too in the next couple of days. All of them will be self isolating.

The impact of COVID-19 is now enormous in so many sectors. Our social enterprise Beyond The Clouds, which organises travel in the Himalayan region, has taken a huge hit. All tours for this season have been cancelled or postponed and there are no new bookings for the future. Normally we would have bookings for 12-18 months in advance. These tours provide vital funds to run First Steps Himalaya.

Whilst Bhutan imposed a 14-day travel ban for tourists, this is very likely to continue beyond the original date of 20th March. It is now not possible to enter Nepal for many nationalities including Nepalis trying to get home. Effectively tourism has been shut down impacting the lives of many thousands of people. Our hearts go out to all of them, especially in countries like Nepal where there are no financial packages to help. Beyond The Clouds will be back but in the meantime, we are posting armchair travel ideas on our Facebook page

Not only has our income been affected but so has our project work. Over 100 teachers were scheduled to attend teacher training workshops in Nepal in March and April this year. This is normally a busy time for us with teachers from different parts of the country attending our residential or field based training. We have followed Government of Nepal advice and decided that in the interest of everyone’s health, these should now be postponed. Training is now scheduled for September to November 2020.

School closures in Nepal mean that we are not able to monitor schools in our programme effectively as there are no children in the classrooms! However it does give teachers an opportunity to create resources at home and we are encouraging them to do so. On a positive note, this down time is allowing us to work on capacity building of our team so that when things are up and running again, we can respond more efficiently and effectively.

The need for quality early years education is enormous in rural Nepal. First Steps Himalaya recognises that it’s programmes are only just scratching the surface. We need your help so that we can reach schools in more remote areas can benefit from our quality early years programme.

If you can help raise funds for us, then please check out our fundraising page on our website. It is easy to start a campaign and there are lots of ideas to help you. During COVID 19 you could organise an event which does not require people coming together but something they can do at home. Maybe dropping a dollar in a jar for every time you touch your face or forget to wash you hands? Organise a reading challenge or a fitness challenge where people walk, bike or run whilst in self isolation. There are lots of amazing things that you could do. By getting involved, you will not only be putting this unusual time to good use but you will be helping us make a real difference in the lives of thousands of children.

Finally don’t forget to Namaste instead of hand shaking and thank you on behalf of all of us. Stay safe!

Sangachok Nursery : From nothing to a world class ECD

Our journey began back in 2008 when Founding Directors, Fionna, Durga and their children travelled to Nepal determined to set up an Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) so that children would have access to quality early years education that Durga, who was raised in Nepal had not had. Little had changed in rural Nepal, since Durga was a boy and every school the family visited seemed to be in various stages of disrepair. The village of Sangachok Nursery had been selected as it was in an area that Durga knew well and there was reasonable road access.

Enough money had been raised to build a purpose built early childhood centre and whilst it was under construction, temporary classes commenced in the school. There were no kindergarten facilities and young children were sitting bored in dark dirty classrooms with absent teachers who knew very little if anything about modern teaching methods.

The first ECD class had just three children. The borrowed classroom was so filthy that Fionna and Durga had to attack the thick dust with brooms before they could do anything else. The children were not used to playing and it took time for them to respond to action songs, games and the fun activities that most children love. Soon, however, more and more children arrived at the door wanting to join in. Parents were peering through windows eager to see what was going on. Within a week, we had a class full of happy under 5’s playing, laughing and exploring the new learning materials.

Our purpose built ECD was soon ready and the children moved into the spacious light and airy new classrooms. The ECD became a model for the area until sadly the building was seriously damaged in the 2015 Nepal earthquake. However, even this big earthquake did not deter the children of the village from wanting to learn. In fact, attendance rose when families who had become homeless dropped their children at our temporary learning centres during the day so that they could be safe and well looked after.

Since the earthquake, FSH has built new earthquake resilient ECD classrooms with the help of Court Construction, our Kiwi building supporters. There is a separate circular building for the play group too which attracts 2 year olds and their parents.

