Rotary Club lends further support Nepalese Education Program

Karen and Margaret, recently returned from another visit to Nepal, addressed members of the Port Fairy Rotary Club about progress on the program.  In addition, the Rotary Club of Port Fairy made a small donation to the on-going support of the teacher training program that costs about $1 per day to train local, Nepalese teachers.  President, Hester Woodrup, presented Karen and Margaret with a cheque for $360 on the night.

The Nepal initiative is part of a Rotary RAWCS program which targets to reduce the level of poverty in western Nepal by raising the education level of children.  To do this, the Rotary program specifically aims to improve teacher skills by conducting more formal training programs.  As recently up to 2009, teachers at schools in Western Nepal were little more than volunteers who may have only been educated to Year 10 level. So, by focusing on teacher training the skills of teachers will steadily improve, school can become a more enjoyable experience for students and this will ultimately raise their level of self-esteem.

The highly structured teacher program starts by surveying teachers before their formal training begins as well as conducting an orientation program that also involves parents of students.  A similar program in Eastern Nepal, sponsored by the Australia - Himalaya Foundation, has seen some 1500 teachers trained with a reach to over 50,000 students.

The Rotary Club of Portland Bay has become involved in the program over the past three years and has become a fostering club of the Nepal teacher training program.  After three years, the first program of teacher training in Pauder (in the Myagdi District  of Nepal),  concluded with almost 40 new teachers completing their training.  Planning for a new, 3-year program is underway and started in January 2014. This will involve an orientation program including a base-line survey of current skills, development of the new program curriculum, a 10-day, intensive training course, in-school supervision and follow-up refresher courses.

Karen, along with Margaret, who is a teacher in Portland, had launched a fundraising program in 2013 to buy books for students.  The fundraising, to raise $500, concentrated on 50 cent donations as this is what it takes to purchase a child's story book in Nepal.  It is generally much cheaper to purchase books through a local program in Kathmandu and pay porters to carry them up the mountains to remote schools, as overseas transport costs are prohibitive if book are sourced from overseas. However, some problems of supply, due to a fire at Pilgrim Books in Nepal, meant that some books had to be eventually sources locally. Additionally, Karen and Margaret took some sporting equipment for use in the local schools in Kathmandu.

Karen and Margaret (pictured above - L to R) will continue to promote the teacher training program that takes only $1 per day ($365 pa) to train a teacher in Nepal and therefore the Portland Bay Rotary Club is still seeking sponsors for teachers in the 2014 program.  They are also happy to have other Rotarians join them on future RAWCS  trips to Nepal.

For more information on the program contact:

Karen Stock 
Rotary Club of Portland Bay
M: 0417 501 452  E: karen.k877@gmail.com