Dear TRAS members,

The Rinchen Zangpo Society has just published its winter newsletter for 2019/20, where you can read about Spiti Valley news and updates on the Munsel-ling School. Please visit the Rinchen Zangpo Society website www.rinchenzangpo.org or click here to be taken directly to their newsletter.

READI Nepal Education Project

Summary

With generous support from TRAS, READI continued to implement the education project during the reporting period. Every effort was made to make it participatory and sustainable. All 20 children were supported with quality education and residential support services. The10 reintegrated children were also monitored and provided support on an in-need basis. Parents were proactive and provided guidance to READI as and when necessary. The Humla Delights Café continued to grow its business and use its net profit to co-fund the hostel.

Brief highlights during the reporting period

1. READI Home -The hostel provides quality food, clean accommodation and educational guidance to all 20 children. Parents have also supported in kind as per their capacity.  There was more interaction with the parents and the children who were re-integrated.

2. Educational Activities– Balmandir Secondary school, which is providing academic support, has been doing a great job in educating READI students. We have an excellent relationship with the teachers and principal. READI also supported the school last year with 2 laptop computers which were well appreciated by the school. In every extra-curricular activities, our children have been given due priority to participate. The READI library is in full operation. This has been very useful as the teachers and students are using it daily. The READI library promotes good reading habits and behaviours.

3. READI’s New School – We now have around 6 ropani of land (3000 square meters) to build a READI owned school. In September 2019, we have signed a MoU with the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu for a grant of 13.5 million Nepalese rupees under their GGP scheme.  The embassy staff visited our project in June 2019 and were very pleased with our work. The building construction will start in December 2019 with a completion date in December 2020. Thanks to TRAS for providing a recommendation letter for this.  All our hard work and continued hunt for this opportunity is finally going to pay off.

4. Health Activities –This year we held an Eye Camp with the District Health Office at the READI hostel to do a vision and eye check of all the students and their parents. A few students did have eye problems due to the cold and dust.  Eye drops and some opticals were provided to the parents with support from DHO. The litter Doctor of READI did a great volunteering work to organise the camp.

5. Income Generation Activities – READI continued training the parents and children in vocational activities. There is regular monitoring with the existing parents who are doing apple farming, carpentry shop and a small lodge. The Humla Delight Café continued to be the training centre for learning how to operate a small lodge or tea house.

Name:  Samjhana Rawal

Hobbies:  Drawing, Volleyball, Dancing, Singing

Aim: Government Employee

Family Size: 2 brothers and 2 sisters, Father, Mother and Granny

Family Status: Father runs a farm and raises cattle in Chhipra. He sells vegetables in Simikot and stores millet, buckwheat, porso-millet, wheat, barley, etc. for the winter.  Her father is the only source of income. They harvest the wheat and all sorts of edible food.  Her sister, ThirthaPuri (studying at 5th grade) supports the family with household work.  One brother studies in the village and also supports the family.

What does their family say:  Happy and aspire to work hard and move forward. Motivated and active participates in both practical work (house work) as well as academic performance.

School Background: Studies at Balmandir H.S School. Inspired and encouraged by her teachers and is a favourite student in her class.

Hostel Field: Seniors are inspiring and motivating them to work hard and help them with their school work.

After 10 what? Prepare for higher studies and possibly government jobs (public service commission Nepal). To engage in any occupation related to her family business.

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Name: Lok Raj Shahi

Hobbies:  Drawing, Football, Quiz, Volleyball

Aim: Engineering

Family Size: 2 brothers and 2 sisters, Father, Mother and Granny and one uncle

Family Status: There are two people who work in the family (a brother and a sister). The other sister is married. Farming, raising cattle and selling goats is the only  source of income along with selling vegetables in Simikot. During the winter they have a reserve of  food known as millet, buckwheat, porso-millet, wheat, etc.

What does their family say: They are happy and inspire their children to work hard at their academic aspects. The children are not  pressured to work in the field.  They say they are blessed with giving this kind of opportunity to their children and support the hostel by sending some of their food to the hostel.

School Background: Studies at Balmandir H.S. School.  He finds the teachers are very co-operative, inspire the weak and ask them to do better next time.

Hostel Field:  If supported, I will study further. Junior in his grade and is hard working. They help each other and the newly brought technology has provided an opportunity to learn something via laptop.

After 10 what? If support is given I will go on to further studies.

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Name: Santosh Upadhaya

Hobbies: Drawing, Football, Volleyball, Dancing, Singing

Aim:  Bank Manager- Interest in computer

Family Size: 1 sister and 2 brothers, Father, Mother

Family Status: Father works at Humla Delights Bakery at Simikot.  Also farming, raising cattle and selling vegetables in Simikot.  They store kodo millet, buckwheat, porso-millet, wheat, and so on for the winter time. Father is the only source of income. One brother studies in the village and helps support the family along with his sister.

