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Anita and Ton visited Nepal and of course they discussed the running and proposed projects in detail with our Nepalese partners

Sponsoring the students

Concerning the schools in Duble and HIMS in Kathmandu everything will be continued as usual. We can guarantee the sponsorship as long as the children visit the schools. At the start of this academic year we stopped the sponsoring of Furi, but after the verbal explanations of Kame and Pradeep we decided to resume sponsorship for this year.

The children that we sponsor at the school in Duble are well.
In Kathmandu, at HIMS, Pem Doma en Yangyi are doing well.
Furi was a positive surprise for me. Last time that I saw him was in 2009 and now he was a self-confident adult.

Pem Doma attends class 6 and her marks are at the good side of average (First Division), Yangyi attends the second nursery class (UKG) and her marks are very good (Division Distinction).
Yangyi is a spontaneous child, with whom you already can have a conversation in the English language. Doma needs more attention; she is introvert and every word has to be pulled out of her mouth.
Furi is not a bright student. At the end of the previous academic year his class teacher at KEBS advised to switch to another school. The curriculum at KEBS is more than that needed for the final state examination in grade 10 (SLC - School Leaving Certificate).

By leaving out that part he would his chances to pass the exam would be higher. Furi was admitted to the Orion Academy in Samakhushi and after an entrance examination, he could start in class 10. For us it was an unclear situation - no exam result at KEBS and at the new school he could skip class 9? Despite requests for information Kame failed to make clear what was going on. That was our reason to stop the sponsorship for Furi.
During our conversation I got the information I was waiting for.
The exam for passing to class 9 is monitored by a governmental organisation. That is why the official exam paper is received much later than usual. During holidays Furi works as second guide for a trekking agency. He also follows a language course in German.
In my opinion Furi and his parents are motivated to reach an optimum result from the time he attends school. Therefore I promised to ask the board of Stichting Milijuli to resume sponsorship for the current year.

Extra projects in 2011

1. Improving the watermill in Duble
The watermill in Duble was a traditional one, called ghatta. This type has an overall efficiency of 25%. Water is diverted from a stream or river and flows down a chute towards the ghatta’s turbine. The chute has a 3 to 7 meter head (vertical drop). The flow rate of the water varies from about 40 to 100 litres per second. The improved watermill has a pressure pipe with a head of up to 40 meter and a metal turbine wheel. It has an efficiency of 30-50% and needs less water. People of Duble, Falate and Thare worked together. In total 69 households spent 131 man-days of work during 10 days. I addition some carpenters had to be hired. At the moment the watermill runs smoothly, but the question is how long it can be used during the dry season. Next year, in May, we will know. There is a possibility to collect more water but then we have to buy more pipes. It is the same kind of watermill as was build in Bhotechaur. That mill is used by 37 households.

2. Health awareness
The proposal for this educational project was actuated by an article written by Pradeep Tamang, in which he describes the bad healthcare situation in Duble and indicated that education was one possibility to improve that situation. We do not have the knowledge nor the financial capacity to carry out medical projects in healthcare, but supporting an educational project is exactly according our foundation deed.
The project proposal is formulated by Pradeep Kumar Tamang and Kame Sherpa. The most important items are:

- the program comprises 3 days of instruction by a member of the community healthcare centre in Ragani, VDC-9 and by a member of the staff of the hospital in the town Okhaldhunga,

- There are 152 participants. Care is taken that the so-called key-persons (natural leaders, lamas, shamans/healers, teachers, representatives of important organisations) will be present.

- at the occasion of this project we give the community two stretchers and each participant 2 strips Paracetamol en 2 packets ORS (to make a medicine mixture to be used in case of diarrhoea).

The health centre in VDC Ragani 9 is founded with a grant of Micro Projects Nepal in The Netherlands ( http://www.microprojectsnepal.org/).

You can read the article of Pradeep Tamang about the healthcare in Duble (in English language) at the website of Stichting Nijmegen Sherpaland ( http://www.nijmegen-sherpaland.nl/en/youtube-channel/77-health-care.html).

3. Education for the farmers
This project got much attention and representatives from Duble did convene several times with private persons and governmental agencies who could contribute. When Anita and I arrived in Kathmandu Pradeep could provide a project plan. According to this plan the participating farmers receive instruction and guidance for a whole year. The execution of the complete program would cost about 7.000,- Euro.
That is much more than our budget allows, but most surprising for me was the scale, 2 hectares of cauliflower, 3 hectares of this and so many of that. I am afraid that the proposed number of hectares is a major part of all the land available in Duble. The consequence would be that the farmers have to buy a major part of their food from the revenue of their monoculture. I doubt if they have sufficient reserves to cope with an unsuccessful harvest.
It is not our intention to reshape, in a short period of time, an agriculture system that, in centuries, is adapted to mountain areas. We like to show people new chances for improvement and provide some room for experiments. After that the people have to decide what items they can and are willing to implement. I have asked to discuss the scale of the project with the drafters. Scaling down could cut the cost by half.

4. production of electricity by building a pico-hydropowerplant or by using solar panels
One of our conditions for engagement in the construction of a pico-hydropowerplant was that the capacity of the plant would be at least 5 KW. The plant should produce considerably more energy then the amount needed for providing light. Otherwise it would be more economical to use solar power.
An approved consultant concluded that a plant providing only about 2 KW would be possible. So, we go for solar.
In the beginning of 2011 the price for a 20 Watt set with solar panel was NRs 16.000,-. The subsidy given by the Nepalese government is NRs 6.000,-. If we cannot decide about the educational project for the farmers within this year we intend to sponsor, this year, for 14 households, each a 20 Watt solar panel set.

5. PC and multifunctional printer to be used during the lessons at the school in Duble
At the school there is no teacher who has ever used a computer. So, the start of a computer project always would be to train at least one teacher. Pradeep has searched for available computer courses and reported that half-year courses are available in Kathmandu.
I hope that there are also other possibilities, otherwise the schools in rural areas are in an awkward position. The number of schools that are in a position to send a teacher to Kathmandu for half a year will be very low. They better hire a new teacher who already acquired that knowledge.
Also for us it is not possible to finance such a training project. But if a teacher is prepared to study with self-tutorials I am sure that we will find a standard laptop for him and provide a solar set to power it.
We will have further discussions and we indicated which criteria are important in our opinion. These are:

- which content is available and for which grades?

- what help is available in case of problems?

- which lessons are learned by people who tested methods? There are schools where the OLPC model (One Laptop Per Child) is (being) tested. Futher, a computer is already available at some schools in larger villages.

- are the other possibilities for improving education in rural areas already investigated?
Radio Nepal en Nepal Television produced content for this.

(Ton van der Kop)