News

NEWSLETTER No. 17: December 2018 – November 2019

2019 has been a much better year for volunteer recruitment. It has also been good for fund-raising, thanks to the generosity of our friends who responded generously to our playground appeal. Find out what we’ve been up to this year!

INSPECTION VISITS

My indefatigable and estimable colleague, Barbara Porter, who runs our volunteer programme, and doubles up as our teacher trainer, has just returned to the UK from an arduous five week visit to the Himalayas, including Ladakh, Nepal and Uttarakhand.…

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Teacher training in Uttarakhand

HELP‘s teacher trainer, Barbara Porter, has just completed a three day teacher training seminar for nearly 30 rural teachers from 14 schools and 4 interior districts of Kumaon in Uttrakhand in North India. This training is likely to improve the learning skills of nearly 7000 children.

These photos have been taken by the Serve and Share Association (SASA) with whom we collaborate to run these seminars. SASA organised the event and recruited the participants, while we covered their expenses, and provided Barbara Porter’s professional services.…

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New playground needed!

A small village school in western Sikkim needed to enlarge its tiny playground to accommodate a rising school population, and to comply with new regulations issued by the Sikkim government’s Ministry of Education. As you can see in this video clip, the area they have available at present is barely big enough to hold morning assembly. Friends of HELP donated £3200 in response to our fund-raising appeal, and this, combined with money raised by the school children’s  parents, should be enough for the school to buy the extra land needed from the local farmer, and to raise it up to the level of the existing land (the school is built on a steep mountainside), and level it.…

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Volunteer opportunities for mature people!

HELP volunteer,Kathleen Kressly, with her school children in West Bengal (Kalimpong). We are looking for more volunteers like her to join our programme and make a difference to the education of children in the Indian and Nepalese Himalayas! If you want to know more, please go to the volunteer page of our website.

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No space to play!

Dear friends,

I am trying to raise money for a small village school in Sikkim to buy and level some land in order to make a playground for the children. This has become a government requirement, and the school must comply if it is to retain its registered status. The total cost will be around £6400, and so I will need to try various ways of getting there.

It’s an expensive project because, like almost every building in Sikkim, the school has been built on a steep slope.…

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Volunteer news

So far this year we have had four volunteers on assignments in India and Nepal. One of these is a doctor based in a clinic in Western Nepal. The others have been teachers, three of whom are still in place. Two more will take up their assignments later this year. Encouragingly, next year is already looking good for volunteer recruitment. At the moment we already have six who are likely to join up even if they haven’t already.…

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News from our volunteer in Uttarakhand

Brinda Poornapragna has recently completed her HELP assignment at an Ashram school in the Tehri district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand and has submitted this item for our blog:

Nestled in the native hills of the Ganges … is an NGO which supports the cause of Girls / Women Education…

The NGO itself was established about 40 years ago and is very illustrious and well known in the region for its service to the cause and impeccable devotion to the cause.…

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Why volunteer in the Himalayas?

by 

Volunteering abroad in the Himalayas is an experience not to be missed! ☆ “Want to teach in the Himalayas?” This was the top result following an internet search for short term volunteer teaching opportunities abroad. Who could resist such an invitation? For anyone with a thirst for exciting travel, the Himalayas are an irresistible location, the stuff of legend and mystery.

volunteering in the himalayas 
Volunteering in the Himalayas will give you ample opportunity to make a difference!

Still relatively inaccessible, the difficulties getting there make travel and volunteering in the region seem all the more exciting and rewarding.

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Easy fundraising!

If you’re planning to book a short break or a holiday, remember to go through #easyfundraising first! Over 250 well-known travel operators like Booking.com, LateRooms, TUI, Trainline, First Choice and ebookers will give us a donation which means more FREE money for our cause. You can get donations for booking package holidays, flights, hotel rooms, parking and trains, as well as exchanging money – it really works!
Visit: efraising.org/UnGqYnUAey…

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Volunteering with HELP offers all the good things of working with a small, personal organisation: in-depth local knowledge from the HELP organisers, and the feeling that one is doing something for the first time.
Daniel CookAlgarah School
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