News

A volunteer tells why she keeps going back

I will remember always my first sight of the village of Lower Echhey, walking a kilometre or so down from Shivalaya Mandir at dusk, along the side of the “jeepable” road which was gushing water, led by my host Tikaram Poudyal, principle of JN Memorial Public English Medium School. I looked around as we walked, feeling a surge of joy at the prospect of staying in this stunningly beautiful rural village of smallholdings in the foothills of the Himalayas for 2 whole months.…

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Barbara Porter’s inspection visit, October-November 2013

Several long bone-shaking jeep journeys over snowy passes, hanging over the edge of airy drops and  rolling and crunching over roads half destroyed by monsoon rains took me to see a range of small rural schools: in Ladakh, two Buddhist monastery schools and two small community schools and in East Nepal a government school perched high on a ridge. Though the facilities were sparse, the enthusiasm and welcome from staff and students alike was fantastic. People in this part of the world have the way of making visitors feel like royalty!…

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Nepal Goes to Polls to End Political Deadlock

An article by Anjana Pasricha for the Voice of America:-

November 17, 2013

A Nepal election commission officer carrying ballot boxes heads to a polling booth in Katmandu, Nov. 17, 2013.
A Nepal election commission officer carrying ballot boxes heads to a polling booth in Katmandu, Nov. 17, 2013.

Nepal holds elections Tuesday, hoping to put an end to a five-year political deadlock that has brought the Himalayan country to a standstill. A disillusioned people hopes the polls will put the impoverished nation on a path to stability and development, but there are fears the political drift will persist.…

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Shanti Medical Clinic, Chitre

Simon Wydall, the first HELP volunteer to undertake a medical assignment, worked at a clinic in a small village on the Annapurna circuit trail earlier this year (2013). Here is an edited version of what he had to say about his experiences:

I was a final year medical student having just finished finals, and was completing my elective in Chitre. I found the whole experience extremely enjoyable and rewarding and would recommend it to others wanting to do a slightly different elective away from hospital medicine.…

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Westerners judging others

Recent comments in response to the blog post entitled ‘Upsets at the Dejong Pema Choling Academy’ have raised an important issue:

Should foreigners try to stop behaviour in one society which would be considered to be abusive in their own society? Should they remain silent, or should they take action? Take corporal punishment on the Indian sub-continent, for example. Should a western volunteer intervene? It is commonplace there, and considered an essential tool in maintaining discipline in many schools, as indeed it was in our own societies until a couple of decades ago.…

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Floods in Uttarkhand

Shailender David, director of the Serve and Share Association in Dehra Dun, has sent us this report on the floods in the Indian state of Uttarkhand:

“The Cloud Bursts on the mountains and on rivers , streams of Rudraprayag, Chamoli,Pauri and Tehri district of Uttarakhand brought disaster when they caused havoc mainly in the Kedarnath, Gauri Kund, Agasthmuni, Vijaynagar, Rambada, Bhili, Tilwara, Sonprayag, Gobindghat and Hemkund. The disaster is the Biggest Uttarakhand ever experienced up till now. The roaring rivers washed everything whatever came on its way, may it be big buildings, Vehicles, trees, Telephone towers, Electric poles etc.…

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Flooding in Uttarakhand

There have been serious floods yet again in Uttarakhand, destroying people’s homes and property. HELP provided funds to the Serve and Share Association, a local NGO, last year, and hope to be able to do the same this year. This is a report from OneIndia News:-

New Delhi, India: The water level in Uttarakhand is rising and so is the death toll. About 60,000 pilgrims are stranded for 5 days at a stretch and there seems to be no end to the rescue operations here, which is intercepted by bad weather, terraneous geography, and rising water levels.…

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Alleged abuses at the Denjong Pema Choling Academy

This is a news report about The Denjong Pema Choling Academy (DPCA). HELP used to send volunteers to this school in Pemayangse, West Sikkim, but withdrew after receiving reports from the volunteers , and others, about the abuse of children (and of money donated) in this school:-

“A Canadian woman volunteer working in a private school in Sikkim today lodged a complaint with police of Gangtok alleging that the institution’s director and a teacher often beat up the students.

Sara Antwis, 40, said she has recorded video clips of the teacher, Samir Tamang, chasing schoolchildren with a cane and of a student crying and showing his bruises.…

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AN OUTLINE OF THE INDIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM

The minimum age for admission in most states is 5, though in some it is 6.

Primary and Upper Primary education is compulsory but this is not a reality with only just over half of children between 6 and 14 attending school. The National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) is responsible for setting the curriculum for the period of compulsory education. Primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary schools are under the general jurisdiction of the states.

The medium of teaching is the mother tongue of the state or region.…

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Volunteer news

We will have six volunteers in schools in Ladakh, Uttarkhand, West Bengal and Nepal during May. One of them will be our first medical volunteer. He will be working with a Nepalese nurse at a village clinic in the western region of Nepal.…

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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 WintersteinSt. Paul Primary School
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