A.D./Poush 2075 B.S.
Namaste all friends and supporters!
This year’s Newsletter is a compilation of contributions, all of which detail FACE Nepal’s activities and achievements throughout 2018.
One of the parents, whose child is sponsored through FACE Nepal, has written about the impact this has on her and her daughter.
I would like to write few things about FACE Nepal.
FACE Nepal has been in our school since 2011. My daughter, Nitisha Adhikari, has got scholarship through Face Nepal every year. My daughter is getting all necessary educational equipment including uniforms, bags, shoes and other notebooks, pens and pencils etc. This has made it easier for me to send my daughter to school and now she is happy.
FACE Nepal has also provided very important work and assistance to our school. For this reason I’d like to thank you very much. I want to write some good points about the contribution of FACE Nepal towards our school. The organisation has:
- built four classrooms for the school
- provided computers, e-library, smart board, cupboard, teaching materials etc.
- provided scholarships to the children of poor families like us
- helped to improve the level of students’ self confidence
Finally, I want to say, we all parents are very happy and grateful for the help of FACE Nepal and hope that their help continues.
Thank you.
The Principal of the school writes:
Shree National Basic School has become a centre of academic excellence and was established in 2046 B.S. with the motto of providing quality education to the student. We have classes from playgroup to Class 8. When we approached FACE Nepal Nepali Advisory Board in 2068 B.S. the number of students were low at around 20. Since then our connection with FACE Nepal has inspired us in our work to plan and deliver quality education. The number of students started to increase day by day after initial provision from FACE Nepal of computers. Then, importantly FACE Nepal volunteers had placements at the school, which added to the curriculum for students and also with training for teachers. FACE Nepal has also supported us with additional teachers, teaching materials, sport materials, building of classrooms, wall pillar, wire compound, photocopy machine, wall painting, fans, wiring, student scholarship, musical instruments, distributed stationary, carpentry flooring for the Nursery white boards to all classes. We give credit to FACE Nepal for the improvement in our school facilities and upgrading of classrooms. We now have 274 students!
FACE Nepal has helped the community by building two wells where our poor students live.
We at the school, the families of our students and the local community are thankful to all the FACE Nepal team in Nepal and the International Board.
Chairperson: Som Bahadur Khadka
Principal: Dharmendra jung Rayamajhi
Vinita is responsible for Volunteer Support and is a Trustee of FACE Nepal UK and a member of the International Board.
2018 has been full of wonderful happenings for my work with FACE Nepal. First of all, my thanks to the fellow members of the Board for having placed their confidence in me in handing me the responsibility for the Volunteer programme. My new role entails reaching out to prospective and current volunteers, answering their queries and ensuring that their contribution to FACE Nepal is a learning and enriching experience for them as well as for the communities where they are placed. Four outstanding volunteers, Philippine and Victoria from France and Switzerland, Carmen from England and Muwaffiqol from Indonesia worked in different schools in Ganganagar and Jhutpani. A new volunteer, Maria from Ireland, is on her way to Nepal to spend two months as a teacher.
I visited Nepal twice this year, in March and in October. Although my stay on both these occasions was short it was, as always, so full of visits to schools we are sponsoring, meeting up with the children who we hope would find sponsors abroad and checking up on demands for financial aid from different schools in the region. In October, I was delighted to work alongside Andrea, a fellow member of the Board.
The high point of my recent trip was the opportunity to participate in the festivities of Dashain, also known as Bijaya Dashami, one of the most auspicious festivals in Nepal. Dashain is celebrated by the whole country for the goddess Durgar's victory over the demon Mahishasura. The festivities last 9 days and are celebrated with various religious rituals, feasting and gathering every evening accompanied by singing and dancing. There’s a joyful feeling of conviviality in being part of a community to which everybody is welcome.
I wish my fellow members of the board, the sponsors and our friends, the host families, the school students and the staff in Nepal a wonderful New Year.
Zoe, who founded FACE Nepal with Shreeram gives us an update of FACE Nepal in New Zealand.