When Director, Fionna Heiton arrived at Sangachok on a monitoring visit in May last year, she could not believe her eyes. The ECD was full of happy children who were fully engaged in activities they had chosen themselves. The room was calm, quiet, bright and orderly. Children and teachers alike were using respectful language. It was Fionna’s dream come true. We had done it!

The vision had been simple, quality early childhood education for children in this charming rural Nepali village. However, since First Steps Himalaya was founded back in 2008, more villages had requested our services. Not only have we provided quality early years education in one village but in 25 villages in 3 districts of Nepal. But that’s another story!

Read more about our story here!

Click here to donate

2020 vision

As the new decade kicks off, we at First Steps Himalaya have set ourselves the goal of taking our services to new regions of Nepal. This will involve training more rural teachers, fitting out their classrooms and providing them with the support they need to provide quality child friendly early years education.

The FSH team meet with new project partners in Pokhara, December 2019.

To achieve this we are partnering other like minded organisations who share our vision which is Opportunities through learning. These organisations have requested us to provide training and project services in their project areas. It is an honour to be so well regarded and we are thrilled to be reaching out to children, teachers and communities in different project areas in new corners of Nepal.

We would not be able to expand our services without our highly experienced and dedicated team on the ground in Nepal. We know that in order to bring about long lasting change, the key is having local Nepali staff who understand the communities in which we work. Our local supervisors are responsible for visiting a cluster of projects each week, providing in class support, monitoring and on the job training. This can involve walking for several hours up and down hills to reach outlying schools and we are full of admiration to the dedication of our front line staff.

They in turn are supported by our project manager, Ranjana Giri who oversees the day to day running of our projects in Nepal. Ranjana, who started as a teacher nine years ago, is now responsible for thirteen staff. Ranjana is also our senior trainer and along with the assistant Project Manager, runs our teacher training workshops either at Sangachok or off site at various locations. Ranjana reports to Nepal Director Durga Aran who ensures the smooth running of the entire operation.

Project Manager, Ranjana Giri meets some of the children at our projects

We are very excited to be entering into a new phase where we are able to spread our methods to teachers in brand new areas. During a recent visit to Eastern Nepal, a 12-hour drive from our Sangachok headquarters, it was clear that there are thousands of schools across rural Nepal that are in dire need of drastic change both in terms of teaching methods and behaviour within the classroom.

Children in Jhapa, Eastern Nepal

All over Nepal, teachers are still using corporal punishment as well as shouting and insulting children as a means of controlling a class. As soon as modern child friendly teaching methods are properly implemented, teachers understand the importance of respect and modify their behaviour.

Teacher training workshops creating resources and learning about classroom & behaviour management

We are constantly receiving applications from schools all over Nepal to train and support their staff so that they too can provide nurturing environments. It may sound simple, but if you have never known any other way of doing something, you are not likely to change. This is very much the case in the schools that we work with. Until they are trained by us, most teachers have only witnessed teaching in the way that they were taught. Suddenly, they realise that it doesnt need to be that way and their job becomes so much easier as children start to enjoy learning.

Children loving their learning at Sangachok ECD

First Steps Himalaya is entering its 11th year working in rural Nepal. We spend a lot of time fundraising as we are entirely reliant on the generosity of people who believe in our mission. As we enter 2020, we need more support so that we can reach more schools.

It is not too late to donate to our annual appeal which will help us do more in Nepal. We are always grateful for any help no matter how big or small. Thank you!

A day in the life of our Nepal Director, Durga Aran

We are often asked what our work entails in Nepal. Whilst every single day is different, we thought it would be interesting to give you a snapshot of a day in the life of Durga, who spends six months of the year in Nepal overseeing First Steps Himalaya’s projects.

Monday

It’s 5.30 am and I get the first message of the day on my phone. The NZ office who are 7 hours ahead of me and have already had lunch, urgently need some information for the report they are preparing on the projects.

