54 health-groups'll get indoor games in Nepal

Console Mission presented 'four projects' on the GlobalGiving online fundraising platform. These interrelated projects focus on helping children, mainly girls, to continue their school education, join college, and find jobs suitable to their educational qualifications. Girls' education is important to Console Mission. Without a learning environment at home, it is not possible for children to achieve success in their academics. At the community self-learning center, which includes academic support for doing assignments and preparing for tests and examinations, children are guided in self-capacity and self-confidence development. Additionally, indoor games are one activity Console Mission has planned. Games like ludo and snake ladder, carom board, and some outdoor games like skipping rope and Frisbee are included. Through games and group activities, the project management team, led by the programme executive, aims to help children develop teamwork skills and enhance their cognitive abilities.

Looking Forward

1. As the funds are raised, we hope to acquire indoor games such as a carrom board.
2. Additionally, planning to organize a fundraising event for computers.
3. Continue to allow the children to play the managed indoor games available.

Number of Children: forty eight from grade nursery to grade twelve

Name of the village community: Ghongwa Our Study Place (GhoOSP) and Ghurdum Our Study Place (GhuOSP)

Located: Lalitpur district, Bagmati province, Nepal

A runaway girl Sumitra's Story: She is sixteen and has completed grade ten, which is the Secondary Education Examination conducted by the government of Nepal, applicable to both private and public school students. This is a time eagerly awaited by all children, after this, it is rare for someone to be forced into further study. There are differences between studying in public schools, which comprise about seventy-five percent of the total student population. Certainly, private school students are far fewer compared to public or government schools, where tuition,, and even snacks until grade five or beyond are free. This is one reason why parents often do not care much about their children's education. parents opt for public schools because they do not have to take care of additional expenses. However, once their children complete grade ten, further study becomes necessary. This is when parents are surprised—not in the first two to three months, but when they to manage the financial resources for their children's rent and other educational and non-educational costs, they neglecting their responsibilities. This was the situation Sumitra, who completed her secondary education in June 2024, faced. 

She was one of Console Mission's children from Ghongwa Our Study Place. Console Mission secured her a scholarship to continue her education at a public school in the neighboring village, starting in grade ten. She has to catch a bus that takes about forty-five minutes daily. Her reluctance surprised Console Mission because, even after knowing about the scholarship, she went into town to find a job. The program executive team plans to visit her workplace to gather more details and will provide an update afterward. She went with another girl who was about to start volunteering with Console at Ghongwa Our Study Place in 2021, along with Kamala a member of our project management team. Her name is Anjali, who ran away to get married, in contrast to Sumitra, the main person in this story, who left education to earn money It was none than her parents forced her. Kamala, as a local resident, also informed us about situation and Sumitra and two other boys who passed scholarship interview along with Sumitra. The executive contacted Sumitra's father asking if were forcing her to stop her education and find a job. But her father claimed it was not them but Sumitra who was not showing interest.

Many girls like her have been approached by Console Mission in similar situations and did not speak out against their parents. Therefore, Console Mission plans to investigate the matter further. This intervention aims to create a source of income by sending daughters to work. Console Mission, aware of this fact, has developed self-learning programs to empower these girls to make their own decisions. The concept of self-capability through games and other encompassed in the project "Our Study Place."

Links:

• Console Mission, Playing a Role to Develop Mind from Early Age