Preparations!

Only 1 month and 2 weeks until the current 6th form group head out to the Dhading district once more and preparations are already under way.

This year, we hope to achieve a larger goal, to not only help their physical surrounding areas and school buildings, but to build their knowledge of how to teach better and more effectively. We not only want to provide them with better facilities, but we want them to gain a most valuable experience.

More updates will be up following the meetings. 

Dhading 2013

We're back and ready for another successful year of fund raising and helping the schools in any way we can. 

With a new year group joining the 6th form coming in with new ideas, this year will be a most fruitful one, with the Young Enterprise group of TBS also helping us. 

This past month, we have had the principals of all three schools we aid in the Dhading district come in and observe how the teachers in The British School interactively teach their students and perhaps pick up a few skills to take back with them to exercise in their own schools. Our 6th form team have also come together to discuss how to help their assigned schools in a way that will benefit them for the long term future. 

The Young Enterprise Group in The British School have currently been discussing possible/future upcoming events that can help us raise more awareness of this project in addition to raising more financial capital for the project in 2014. 

More updates will be up soon. 

Update

We had a very successful field visit to Dhading from the 5th of November, 2012 to to 9th November, 2012. All the 6th Form students of the British School worked extremely hard showing utmost dedication, teamwork and excellent problem solving skills while doing the development work for the three chosen schools. We had three teachers accompanying, who were also of tremendous help. We undertook a variety of projects such as supplying one school's toilet with water to fencing one of the schools fully. All in all, it was a huge success and we hope that we can work on this year's work in the future and take our involvement in the community to a whole new level.
More follow up detailed information coming up.. stay tuned folks!

The Plan

2012 Visit (5^th November to 9^th November)

Khannigan Primary School

·         Get a compost pit operational and teach them how to keep it functioning for their own benefits

·         Awareness Programme on importance of hygiene and sanitation and other general well being

·         Supply the school with text and exercise books and other stationary material which will help in the students’ learning

·         Re-energize the already existing Green Club (Unique Child Club) with awareness programme on the environment. Set it up for a long term plan, which can be monitored in future visits. (Check manual)

·         Painting the classroom, what we will paint should be decided on before we are actually in Dhading.

·         Possible get carpets for the floors in the school

·         Set up a Sports Club (Check the Manual)

·         Interacting session with the teachers, ask them how they teach and provide inputs on how they may be able to improve in their pre-existing skills

·         If mid-day meals are provided in the school, set up a kitchen garden

·         Incinerator?

Gaitridevi Primary School

·         Again, get a compost pit operational for the school alongside a small kitchen garden if the school provides mid-day meals to the children

·         Building a fence

·         As they need help with the unfinished building, funds is what they need most to carry on with the construction work. So fundraising?

·         Set up a Green Club for the school along with a Sports Club, which will then be run by a member of staff, who will be trained by one of the students, who will then carry it on further. (Once a week?)

·         Incinerator – Rubbish management system, make the students/teachers aware

·         Again, bring in stationary material alongside some posters.

·         Organise an health and hygiene programme for the students for general awareness

·         General Interaction session with the teachers, have a look at what is possible to do for the future years.

Long Term plans (2012 and beyond…)

Khannigan Primary School

·        Make sure the Green Clubs and the Sports clubs have been functioning efficiently after the years they were initiated

·        Support with more coursebooks, textbooks, and other stationery which will aid the students’ learning

·        Renew paintings on the walls, adapt to the situation they’re in.  Only do it if it is a must

·        Carpet the whole school’s interior floor

·        Get climbing frames constructed in the school’s playground. Other simple swings/rides in their playground can be added to add to the school’s friendly and fun environment

Gaitridevi Primary School

·         Work on the school’s wall and the fence

·         Raise huge amounts of funds to assist them in completing their unfinished building

·         Carry on with the work in the Green Club and the Sports Club; check their progress are they functioning effectively and are they actually benefiting the students of the school

·         Look into generating revenue from the small forest near the school, in order to fund for the their school projects, such as completing the construction next to their building

·         Review the rubbish management system

·         Constructing toilets? (Funds!!)

·         Repairing the roof, so as to avoid the seepage in the rainy season (funds needed!)

·         Repainting the murals and other paintings on the wall

·          

Work in action. November 2011

Dhading: The Past, Present and the Future

The 6th Form Dhading Project is a student-led project that facilitates change and development in the Dhading district (5 hours drive from KTM, on the way to PKR). The central focus of the project is to link learning to life and to allow students to lead the way in creating positive change within their community, while enhancing their own perception and understanding of the world. 

The project has been a part of 6th Form from 3 years now. In 2010, the students visited Dhading to perform a ‘needs assessment” in various schools, preparing the ground for the pilot project of 2011.

On the 7th Nov 2011, we headed off to Dhading for a week, keeping in mind that our primary aim was to facilitate development. Nervous but focused, we were split into 3 groups, each visiting a different school around Dhading Besi.

 On reaching the schools, we realized what life outside the little bubble we live in was really like. No direct water supply, no proper sanitation, broken benches, a lack of general school equipments; all were problems faced by these schools. Blisters, sprained arms and legs, clothes splattered with paint, body aches, were minor inconvenience we had to go through whilst addressing these problems. But, at the end of the week, a school was finally supplied with water after days of digging, all three schools were painted new inside out with murals, clubs and classes were taken, and manuals were made for both academic subjects and sports.

 Grass-root experiential learning, such as Dhading, has made students help not only the community but also helped them to take ownership of where they want to go in their lives. Their organisational and communication skills, both have been enhanced as they are now able to work as a single unit and adapt to remote circumstances. All these skills are comprehensive and applicable to real life, which have the potential to heighten their personal strengths. We now appreciate the complexity involved in eradicating basic social problems and have forced them to link their academic knowledge to address rural development at a small scale, if not big. 

The Dhading project is an ongoing effort to reach out to rural schools around the district, which is why the 6th Form will be heading to Dhading again on the 5th November 2012. This year however is different: We will be working with 3 primary schools not just for one year, but for 3 years. This in itself is to tie into our view of real positive development which is about a change in mindset, which is of course takes time. Hence, this year our watchwords are “self-sufficient” and “self-reliant”.