As you know, ETC (with your generous support) works directly with 30 schools, improving the physical environment and educational quality for more than 4,000 students and their teachers.
For this quarterly report, we'd like to focus on recent activities at one of those 30 schools: Jalpeshwori Higher Secondary School, a pre-K through grade 12 school with 310 students and 17 teachers. Here's what has been happening lately at Jalpeshwori:
On another note, we are delighted to have participated once again in GlobalGiving’s Giving Tuesday campaign, at the end of November 2018. This “Better Schools” project and our (now completed) “Community Learning Centers” project combined received more than $9,000 in donations and matching funds, putting us in the top 2% of eligible projects for that campaign! We call that pretty darned good, and we are so grateful for your support.
Again, we thank you very much for making allof this important work possible. Please follow us on Facebook (link below) and Instagram/Twitter (@ETC_Nepal) if you don't already. Best wishes for 2019!
Links:
Those of you who have been following ETC's work for a long time know that the 30 remote rural schools with which we have been working since mid-2014 already had a myriad of needs, both big and small, even before the spring 2015 earthquakes.
During the past four-plus years, with your very kind and generous support, we've made great strides in helping these schools recover from the quake devastation and become safer, more enriching places for children to learn.
ETC's School Improvement Program is by no means a one-size-fits-all activity. Each school has its specific needs. ETC works closely with all 30 schools' headmasters, who meet quarterly through our Headmasters Network, to determine priorities and ensure that all schools have their turns to get the support they need most.
Today, we are glad to share with you some recent images from three of the 30 schools, showing how much your support really means to these children and their teachers on a daily and practical basis. Note for example the fencing installed as a protective measure at Balambu School, to prevent rocks and other rubble from rolling down the steep hillside onto the school property.
Because of you, these schools are much better places to learn and grow! As always, we thank you very much for making it all possible.
Links:
This quarterly report is going to be a little different. Beyond simply sharing details about what has been done across all 30 current ETC-supported schools, we'd like to give you a little glimpse into one particular school: Janajyoti Secondary School in Lapilang.
Janajyoti is fairly large compared to others in our project area. It has a total enrollment of 320 students, of whom just over half are girls, in pre-kindergarten through 10th grade. The headmaster, Mr. Ganesh Khada, holds a Master's degree in English. A sizable percentage of the students are members of historically marginalized ethnic/caste groups.
As you can see in the accompanying photos, Janajyoti has recently received a new slide (and swing set, not pictured). Sturdy recreational materials are important in ensuring young children's physical development and confidence. ETC has also supplied Janajyoti's classrooms with hands-on learning materials, which are so useful in promoting improved comprehension and academic performance, as an alternative to rote repetition. The child-sized table in the photo was also provided by ETC.
Janajyoti Secondary School is just one of the 30 schools with which ETC is currently working in Dolakha District. Sixteen of the 30 have had new swing sets and slides this spring, and all 30 have benefited in recent months through receiving classroom/recreational materials, furniture, water tanks, fencing, or other needful items.
All of this is made possible by YOU, our kind friends, who support this useful and important work. Thank you for helping ETC to enhance the quality of education for thousands of children in rural Nepal! We absolutely could not do it without you.
P.S. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram @etc_nepal if you don't already!
Links:
April marks the Nepali New Year (Happy 2075!) and also the beginning of a new school year. With ETC's and your support, 30 rural schools in Dolakha are ready to welcome their students back for another year of learning and growing!
We've been especially busy recently with various activities to support the 19 early childhood education (ECE, preschool/kindergarten age) programs at our partner schools. ECE teachers took part in a four-day training while school was still out of session, in late March. The main focus was to learn how to develop and use their own classroom materials, with special emphasis on storytelling as an educational method. The March ECE teachers' networking meeting included lively and useful discussions about such topics as effective classroom management and the use of teaching materials to best support the concepts being taught. As usual, participants also had the chance to share their successes and challenges, and to learn from one another's experiences. These training and networking opportunities are so important for these teachers, who have no other professional development opportunities and are geographically isolated from one another.
As for the facilities themselves, one of the four PLCs (Permanent Learning Centers) being constructed during early 2018 is complete, and the other three will soon be. These new spaces are eagerly awaited and much appreciated by the students, teachers, and parents too. Government funding and support from other sources is so uncertain and unevenly applied that for some schools, ETC's new classrooms are all they are likely to get for some time, although it has now been three years since the earthquakes struck.
It's not all work and no play, though! ETC also encourages and helps manage many extracurricular opportunities at all 30 schools. These are useful both to encourage academic and athletic growth and achievement, and also to enhance the overall educational experience and encourage children to feel enthusiastic about school. Recent activities have included:
We hope you enjoy these quarterly reports, and that you will feel free to ask if there is any particular issue you'd like to see addressed in a future report. In the meantime, please know how great a difference you are making in the lives of thousands of Nepali children and their teachers through your support of ETC's work!
Links:
ETC and our partner schools have been very busy during the dry months of late fall and winter. Slippery roads (not to mention mudslides) and soggy ground don't lend themselves well to building or to transporting materials, but now the ground and roads are as dry as they will be all year. Below is a quick summary of what we have been able to do, with your generous help!
The more than 4,000 children enrolled at these schools really deserve the best possible facilities in which to spend their days learning and growing. Thank you again for making it possible!
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
