News

NEWSLETTER No. 22: January 2025-January 2026

NEWSLETTER No. 22
2025

Dear HELP Friends and Supporters,

As we share this 2025 update, HELP enters a new chapter. At the end of the year, Simon Forwood stepped down as Chair of Trustees after three years guiding the organisation, and we are delighted to welcome Jolene Raison into the role. While leadership evolves, the heart of HELP remains the same — a community of volunteers, supporters and partner schools working together to expand educational opportunity for children in remote Himalayan regions.…

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NEWSLETTER No. 21: January 2023 – December 2024

NEWSLETTER No. 21
2023 – 2024

Dear HELP Friends and Supporters,

It’s been some time since our last newsletter, and I’m very glad to be reconnecting with you now to share the latest news from HELP. As many of you will know, HELP’s founder Jim Coleman used to write at least annually to keep you updated on the progress and projects made possible through your generosity and encouragement. Since Jim passed the baton of HELP’s leadership at the end of 2022, this tradition paused for a while — but the work on the ground has continued with the same heart and commitment that he inspired from the beginning.…

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NEWSLETTER No. 20: December 2021 – November 2022

NEWSLETTER No. 20
December 2021 – November 2022

The constraints that have been placed on the programme by Covid over the past two years have been lifted, and not only were we able to start up our volunteer programme once  more, but this October, Barbara Porter and I were finally able to visit India and the schools we support there.

This is our 20th Newsletter, which means that HELP has been running for 20 years. It seems a long time, and yet it has passed so quickly.

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Volunteer programme 2022

After two years when we were unable to send any volunteers to any of our partner schools, it was a delight to be able to send four this autumn. Applications were slow to come in at the beginning of the year as travel restrictions remained in place until early summer,  but by September we were able to send our first volunteer, Ken Haigh from Canada, to the Vidya Sagar Gyanpeeth school in West Sikkim.

Ken is an experienced teacher and librarian and as with most of our volunteers found it a challenging as well as a rewarding experience : “I was looking for a challenge and it was certainly challenging.…

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Teacher Training (2022)

Because of Covid, Barbara Porter, HELP‘s teacher trainer has not been able to undertake any of her normal teacher training workshops. It was wonderful for her to be able to visit all our partner schools once more, and to undertake teacher training again. For the third time, in partnership with SASA (Serve & Share Association) in Uttarakhand,  HELP financed a four day workshop in a retreat centre in Dehradun for 18 teachers who came from 15 different schools in remote rural areas of Uttarakhand.…

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NEWSLETTER No. 19: December 2020 – November 2021

NEWSLETTER No. 19
December 2020 – November 2021

At the time of writing the last newsletter, I had high hopes that we would be able to resume all our activities this year. Like last year, however, the Covid pandemic has continued to restrict what we can do.  For a second year we have been unable to visit our projects, or run our volunteer programme. Schools have been closed for over half the year, but have opened recently, and we hope that they will now be able to remain open. 

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Covid relief in Kalimpong

We sent a grant to Kiran Chettri of the Hope Family Trust in Kalimpong to purchase and deliver essential supplies to the poorest members of the community. This is what Kiran has reported:

 

“Respected Jim Coleman and all the team from Help. Greetings to you,

It is my please to give report about the fund which you sent to support for the covid-19 relief. Rs, 86663.00 we as team of Hope Family Trust would like to extend thankfulness to you all for your generous support.…

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Supporting schools and children during the pandemic.

Although our volunteer programme has been suspended since March 2020, our sponsorship and projects  programmes have continued. This year, our friends sent us £3578 to support Covid-related needs, and this money has been distributed as follows:

£600 to the Serve and Share Association in Uttarakhand, India to supply oximiters and and thermometers to seven villages, and to vaccinate villagers without access to government supplied vaccines.

£500 to enable four children in Damak, eastern Nepal, to attend school

£1000 to our Belgian partners to buy  schools in western Nepal  with masks, visors, thermometers, disinfectants and sanitary pads for girls

£500 to a UK charity, Our Sansar, for science equipment for a girl’s school near Birgunj, due south of Kathmandu in the terai (the flat southern part of Nepal which is part of the Gangetic plain)

£400 to buy tents for villagers in the Helambu region of Nepal who lost their houses to floods in June.…

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Amazon’s annual Prime Day event : 21 – 22 June

Amazon’s annual Prime Day event will be held on 21 – 22 June and this year, AmazonSmile is increasing the donation rate for Prime members.

All Prime members who activate AmazonSmile in their Amazon mobile app between now and the end of Prime Day will generate a 10x donation (that’s 5%!. We need every penny we can get to help poor Himalayan communities to get through the pandemic safely!…

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Coronavirus crisis in Nepal and India

Dear friends,

Last year you were very generous in sending us donations to help our schools cope with the impact of the pandemic on their finances and teaching programmes. You sent us £3,328 in total, which is more than we expected so we were able to help more schools than the one we had in mind.  I reported on this in our last newsletter.

Last year, the pandemic was particularly bad in Europe and America, but just recently India and Nepal have been overwhelmed by the latest wave.…

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I think it’s a great organization. I’m really impressed with how small and focused on each project HELP is.
Jill PeckVidya Sagar Gyanpeeth School
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