I am just about to get dressed, when the phone rings twice more. The first is a wrong number (very frequent in Nepal) and the second is a teacher who attended training recently, wants to know if she can attend the next training and where and when will that be. Another call is from a headteacher of a school in Gorkha District who has heard of our work and wants to know how he can get our project in his school. I explain the application process in the hope that we can find a donor.

I am due at our Nuwakot projects at 10am, so quickly grab some breakfast from a Kathmandu bakery before collecting our project manager and her assistant who by the time i reach them have been waiting by the side of the dusty road. The traffic is building up already but still so much better than it would be a couple of hours later. We head westwards out of Kathmandu.

Nuwakot is one of our newest project areas and I am keen to see if there have been any changes in the schools since my last monitoring visit a few months ago. As the crow flies, Nuwakot is just 28km from Kathmandu. By road it is 56km and yet it is another world away. The roads are in a terrible state and in fact the most direct route has been blocked for months. So I drive up and over Thankot Hill renowned for its switchbacks and trucks heading to and from India and the Terai part of Nepal. Once we reach Galchhi, we turn off the main highway and enjoy a few minutes bliss on the newly built stretch of road. This is short lived as we reach an incomplete section and we bump over rock and gravel with dust flying- quickly we wind the windows up! The last section of road to Bidur is outrageously rough and we arrive dripping in sweat, exhausted and ready for a nice cold drink. No luck- there is no power today and hasnt been for the last three days. It is already 10.30am and if we are to visit all the schools on our list, we need to start immediately.

Seeing the changes at the first school we visit, makes the whole journey worthwhile. Last time I was here in May, I really wondered if anything would ever change here. The children were taught by rote with shouting teachers who had little idea of our methods. However the last training workshop has obviously totally inspired the teachers who now take great pride in their classrooms which are neat and tidy with walls decorated with children’’s work and posters created at the training. I sit down to observe a class where the children are sitting quietly in a circle about to sing a Nepali rhyme.

Our Nuwakot supervisor joins me and we drive the short distance to a much more deprived school. The teacher missed the recent taining and the building has small dark classrooms which are not conducive to play based learning. The headteacher however is keen to bring about change and we discuss some options. Binda, our supervisor promises to come back in a few days to spend more time with the teacher.

There is no such thing as lunch in rural Nepal. Traditionally people eat dal bhat tarkari ( rice, lentil stew and vegetables) at 10.30am and then again in the evening. This is not so easy for school teachers who have to tend their animals, cook an early dal bhat and walk some distance to school before 10am. Today I am offered dal bhat at the house of the local ward chairperson, Dal Tamang who originally contacted First Steps Himalaya for support. He is thrilled that we responded and talks to me over rice about his plans for the area.

Next we are off to check on progress of the earthbag building that was constructed in October by FSH volunteers. To get there, we cross a very dilapidated suspension bridge, climbing upwards to the site of Pragitsheel School. Dal wants to show me the plaster work that has happened since I was last here and to discuss the plans for the school once it opens in 2020. I pop in on the children studying in the temporary learning centre and can’t wait to have them move into the new school.

For the rest of the afternoon, we are collected by a 4 wheel drive vehicle that is required to access the more remote schools in the project area. Our own vehicle would not make it. There are three more schools to visit, all showing progress which is wonderful. We hand out learning materials and Binda and I observe classes, making notes of further improvements needed. Binda will return to each of these remote schools on foot next week as she makes her regular visits vital to project success.

We end the day back at our Nuwakot project accommodation. This is a modern house with twin bed rooms and when the power comes on there is a fan. It is hot and my clothes are now beyond filthy. The day is not over however, I reply to missed calls, transfer photos from my camera to my laptop.

In the evening, there is a call from a supplier in Kathmandu who is making bookshelves and shoe racks for our next set of school projects. They are ready and I need to collect them tomorrow when i get back to Kathmandu, assuming the road is not blocked and the threatened national strike does not go ahead. The power is still not on but I finish the day by sorting through all the expenses for the Nuwakot projects. I am looking forward to a shower when I get back to Kathmandu tomorrow.