What does their family say:  Happy and inspire them to work hard and move forward. Motivate and actively participate in both practical work (House work) as well as academic performance.

School Background: Studies at Balmandir. Inspires and encourages me and is a favourite student of his class. Keep the pride of school and work harder.

Hostel Field: Seniors are inspiring and motivating them to work hard and help them with their school work.

After 10 what?  If possible, will take Computer Courses.  Will help family and engage in family business via bakery.

A year ago I’d never heard of the Spiti Valley in northern India.   For the similarly uninitiated, it is wedged between two major tourist regions: the Garhwal Himalaya to the south and the Ladakh ranges to the north.  Despite being so close to these areas however, Spiti is a really difficult place to get to.  There is no airport and only one unsealed road in and out.  Snow closes the road from November to May and it is challenging and at times impassable the rest of the year.  The trip from Keylong to Kaza, the main town in the Spiti valley, is only 160 km, but it took us a full 12 hours on the worst road I have ever been on.  Not surprising then that Spiti has remained remote and isolated from the modern world for so long.

We knew of the Munsel-Ling school from a friend who sponsors a student there. Battling extremely limited internet connectivity in Kaza, I found the school’s page on Facebook and was able to get a message out about a possible visit.  Lama Tashi replied right away and let us know we were welcome the next day.

We arrived at Munsel-Ling school not knowing quite what to expect.  There is a small building for “Admin”, and there we found Lama Tashi and his team waiting for us, extremely welcoming and brimming with enthusiasm.  His English is excellent and he has a modest, humble presence that belies his stature in the Buddhist community.  It was immediately clear that we were going to be treated as honoured guests, with tea and refreshments, a full lunch and student performances.  It was amazing.

We started with a tour of the main campus, which is much larger than I expected.  The classrooms are small, with about 25 students per class.  Teachers are local Spitians as well as some Indians from outside.  Everyone speaks English and the quality of education is evident.  In fact several graduates from Munsel-Ling have gone on to university in India and, significantly, some have returned to Spiti as doctors and other professionals to serve their community.  It is inspirational and it highlights the impact of this remarkable school on Spiti.

Most students at Munsel-Ling live at the school for much of the year, and we visited a number of their boarding houses and rooms.  Accomodation is basic, dorm style, with outside toilets.  Each student has a small trunk or suitcase for their clothes and  personal possessions, all stacked in a storage area outside each dorm. Winter heat is provided by wood stoves, and we saw lots of wood around the campus being prepared and stored for the coming cold.

The kitchens and dining rooms were also interesting.  Feeding so many students is a major undertaking and there are huge pots for cooking, a massive rice cooker, and lots of food and fresh fruit.  All cooking is done on propane and kerosene, but there is a wood-fire backup system as well. The diet appears to be as nutritious as possible.

There is a special area on campus for the very young children (4 -6 years old) with play areas, small classrooms, full-time staff and separate dining rooms.  The teachers we saw were incredibly hands-on and caring, doing everything they could to help the little ones get through the day without parents.  It was both heartening and heartbreaking to witness the lengths to which some families will go to ensure the best possible futures for their children.

The library and computer rooms are a central part of the school.  The library / learning centre in particular is lovely, with many books, local art, and comfortable chairs.  It relies on donations and we were told that new books, especially classroom sets, are always welcome.

We visited the medical center next where concrete efforts to improve  student health, student nutrition, and dental hygiene were evident.  This is facilitated in part through an ongoing collaboration with the University of British Columbia Global Health Initiative.  They keep detailed student health records, and an analysis of the school’s meal program was underway to determine if any changes needed to be made.  We were impressed.

There is much evidence of foreign aid at Munsel-Ling.  The new TRAS-funded laundry facility, although basic, is clean and efficient and great for students to learn self-sufficiency.  Likewise, a new dual-season toilet block is almost completed, with flush toilets for the summer and pit toilets for the winter.  Huge new cisterns are part of this project as well, benefiting the whole campus.  There is also a large diesel generator for dealing with power outages, water filtration systems, and a computer network.  Lama Tashi is full of plans and ambitions for future projects as well as being committed to completing the ones that are in progress.  New schools, hostels and other programs are already underway in other parts of Spiti.

We left Munsel-Ling with great enthusiasm for Lama Tashi and his organisation and amazement at his ability to leverage the resources and goodwill around him.  He has had a profound impact on Spiti and we can only assume there is much to come.