Welcome to 2017 - our year of growth
Christmas
Message 2016
Christmas
and New Year greetings to all our friends in Australia,
Nepal and elsewhere in the world. 
We
are in Kathmandu, returning home on Christmas day. Our trip
is going very well. On our way we stopped in Bangkok to
lunch with Rotary International Director Saowalak
Rattanavich. Saowalak is Professor of Education at
Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, with a particular
focus on literacy. In conjunction with Australian Rotarian
Richard Walker she developed the "Concentrated Language
Encounter Approach" to teaching literacy which has been
adopted nationally in Thailand. She is keen to foster the
spread of this approach throughout South-East Asia, with the
assistance of Global Grant projects. We can see much scope
for collaboration with her. Despite her intensive workload
as RI Director (until June 30), Saowalak has agreed to serve
as Educational Consultant to LEARN.
We
spent three days in Pokhara where we attended the meetings
of three Rotary clubs. All are very supportive of our
initiative, confirming their sponsorship of US$100 to our
Global Grant project. We are indebted to KB Shahi as
Project Manager for the Primary Host Sponsor club of
Baglung for his coordination of Nepalese Rotary support.
Likewise we must thank Kym Stock as Project
Manager for the Primary International Sponsor club of
Portland. Kym has revised the application documentation,
and yesterday initiated the re-authorisation process.
LEARN has obtained the necessary approvals of the Myagdi
District Development Committee and the Social Welfare
Council to allow the first 10-day training course to be
delivered in April, subject to TRF's funding approval.
Back
in Kathmandu we have been working with Krishna Pun and
Dwarika Amgain to plan the development of LEARN. Dwarika
joined us in April as Chief Training Officer on the
understanding that he would in due course replace Krishna
as CEO. Krishna would remain with us as Executive
Director. We expect this transition to be confirmed by
the LEARN Board next month.
Krishna
and Dwarika make a formidable pair to take LEARN forward.
We have agreed targets for the nest three years which
would see the number of teachers in training rise from 150
at present to close to 1,000. This will not be easy, but
it is a welcome challenge for both LEARN and QEN.
We
wish you the best, and look forward to bringing you
further news in the new year of our progress.
Best
regards
Peter
and Ronda Hall
January visit by Peter Hall and Simon Cowen
Peter Hall visited Kathmandu and Pokhara for a fortnight in January to progress various administrative matters. For the first week he was accompanied by Simon Cowen, who has expressed interest in assisting with the direction and administration of the project. Many thanks, Simon, for your input.Successful completion of visit to Nepal
On
May 8, 2015 our team of nine returned from a quite remarkable trip to Nepal.
Great progress was made with the project, including the delivery of a
six-day Refresher Training Course for teachers of Rima Resource Centre
immediately prior to our arrival, and a second ten-day Basic Training
Course for those of Ghara VDC during the course of our visit. We ran
holiday activities for children of Ghara and Paudwar villages.
Significant
progress was made on the administrative front, with a commitment by the
Rotary Club of Pokhara Fishtail to accept the role of Host Sponsor for a
prospective Rotary International Global Grant application, and
responses by more than 140 applicants to our advertising for the
position of Chief Training Officer. We are hopeful that this
recruitment process will lead to recruitment not only to that position
but also a Senior Trainer and an Administration Manager / Trainer. This
will greatly enhance our delivery capability, allowing us to initiate
training in new areas.
These
events were in a sense eclipsed by the earthquake, but we are glad to
say that all associated with the project are safe. We wish Nepal well
in its task of recovery from this disasterNo
doubt all who read this will have heard of the disastrous earthquake in
Nepal. How can we express our feelings for this nation and it people
at such a time?
I write this
update from the village of Paudwar - not much further from the
epicentre of the quake than Kathmandu. We were across the valley in
Ghara village when it struck, having just started the opening ceremony
for a ten-day teacher training course. We hastily evacuated the
building, and after some delay resumed the ceremony out in the open.
