HELP Blog

JN Memorial School building project

Jim Coleman — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:10:25 +0000

With the help of family and friends (including parents and children of the Hilmarton Primary school) of one of our volunteers, Rebecca Scott, who taught at this school in 2006, a new robust reinforced two-storey concrete structure has already been built at a cost of about £4,300, to replace the wooden structure that was slowly sliding down the mountainside. The children moved in on 28th July, straight after the summer break. This project came in under budget and was completed ahead of time.

Volunteer testimonial

Jim Coleman — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:14:57 +0000

I didn’t really appreciate how great HELP was until I got the chance to talk to some other teachers in Kalimpong. I met at least four or five others who were teaching and all of them seemed to say their placements were unorganized and boring. Some also paid as much as 6 times the amount I paid and they didn’t know where any of the money went. HELP gave me the opportunity to work very independently with the comfort of having a number of reliable contacts in and out of my placement. I can’t say enough how glad I am to have chosen this organization over some of the other available opportunities. (Justin Bradley, Bright Life Academy, July 2008)

Volunteer testimonial

Jim Coleman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:09:47 +0000

HELP is rare for an organisation offering volunteer teaching in that it puts the needs of the local people before the desires of the western person wanting ‘the experience’. For example, insisting on a minimum of 8 weeks of teaching is an excellent policy (Alastair Skeffington, Saraswatimata Yumahangma English School, 2008)

Darjeeling hills strike lifted

Jim Coleman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:19:55 +0000

The indefinite strike (bandh) in the Darjeeling hills, called by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha who are pressing for more autonomy, has been suspended pending the outcome of negotiations with the Government. The GNM have given a new deadline of 5th July.

volunteer testimonial

Jim Coleman — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:13:57 +0000

‘I think HELP is the volunteer organization that I looked for for a long time. It is the most easily accessible and responsive organization I found on the web. I really like the self donation to the school and how independent it requires its volunteers to be, unlike many other organizations.’ (Michael Winterstein, St. Paul Primary School, 2008)

volunteer testimonial

Jim Coleman — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:00:20 +0000

“HELP is a tremendous organization that allows volunteers to be placed in schools that can really use their help. The reason we were attracted to HELP, in part, was that the funds expected from the volunteer were not overly cumbersome, and were directed primarily at the school, not toward a large, somewhat unaccountable Not For Profit organization expecting unreasonable fees.
Jim can be very proud of what he has accomplished. The schools are so lucky that he has devoted so much to HELP.” (Marc and Molly Young, GPS Bhagsu Nag, 2008)

Nepal is no longer a kingdom

Jim Coleman — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:51:38 +0000

At the request of the Maoist dominated Constituent Assembly, King Gyanendra and his family have left the royal palace and given up the trappings of kingship. He will live in Kathmandu as an ordinary tax-paying citizen. Nepal is now, for the first time in its history, a republic, and the palace will be turned into a museum. The ending of the monarchy, the only Hindu monarchy in the world, is largely unmourned.

Strikes in Darjeeling and Kalimpong

Jim Coleman — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:42:58 +0000

The Nepali speaking districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, which belong to the Indian state of West Bengal, are currently being threatened with an indefinite strike (bandh) by the recently formed Gorkha Mukti Morcha party which has revived a long standing demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. The GMM has asked tourists to leave the district, and our volunteers have felt obliged to leave too. A previous campaign in the ’80s led to the setting up of the Gorkha Hill Council, with limited autonomy for the region. Although it is unlikely that they will achieve an independent state, a greater degree of autonomy is a possibility.

2008 already breaks the volunteer recruitment record

Jim Coleman — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:17:41 +0000

We have recruited 18 volunteers so far this year, seven of whom have finished their assignment, four are still in place, and seven have yet to begin their assignments. This means that we have recruited more volunteers in the first half of this year than in any of the past five years that we have been operating.

To modernise or not?

Jim Coleman — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:24:44 +0000

On my trek in Ladakh last September, I joined a group of villagers having a tea-break in the fields where they had been harvesting the wheat. They were debating whether to buy a tractor or not. Some argued that it didn’t make sense because they already had cattle which could be used to do the threshing in the traditional way for no extra cost. The tractor not only costs money to buy, but you also need to buy petrol. One of the older men said that he would love to use a tractor before he died!

Another issue was how to respond to a letter received from a tourist agency inviting the villagers to serve as porters for foreign trekkers. Some of the younger men were keen to go to earn some cash, but others argued that it was harvest time, and the women couldn’t do it on their own. In the end, the decision was to stay and do the harvesting. There was, in fact, no great urgency to leave the village since my guide informed me that the villagers get paid (by an NGO I believe) to stay put and help preserve the environment for the endangered snow leopards.

If you would like to add a comment, please feel free to do so. You may have listened into a similar debate, or have views about the impact of new technolgies on traditional cultures.