For more information or to donate visit: www.firststepshimalaya.org

Why earthbag build in Nepal?

What is earthbag building? Earthbag building is a unique eco-friendly method of construction, well suited to community projects.  Building with earth bags can be done for a low cost, and requires less skilled labour than traditional masonry construction, allowing community volunteers to help. They are constructed using local, natural materials, which lowers the high level of pollution commonly associated with the manufacture and transportation of bricks.

What are earthbag buildings so earthquake resilient? Earthbag buildings tend to flex and distort during an earthquake rather than suddenly collapse as wood framed, adobe, brick and concrete block structures do. Barbed wire and plaster mesh hold the bags together in case of collapse, thus greatly reducing risk of people getting crushed.

Has First Steps Himalaya earthbag built before? Yes, five days before the devastating April 25th 2015 Nepal earthquake, First Steps Himalaya had completed a two room Education & Training Centre using the earthbag building method. This method was selected not only as it was low cost and eco-friendly, but was supposedly a highly earthquake resilient building method. As it turned out, this was quickly put to the test and the building stood up to not just one, but three massive earthquakes, with only a few superficial cracks in the plaster. Our earthbag Education & Training Centre was one of the last buildings standing in the area while 95% of other buildings collapsed or were damaged beyond the repair. The First Steps Himalaya earthbag building programme was born.

Following the first build, First Steps Himalaya ran an earthbag building summit in Kathmandu. This was attended by interested organisations and individuals from all over Nepal. The guest speaker, international earthbag building expert Owen Gieger (who has since sadly passed away), visited the FSH earthbag builds and said that they were exceptionally strong. Following the summit, First Steps Himalaya conducted hands-on earthbag building training so that others could learn the technique and go away to build their own schools and homes.

At the same time, FSH constructed an earthbag accommodation centre which can accommodate up to 20 participants at our teacher training workshops. This is now fully operational and allows teachers from all over Nepal to attend teacher training workshops in Sangachok. In 2016, we reconstructed 5 classrooms at Mulkharka School which are spacious, well maintained and offer a safe learning environment for young children. We have recently opened a library there too.

Back at project HQ in Sangachok, we constructed a new early childhood classroom and play group for under 2’s. These are fabulous and serve as models for rural Nepal. These earthbag buildings have replaced the original ECD building which was damaged beyond repair in the 2015 earthquakes.

In 2017, our earthbag building project at Dyali School constructed a spacious ECD room. It truly was an international effort with the Kiwi team on foundations and lower walls, the Australian team on upper walls and the Canadian team putting the roof on!

Earthbag build 2019 takes us to Nuwakot, a new project area north of Kathmandu. The team of volunteers from Australia and the U.K. completed the walls of the school in just nine days in October 2019. These will soon be plastered ahead of a roof and finishing of the school in March 2020.

A huge thank you to Court Construction for their incredible ongoing support and the fabulous companies donating to their fundraising.

Sparking inspiration in Nepali teachers

Sometimes it is the simplest things that have the biggest impact! We at First Steps Himalaya, have developed a series of practical hands on teacher training workshops that motivate rural teachers to become better educators. Teachers from rural schools attend a five day training workshop where they learn about classroom and behaviour management and exciting ways to teach literacy, numeracy and science.

Things often get messy at our training and rightly so. Teachers get involved in making their own resources from locally available materials, to create brightly decorated learning environments. They also experience the fun side of learning so that they can share this with the children in their classes.

Shanta Poudel, headteacher at Shree Rambachha School in Walling is an inspiration to others. Having attended two of our five day training courses, she was so inspired that she has totally transformed her classroom into a wonderful calm, child friendly learning space. Well done Shanta!

By training teachers across rural Nepal, we are impacting the educational outcomes of thousands of children.

Help us train more teachers. NZ$200 can fund the initial training of a teacher, for immediate improvement in the classroom. If you would like to contribute to this vital work, please consider making a donation. https://www.firststepshimalaya.org/donate

How First Steps Himalaya makes long lasting sustainable change.

