Empower Students to Learn Climate Change In Nepal

With a lot of excitement and expectations, Kalsang from Mt. Kailash Higher Secondary School, Kapan, Kathmandu and Sanju from Kitini Higher Secondary School, Godawari, Lalitpur, along with a teacher from Mt. Kailash School and three staffs from ECCA went to participate in the GLOBE Learning Expedition (GLE) in New Delhi, India.

The program, that saw the participation of around 300 students from 32 countries, was a valuable platform for the students to learn and exchange the experiments they have been doing. Kalsang and Sanju were no different. Already, there was an excitement of being in a different country among peers of different nations, plus learning new things directly with the experts added extra value to it.

A month prior to the event, Kalsang and Sanju started preparation for the presentation that they were supposed to do. Their presentation was a study about the effect of urbanization in Karmanasha River in Lalitpur. As the duo carefully practiced and went over the tiny details, one could feel their excitement and nervousness. After all, just doing the research isn’t enough; you need to be able to tell people about it, too! And they did exactly that.

During their presentation at the program, Kalsang and Sanju were successful in letting the audience know about the study and also answer queries regarding it.

Next came the poster presentation and eco-engineering products exhibition; with the theme of water conservation and preservation, the posters were beautiful and gave meaningful messages about it. Kalsang painted a couple of pictures for which Sanju did her bit by helping him. The visitors at the exhibition were duly impressed by the paintings about water conservation. One particular painting caught the eye of everyone and Kalsang, the painter, was asked to submit it in competitions! Encouraged, Kalsang then moved on to explain about the safe drinking water situation in Nepal, which was in a poor condition.

Kalsang and Sanju used this rare opportunity to know more about their fellow counterparts from other countries, their research, presentations and about their country in general. The exhibition and presentation was a great way to know what was happening in the countries. With an active interaction with the many students present there, the duo believes that their knowledge about the global environment and conservation method has been broadened.

The program also aimed to engage the GLOBE scientists and alumni with the students for the experiments. In the third day, students were taken to the field for mapping the study sites. Kalsang and Sanju were in the group that was to observe the atmosphere and soil sites in the hotel grounds. Dr. Narendra Das, SMAP Satellite Mission Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and GLOBE Scientist instructed them in their observation, along with other noted scientists. The next day, their group got engaged in mapping land cover and atmosphere sites at Nehru Park in Delhi.

Despite the hot Delhi weather, the students strived to learn more. The enthusiasm they generated fueled each other to learn more, nonstop.

The intention of GLE is to enable and engage the young minds towards conservation of the environment by making them observe the minute to drastic change in it. This program intended to gather schools from different countries at one place to share the activities they have been doing and at the same time, adapt ideas that could help in their own projects. This has been a great experience for the duo, who well represented the activities conducted in Nepal in this global platform. Needless to say, Kalsang and Sanju will be sharing the experience with their peers in their respective schools. This will, unquestionably, help in their quest to learn about the climate and environment more.

Your donations ensure such extraordinary opportunities for these students who are hungry for knowledge. We thank you for the support you’ve provided us and would request you to keep on blessing us in our effort to take the students in a good path. We share information of our programs and events in our Facebook page, Blog and on Twitter. Do check them out for more updates. Feel free to write in your valuable suggestions and comments regarding our work.

Thank you.

Sachi Mulmi

Media Coordinator

ECCA