News - Page 10 of 19 - Himalayan Education Lifeline Programme

April 5, 2014

Empowering women in Nepal

HELP is donating £2500 to the Women’s Empowerment Centre in Damak, Nepal. The money will be spent on sewing machines and training to enable the women to support themselves by making clothes and toys.

The underlying objectives of this local NGO are as follows:

To provide skills development training to help women live an independent life.
To provide legal advocacy to under-privileged women to combat social, economic and cultural discrimination.
To support orphaned, disabled and displaced women and enable them to live a respectable life.

March 11, 2014

Why India’s landmark education law is shutting down schools

The following article appeared on the BBC website recently:

By Alys Francis Delhi

Many believe India’s bargain-price schools have been producing better performing students

In an unauthorised colony of labourers in Delhi, a class of six-year-olds is reciting English, a language their parents hope will get them jobs in call centres and offices.

But later this month the classes will stop.

Ramditi JRN Deepalaya is among hundreds of small private schools – which have multiplied in India selling education at 100 rupees ($1.6; 96 pence) a month – that are being forced to sound the final bell because they do not comply with a law which makes education a fundamental right for children.…

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February 27, 2014

The dark side of volunteering overseas

The latest edition of the CSMA magazine reports on the ongoing scandal of of fake orphanages in Nepal. Nepalese children are being stolen or bought from parents and then marketed to tourists as orphans. The scruffier and more neglected the children appear, the more sympathy and money they elicit from gullible tourists. Some of these so-called orphans are sent to the West for adoption, even though they still have parents.

HELP was once taken in by one of these ‘orphanages’, so it is not surprising that casual tourists are taken in.…

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February 12, 2014

Veteran politician Sushil Koirala is new Nepalese PM

KATHMANDU: Sushil Koirala, a veteran Nepali Congress leader who spent 16 years in political exile in India after Nepal’s royal takeover of 1960, was on Tuesday sworn in as Prime Minister, vowing to ensure political stability.

President Ram Baran Yadav administered oath of office to 74-year-old Koirala at Rastrapati Bhawan.

(The Times of India, 12/2/14)

So, in spite of the passing of years, a Maoist insurrection, the massacre of the royal family and establishment of a republic, Nepal turns yet again to that old dinosaur Sushil Koirala for salvation!…

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February 10, 2014

India eases tourist visa regulations

India’s planning minister says New Delhi has eased visa regulations for tourists traveling from 180 countries.

Rajiv Shukla announced late Wednesday that many tourists visiting India would be able to pick up their visas at the airport upon arrival in the country, five days after applying.

“We have decided to extend the visa-on-arrival facility to tourists from 180 nations,” the minister said, adding that the “historic” move would provide a major boost to the country’s tourism sector.

“It will take five to six months to put the infrastructure in place.…

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January 29, 2014

Nepal doubles its tourism service fee

An article from:

Wednesday, January 29, 2014 | 07:30 PM IST

January 26, 2014

Investigation claims 185 Nepal workers died in Qatar building World Cup infrastructure

AN investigation has claimed 185 Nepalese workers died last year working on the infrastructure for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

By: Dion Dassanayake

Published by The Express, U.K. : Fri, January 24, 2014

A report has claimed 185 Nepalese workers died in Qatar working on the World Cup

Officials documents obtained by a Nepalese non-governmental organisation claim 382 Nepal workers have died in the past two years.
The death toll, which has been cross checked with death certificates and passports, could rise as more cases are brought to light.
The figures were revealed to The Guardian by the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee (PNCC).

January 25, 2014

No justice for Nepal’s slave girls

VULNERABLE: Nepalese indentured ‘kamlari’ girl Jayarani Tharu, left, and formerly indentured and now activist Manjita Chaudhary, after the rescue of Tharu from her workplace by police and activists in Katmandu. (AFP)

From Arab News, 25/1/14

Nine-year-old Manjita Chaudhary had never spent a night away from her
parents when her father sold her to a Nepalese policeman for $25.

She left her family in western Nepal and traveled some 200 kms to her employer’s home near the Indian border.

Her harsh new life began at 4 a.m.,

January 11, 2014

Winter sun

While I am enjoying a couple of weeks of winter sun in Tenerife, HELP volunteers are trekking to remote schools in western Nepal to start their assignments. They too will be enjoying the sun, but it will be colder than Tenerife at night!…

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December 13, 2013

Newsletter 2013 (No. 11)

December 2012-November 2013

Another year has passed. The completion of our 10 year anniversary last year marked an appropriate time to review our programme and re-orientate it where necessary. Barbara Porter, one of my fellow directors, has just returned from her first inspection visit:

INSPECTION VISIT (October – November 2013)

Barbara with local teachers

Barbara Porter started out as a HELP volunteer in Sikkim and since then has run teacher training seminars in Kalimpong, Leh and Pokhara for local teachers.

She spent three weeks this autumn in Ladakh and Nepal visiting old contacts and the schools we have been supporting, meeting as many sponsored children as possible, ferreting out new schools that would benefit from our programme, and making new contacts.…

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