We are often asked how we do what we do! So we thought it was about time to share some of the secrets to our success!

Hard working and dedicated team

Our team is totally committed to bringing about change in early years education in rural Nepali communities. The need is enormous and we are currently just scratching the surface! However,hard it may seem, we just keep going. Sometimes it feels like one step forward and four steps back but eventually we get there having learnt so much along the way.

Nepali led and managed

Founding Director, Durga Aran was born in a rural village himself and experienced the rural Nepali education system first hand. This insight and local knowledge allows him to seamlessly navigate the intricacies of overseeing our education projects. This entails project management, donor liaison, logistical support and management of staff (all with a smile on his face!).

Members of the communities in which we work relate to Durga. He develops long lasting relationships educating them on the benefits of change.

We keep it simple, effective and easy to follow

Back in 2008, when First Steps Himalaya was set up, Directors Fionna Heiton and Durga Aran had a very clear vision of clean and tidy classrooms offering child friendly education to young children. Back in those days, we cleaned the classroom, painted, carpeted and furnished and we trained teachers by demonstrating ideas to them. Little has changed over the years but our methods have been somewhat refined.

Train, supervise and monitor

We provide hands on teacher training workshops so that participants learn by doing. Our supervisors go back and support teachers as they implement the new ideas. Then we provide more training which not only acts as a refresher but continues to build on what they have learnt. The First Steps monitoring method which has standardized criteria, shows schools how they are progressing towards being a centre of excellence. This is simple, visual and easy to follow.

We are in it for the long haul

Many other projects support schools for fixed periods of time. This can lead to schools reverting to their old methods when the support runs out. In Nepal, change takes time and we realise that the communities in which we work will need to be supported beyond the first couple of years.

As long as a school remains committed to change, we keep visiting, providing training and resources on a long-term basis. We are able to do this because of the support of our many wonderful donors.

If you would like to help us continue this vital work in rural Nepal, you can become a Friend of First Steps Himalaya. For just over NZ$1 a day you can contribute to the education of thousands of young children, and help them reach their full potential in life.

Find out more here

Kids love reading!

It was back in 2009 when First Steps Himalaya commenced working to improve early years education in Nepal, that the Yusef Abubaker Memorial Trust offered its support in the form of a library dedicated to Yusef Abubaker, a 12 year old boy from Dundee, Scotland who died suddenly of a cardiac arrhythmia. The tragic loss of Yusef spurred his family to start a trust in his name helping children less fortunate around the world. You can read more here: http://www.yusefabubaker.org.uk/

The first Yusef Abubaker Memorial Library was located in the purpose built Early Childhood building at Sangachok which was completed in 2010. Sadly, damaged that occurred during the huge Nepal earthquake of 2015 meant that this building was no longer safe to use and had to be demolished. It has taken several years to get children back into permanent classrooms and for the last several years, supplies including books had to be stored in the library until there was somewhere to put them.

Great news! Not only is the Yusef Abubaker Memorial Library up and running again at Sangachok but a second library at Mulkharka has now been established and will open to local children at the start of the new term. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to offer children in this area, the chance to come and read books, play games and enjoy learning outside the classroom.

Getting ready

The end result

With the help of some visitors from Scotland, our team worked hard to prepare the room in the earthbag built school at Mulkharka. A truck was hired to transport book shelves, tables and of course the books from Sangachok 30 minutes away. Everyone set to, sweeping, sorting and categorising the books which are culturally appropriate in English and Nepali. Local Supervisor Sabina Tamang will run the library and we are sure it is going to be a huge success!

The original Yusef Abubaker Memorial Library in Sangachok.

Both libraries will be available for school classes to use as well as for children to come during breaks. We realise that reading material needs to appeal to rural Nepali children, hence having a large collection of Nepali story books. The books in English supplement these to support language learning. We also provide colouring books designed to help children recover from the trauma of earthquakes and games and activities to encourage attendance.