New Zealand has formed a new Board of Directors and welcomes Jack Kelly and Wendy Smith. We also thank Milnes Beatson, Chartered Accountants, for their decision to contribute oversight and accounting support. Jack Kelly is a tourism operator, running a kayak and water taxi business in New Zealand and has frequented Nepal as a facilitator with Second Base. Wendy Smith is a professional skydiver and runs Everest skydive, is an ambassador to Global Angels. She currently resides in New Zealand as the manager of i-site Motueka. Both bring a huge love and connection to Nepal and look forward to bringing a contributing strategy to our New Zealand Board.
Jack came to Nepal in April and has written about the SecondBase trip.
In April 2018 Second Base ran its 12th Humility Centred Leadership Program to Nepal. It was amazing. From the day we all arrived in Kathmandu until the day we arrived home, (in some cases many days late...) the team embraced an aligned intention that to get the most growth from this programme. We had to learn to enjoy the feeling of ‘being outside our comfort zone’. And boy did we have many opportunities to do this.
It was an all New Zealand team with Ricky Cheer, Andrew Crabb, Tony Flowers and Peter Irwin from TR Group and Nicola Bensemann from Kaiteriteri Reserve Board who embarked on this once-in-a-lifetime trip.
The highlight of the two weeks was, again, the village experience, this time working on a community project that brought two neighbouring communities together, Sahara Village and Ramailo Danda Village. This was at the border of both communities, the local Community Forest on the edge of the Chitwan National Park. It was an indescribably stunning location and literally everything we did from dawn to dusk was shared with an entourage of happy smiling children. Our days started with 6am yoga overlooking the jungle, the same place where we spent nearly an hour sitting 15 metres from a feeding wild Rhino on our first day. Then on to the community project each morning, building a gathering place for community meetings, educational sessions, and a general community focal point. The afternoons were spent workshopping in unique locations including a jungle outpost tower, riverside bungalow, second base community centre outnumbered 10-1 by local kids, and finally a massive sports day with the children at the local soccer field.
At the end of the week we joined together with the most important part of the experience, our families, in a big combined dal baht dinner and dance celebration under the night sky and flood lights. It was an evening and week that nobody will ever forget.
When we departed the village early the next morning, it was a very sombre feeling. Silence stayed with us for most of the morning’s travel as we each reflected upon our new families, the sadness of leaving them and contemplated how it could be possible that we achieved such a depth of connection with our host mums, dads and children in only six days. It was an experience unlike anything we had had before, or are likely to have again.
We are very grateful to the communities and families that made this truly remarkable experience possible.
Daniel, FACE Nepal Chairman summarises the year:
This year has been a great one for FACE Nepal. We have now found sponsors for all children on the waiting list, taking our total to 65. But we are not stopping there - we are now working to identify needy children for sponsorship at schools where we currently only have 2 or 3 sponsored children.
We've funded a number of great educational and community projects. And we've had some passionate volunteers who have made a real impact on the communities they have worked with. We've also grown our International Board, welcoming Philippine, Miguel and Sarah. They bring an additional range of skills and experience to the Board, allowing us to continue to strengthen our professionalism. In the UK, we are a registered charity with the Charity Commission, which provides our UK charity with extra oversight and rigour, as well as additional ability to access services for charities. We have also welcomed Wendy to our refreshed New Zealand Charitable Trust board.
We say goodbye to Darren who is stepping down as International Board member and UK Trustee at the end of 2018. With his professional background, Darren has provided an additional layer of commercial nous to what we do as an organisation. We will be sorry to see him go but delighted he and his wife Liz will remain child sponsors and supporters of FACE Nepal.
I am stepping down as Chair of the International Board this year after six years in the position. I am delighted that Ann Bartholomew has been elected as my successor and will start in the role on 1 Jan 2019. Ann has been involved with FACE Nepal for the last decade and has spent more time in Nepal than any of the Board. She has been responsible for arguably our biggest success in recent years- extending our child sponsorship programme from six to over sixty children. I know FACE Nepal will continue to go from strength to strength under her leadership. I will remain a member of the international board.
Thanks to you all for your support and donations of time and money during 2018!
Any questions or queries please contact Ann Bartholomew ann.bartholomew.1808@gmail.com