Some buildings were damaged, and we felt after shocks for the next couple of
days which caused further damage, but fortunately there were no
injuries. Communications were disrupted, so it was hard to find out any
details - you probably learnt more quickly than we did.
Yesterday
we moved on to Paudwar village where we have been very warmly welcomed,
and where we will stay nine days before returning to Kathmandu. We are
hoping that by then the traffic congestion will have eased, and that we
will be able to catch our flight home.
We
would like to be able to help the people in this situation, but there
is nothing we can do here in Paudwar, where life goes on as normal. If
you are wanting to help I can only suggest that you do so through the
aid agencies or Rotary projects such as Shelterbox and Disaster Aid.
Peter Hall, April 28th
December visit by Peter and Ronda Hall
Peter and Ronda Hall visited Kathmandu and Pokhara in December after a relaxing fortnight of sight-seeing in Bhutan - a very different country from Nepal.
The purpose of the visit was to address administrative matters, including progress with the training of teachers under Rima Resource Centre funded by a Direct Aid Program grant from the Australian Government. We spent a very pleasant hour with Ambassador Glenn White reviewing progress and looking to future possibilities.
Another important issue was the staffing of LEARN. Since Kailash Tamang moved to a position with the Department of Education, Krishna has been under considerable pressure as a one-man NGO. The Board has agreed to recruit a new Chief Training Officer and a Manager, Administration, aiming to have them in place by end March in time for the further training programs to be run in April.
We were also very pleased to receive strong support from local Rotary Clubs - we look forward to working with them to achieve a Rotary Foundation Global Grant to extend the program to yet more schools during 2015.
The highlight of our trip was to be there during a visit home by Krishna's wife Sita, for just the third time after seven years working in Israel, and preparing to return to Israel for another three years. It was a privilege to be able to stay in their new home in Pokhara and to spend time with Sita, whom we had not seen since 2001!
Forthcoming visit to Nepal (April-May 2012)
We now have seven volunteers in our group about to set off for Nepal, including four Rotarians (one from Woodend, the rest from Portland). Our group includes: a primary school principal; a teacher specialising in aid to the blind; an art therapist experienced on working with the young and the aged; a retired teacher librarian, two retired nurses. What better group of skills could we have for delivering a holiday programme to children of Paudwar village. They'll range from Preps to Year 10, so we'll be providing a wide range of activities (one volunteer applying her skills from membership of the Women's Circus). The program will run over four days, after which school will resume and we'll be able to help the children in their normal school work, particularly by reading and telling stories in English. And our retired nurses will assist in assessing what can be done to improve health outcomes in the village.
As time and technology permits we'll post reports to this website.
Successful Fundraising
We've had a number of significant additions to our funds in recent weeks:
* Selling cooked organic corn at The Age Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock on Sunday 26 February, undertaken by the Rotary Clubs of Woodend and Kyneton. With attendance of around 5,000 this gained publicity for the project as well as worthwhile income
* Nepalese Dinner at Gurkhas Restaurant, Carlton on Friday 2nd March. While attendance was down on last year, a good night was had by all, and financial returns almost matched last year's.
* A donation from the Rotary Club of Bendigo Sandhurst to cover the cost of two cows for the Khayer Barahi Milk Production Cooperative Inc.
* A single very generous donation, sufficient to cover the cost of another training course for teachers in Myagdi District.
These contributions give us confidence that we can commit to bigger and better programs of assistance in the years to come.
Progress by the Cooperative developing the Dairy Farm (October, 2011)
As the following photos show, considerable progress has been made by the Khayar Barahi Milk Production Cooperative Inc. in developing the dairy farm at Paudwar village. The Coop was established by the villagers following our visit in Sept. 2009, led by Krishna Pun in his role as Village Development Coordinator. By funding his salary we have enabled this significant initiative for the prosperity of the village and support of the school.
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