An Update on Our Syangja Projects

Leaving Lakeside Pokhara, the road winds up towards the Peace Pagoda that dominates the skyline over one side of the lake. The tourist trail stops here and we continue upwards through glorious countryside of steep foothills. It’s beautifully green, even at this pre-monsoon time of year. Around every corner there is a different beautiful view. It reminds me of the old Nepal, before concrete buildings sprung up in roadside villages. In this area there is none of that, just little traditional houses, neatly dressed children waiting for the school bus, and road workers maintaining the twisty road.

Our destination is Walling, one of the largest towns in the district. Here, modern concrete buildings dominate. The local paint salesman must have had a run on bright pink (almost fluorescent) paint. We collect our new recruit, Dhan Maya Gurung, who now supervises our eight project schools dotted around Walling. We need to use ‘dotted around’ loosely, as I will soon find out.

First, however, we pick our way through narrow lanes to a gate outside Sree Bhumre School. The first impression is of the newly decorated classrooms, which have been smartly painted with blue and cream. There is new carpet and low tables. The classrooms have been decorated with resources created by the teacher. It is fantastic to see this. We are delighted to enter a class where the children are colouring and working independently. This is a step in the right direction.

Having left our own vehicle in the town, we jump into an old Bolero pick-up for and head out of town, stuck for some time behind trucks waiting for a bulldozer to move a huge pile of rocks to widen the road. It is getting hotter as it approaches midday, and we still have four more schools to see this afternoon.

I quickly realise just why our car is unlikely to make it on this rough track, which apparently connects villages all the way up the hill. We bump around, leaving our seats and landing in fits of laughter (better to laugh than to scream!)

At Himali School, set in a stunning location next to a mountain stream, the teacher comes out to greet us. The early childhood teacher is a bright young woman who has really embraced what she has learnt at the First Steps training. The children obviously love her, and she is warm and enthusiastic. Children in another class are learning maths. The teacher is pointing to a chart and they repeat the number. Durga quickly produces number cubes, and immediately the kids are engaged in learning about numbers.

In another room, the teacher shows us the English language exercise in the textbook that the year 2 children are struggling with. Teachers in Nepal are not trained in how to extend textbooks, and the poor children looked completely baffled. I pulled out a piece of scrap paper and a pen and wrote the words onto my improvised flash cards (a bird, a parrot), and gave them to the children. I was still convinced that this exercise was beyond them, but to my amazement a little boy quickly rearranged the cards to read “A parrot is a bird”. We tried another and another. The teacher started smiling as she realised that all she had to do was to come prepared to class with some simple activities to ease the children into exercises. Smiles all around.

The last school of the day was possibly in one of the most stunning locations we have seen. To get there, we had driven far above Walling on a twisty, bumpy track overlooking the whole area. Although it was almost the end of the school day, the children jumped for joy when they saw the box of resources that First Steps Himalaya provides to starter projects. This includes Nepali language story books, a set of cones for physical activities, number and letter cubes and paper, crayons and paints for art.

Our accommodation for the night is a homestay in a beautiful Gurung village, famed for its orange groves. Our host—a retired Gurkha soldier and his wife—show us to our room. However, the doorway to the first room they show us to is only about five feet high! Laughter abounds as they realise I will not be able to stand in the room. Quickly, another room is found around the side of the house with comfortable beds and quilts. It is cool up here, and after a delicious meal of dal bhat tarkari with home-grown vegetables, we retire to bed.

The next morning, we discover that we are not actually at the top of the hillside. The road becomes even rougher, and after bumping over rocks, not daring to look down, we reach a large school apparently in the middle of nowhere. Children seemed to spring up from all directions as the word gets out about our visit. The classrooms have been beautifully decorated and our newly trained teachers proudly demonstrated what they have learnt.

As the headmaster, Mr Kamal Gurung, told us:

It is so important to have the training that First Steps Himalaya provided. It was very effective and we can already see significant changes in our school. Thank you so much for your support.

