Project Update, November 2009
CAIRN Schools & Libraries
This year, the monsoon season has lasted much longer than in previous years, resulting in very high water levels and strong current in the rivers, making it extremely difficult to collect sand for construction. Fortunately, the monsoon is finally over and work can restart on our construction projects.
There are a number of improvement projects being undertaken in Bhujung and the expected date of completion for these projects is April 2010.
(1)Construction has started on the much needed girls and boys’ hostel in Bhujung. Although there is an existing hostel close to the school, it is very dilapidated and unsafe. The hostel is required by many of the older students who are studying for their School Leaving Certificate, but who are forced to walk home 2-3 hours every night before starting their revision. The hostel will provide them with a safe environment to study a few nights of the week. The new hostel will include rooms, a new kitchen and toilets with showers. The works will also include additional female toilets to the existing school and a new library.
| Hostel Under Construction | The Old Hostel |
(2)Plans have also been approved for the Day Care Centre (Kindergarten) in Bhujung. We are now waiting for the funds to be raised from our Viva Las Vegas event to start construction.
(3) The construction of the library at Pasgaun is now complete. Our field team are in the process of transporting the Nepali and English books, as well as completing the manufacture of the library furniture. Chandra Kala Gurung, who is a teacher at the Pasgaun School, along with a librarian assistant, have started their training programme. The expected date of opening for the library is December 2009.
Click here to learn more about CAIRN libraries.
| The New Library | Our First Librarian |
CAIRN Educational Awards
There are currently 450 students receiving educational support through the CAIRN Educational Awards (CEA’s) across four villages.
Our first group of 200 CEA recipients in Pelkachour and Samibhanjyang have completed their first year of supported education and received their end of year results.
In Pelkachour, |
In Samibhanjyang, |
| Average attendance of our students - 72% | Average attendance of our students - 87% |
| % of students passing end of year exams - 82% | % of students passing end of year exams - 79%. |
We are extremely pleased with these results and are currently investigating methods to further increase these figures for the forthcoming year.
Following the end of year 1 review, one of the modifications made to the CEA’s programme was to include additional tutoring from year 2, prior to each end of term exams. The students at Pelkachour and Samibhanjyang will receive their first allocation of tutoring in November.
All CEA recipients have now also received the second round of bi-annual worming tablets to help them maintain a healthier lifestyle.
These initial 200 students are now in their second year and have just received their second distribution of school supplies. During the most recent quarterly reviews, our social workers had the interesting prospect of conducting a number of home visits in the fields, where many families were still busy weeding their land in preparation for planting (due to the prolonged monsoons).
In both Samibhanjyang and Pelkachour, through the guidance of our social workers, Parent Teacher Associations have been successfully established to further improve communication channels between the parents and teachers.
| CEA recipients doing their homework. |
In our most recent villages of Bhujung and Ghanpokhara were CEA’s were started in May 2009, the quarterly visits and their second distribution of supplies will be undertaken very shortly and we look forward to sharing the progress of the 200 CEA recipients.
We have already identified the next two villages where we will start to support an additional 200 children on CEA’s from May 2010. Shortly after Christmas we will start conducting home visits to identify the new CEA recipients.
CAIRN Communities
We continue to support seven families across the four villages with food support. As an integral part of sustainability in this part of the project, we have identified an NGO in Nepal who will work with us to introduce Income Generation Programmes in the form of goat herding to these seven families. We are still in the research stages and look forward to sharing more about this exciting development in our next update.