"Everywhere We Have Been, The Message Is Clear"

Carmel Hutchinson, a First Steps Himalaya supporter from Hong Kong, recently spent a week in Nepal with Director Durga Aran visiting our new project schools in Nuwakot District.

In the journal extract below, she describes her experience visiting one of the more remote and in-need schools.

Srijansheel School, remote Nuwakot District.

Srijansheel is a tiny, two roomed building with no space around it and nothing but loads of rubble for the children to play amongst.

On our way to the school, we collected the lovely young ECD (Early Childhood Development) teacher, Bindhadhikari, to save her making the regular 45minute hike up the mountain. We had to park a fair way away as the road is more like a track really.

The school has 35 students altogether. It is fantastic that they are able to go to school at all in this remote, difficult to get to location. It’s a sure sign that the local kids from small farms in the area are committed enough to make the difficult trek to and from each day, possibly after doing a few hours work before school and resuming helping out at home afterwards. There’s no laying about staring at screens in this part of the world!

At only 20 years of age, Bindhadhikari is a dedicated, enthusiastic teacher with little training other than what she has learned in her 3 years on the job. She has very good English and although quietly spoken, she doesn’t seem as shy as most of the other women we have met. I think under the guidance of FSH, she will make an excellent educator, and with a few more years’ development, would potentially make a very good trainer.

This bright young teacher has 17 students in her tiny ECD room with not a single toy, book, puzzle or game to be seen. The outside area is mostly rubble. I have no idea how she manages to engage the children for 6 hours a day under these conditions. Again, hats off to these teachers working in such difficult conditions.

The setting for the school is ruggedly beautiful, as they all are, and clearly needed for the locals spread around the hills.

Everywhere we have been, the message is clear: training and facilities are desperately needed to help bring this incredibly beautiful country out of poverty.

Text and photos courtesy of Carmel Hutchinson.

A Broken School, But There Is Hope

The journal extract below comes from First Steps Himalaya supporter Carmel Hutchinson from Hong Kong, who previously shared her experiences of visiting one of our new project schools in Nuwakot District. Here, she talks about her shock at visiting a school that’s still struggling to recover from the 2015 earthquake.

Carmel spent a week in rural Nepal visiting First Steps Himalaya projects with Director, Durga Aran.

SUNDRADEVI SCHOOL – our 6th School for the day!

This school, and the one following, I found the most heartbreaking. They were almost completely devastated during the earthquake and there has been very little improvement since.

On the way to this remote, battered, crumbling school, we picked up the Headmaster. He was a quiet, well-dressed man who seemed fairly resigned. I later changed my assessment from resigned to a “bit broken”.

By comparison to others we’d seen, Sundradevi had been a sizeable school in its day, but the earthquake had all but destroyed it.

It is incomprehensible to think that almost four years after an event like that, these schools have yet to be visited by any central government representatives to assess the damage. 

The children and teachers are working in classrooms with missing walls and no windows! I don’t know how they do it. Even on a warm, sunny day, the wind whistles up the mountain straight through the unprotected classrooms. I cannot even begin to imagine what it’s like in winter and if indeed the children even turn up for classes. I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t.

No wonder the headmaster seemed like a broken man.

Construction on a new building has been slow going, and it will not be nearly adequate to accommodate all the students in the area. There are other buildings that from the outside look to be in a better state, but closer inspections through the barred windows reveal unstable roofs and walls.

In a western school, these buildings would have been demolished as soon as possible for safety purposes, but little or no funding makes that a low priority here.

Dal, his colleague, the headmaster and one of the other teachers from the school spoke at length about what they have endured and their hopes for the future. While Louise and I couldn’t understand most of it, we had the feeling as we left that the previously-resigned looking headmaster was standing taller and looking lighter. There was even a hint of a smile in one of the photos. I am filled with admiration for him and his staff, and for all teachers we have met this week. 

Text and photos courtesy of Carmel Hutchinson.