March 2024 - Guide and Porter Awareness Workshop Creates New Job Opportunities
by Steve Mannshardt
The trekking industry is the life blood of Nepal, providing a significant amount of the country's income from the tourism sector as a whole. As the April 2024 trekking season is almost upon us, WWEP continues its partnership with the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project to fund the Guide and Porter Awareness Workshop. This program trains dozens of porters in communication, management, and customer service skills so that they can progress to higher, and better paying, positions within the ranks.
KEEP has provided the Guide and Porter Awareness Workshop and its semi annual English Language Courses for porters for many years, thanks to the contribution of WWEP's many generous donors.
Earlier this week, 45 porters (shown here) were trained in valuable skills during this annual three-day GAPA workshop taking place in the Dolpa district.
Photos: Kathmandu Environmental Education Project
January 2024 - English Language Classes for Porters to Build Skills in Tourism
by Steve Mannshardt
For many years, WWEP has partnered with the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project to provide resources for porters and guides as they build their career options in the trekking and tourism markets. One of the most valuable skills a porter can learn is a facility with the English language. The more familiar and fluent a porter is with English, the more likely he is to advance onto higher positions in the trekking hierarchy. Advance positions include kitchen assistant, lead porter, assistant guide, and eventually guide, all of which pay more money than a guide position.
WWEP funds these English classes for both the winter and monsoon class sessions, when the trekking industry is on hold due to extreme weather. The porters shown here are enrolled in the January 2024 English Language Course for Porters at KEEP. At this session, 26 students enrolled to learn more skills in the English language at the Chheskam Solukhumbu classroom location. Although skill levels were varied at both the beginning and the end of the course, all 26 students passed the course with good marks. Please help us provide more services and resources for porters to advance their careers.
Photos: Kathmandu Environmental Education Project
December 2023 - Fundraising Campaign to Expand Primary School in its Final Stretch
by Steve Mannshardt
Our campaign to raise the needed capital to expand a rural primary school in the Sindhupakchowk District is nearing its goal. Eighteen months ago, WWEP pledged to our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal that we would raise the funds needed to add four classrooms to the Sano Sansar Primary School. The current classrooms are overcrowded and SUK wishes to expand the curriculum to Class 5 for the coming academic year.
We are currently 90% of the way to our goal and can still use a few more donations to make it over the finish line.
The residents of the village have greatly enjoyed the current programming, where children attend classes from Play Group and Kindergarten up to Class 4. With the additional classroom space, SUK will be able to offer a curriculum up to Class 5, as well have more room for the current students.
If you are able to help us reach our goal, please click the DONATE button above to make your much-needed contribution.
Existing facilty
Current students Faculty members
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
November 2023 - Monastic Students Learn English as an Integral Part of Their Curriculum, Leading to Careers in Teaching
by Steve Mannshardt
English language classes are an integral part of the curriculum for all Nepali students who expect to pass their final exams each year. Although Nepali language classes are always taught concurrently, students must also take a comprehensive English language program to complete their studies.
For those students wishing to earn a degree beyond secondary school, mastery of English is key. These students here are benefiting from the dual program of monastic studies and also a curriculum of language, math, science, and art that is offered at a small monastery within Kathmandu. Students here have graduated with high marks in their exit exams and some, including this young woman below, have gone on to gain positions in teaching at local primary schools.
Photos: Karma Sherpa
October 2023- Help Us Meet our Goal to expand the Sano Sansar Primary School
by Steve Mannshardt
Almost a decade ago, WWEP teamed up with the staff at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal (SUK) to create a primary school for local children in the rural village of Sipapokhare in Sindhulpalchowk District. Many international NGOs joined the effort to design, build, and open the school to benefit the students wishing to attend classes K through 2.
In 2016, the Sano Sansar Primary School opened its doors to children wishing to enroll in classes in language, math, sciences, and social studies. WWEP assumed the role of providing classroom supplies and hiring some of the faculty needed to instruct the new students. Almost immediately, the school was full to capacity.
In August of 2017, the school was expanded by doubling the number of classrooms. Once again, WWEP rose to the needs of the added enrollment, providing more classroom supplies and hiring additional faculty, as well as adding administrative aides. As soon as the new classrooms were complete, classes 3 and 4 were added to the curriculum.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
In 2022, our partners at SUK asked if we could fund the expansion of the facility with three additional classrooms and a library. Although a big stretch for our limited budget, we took on the task of raising the money over a two-year period. In September of 2023, we reached half the funds needed for the expansion and the WWEP Board of Directors launched an aggressive campaign to fund the rest of the project. With the support of our amazing donors, WWEP has taken a large leap forward in our ability to fund this expansion project for the 2024 academic year.
As seen here, the current school facility is managing with the high enrollment but the staff and faculty wish to move the extra students into classrooms and to include the recent addition of Class 5 into the official curriculum. This will be accomplished once our fundraising campaign for the new school is complete.
If you wish to donate to this cause and help us reach our ambitious goal, please see the DONATE tab above and complete your contribution through our website.
September 15 2023 - Children's Day in Nepal
by Steve Mannshardt
We are happy to see that on September 14, 2023 (Bhadra 29 in the Nepal calendar) the children of Sipapokhare celebrated National Children's Day at their school. This year National Children’s Day celebrated around Nepal with the slogan "Child Friendly Governance, Respect to Child Rights."
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
August 2023 - Dance Classes and Cultural Performances at Primary Schools Encourage Heritage Activities
by Steve Mannshardt
Arts and Culture Education in Nepali schools are very important subjects to promote and they are always a favorite with the students.
Shown here are the students at the Conscience Primary School, practicing their dancing at morning activity time, and also rehearsing their routines in full authentic costumes.
The students learn a great deal about their native Nepali culture through dance activities. WWEP has provided funding for dance classes at a number of primary schools in Kathmandu and also in the surrounding valley.
Please help us continue this important and valuable tradition for the students who attend our schools by making a contribution today.
Photo: Passang Lama, Kids of Himalaya
June 2023 - Students are Doing Very Well in Summer Classes
by Steve Mannshardt
Thank you to all of our donors who continue to support our Classroom Supplies and School Faculty programs. Students are doing well in their summer classes thanks to the abundant supply of materials available for proper instruction.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
May 2023 - Students Enter the New Academic Year at Conscience Primary School
by Steve Mannshardt
Located northeast of the city center of Kathmandu, the peaceful campus at the Conscience Primary School is host to 62 students entering their classes for the 2023 school year (2080 in the Nepali calendar). WWEP has been working with the team at Kids of Himalaya, the NGO that manages the school, for many years now, helping them to provide quality education with classroom support and hygiene supplies.
I am able to visit the school campus about every two years, meeting with the staff, faculty, and administrators to see what is needed to help the students learn and grow.
Photo: Passang Lama, Kids of Himalaya
April 2023 - New Classes Opening for the Sano Sansar Primary School
by Steve Mannshardt
We are happy to announce the expansion of services provided to local students of the Sipapokhare village by the Sano Sansar Primary School to include Class 5 for continuing students.
Originally built in 2015, the school has served local students starting at Nursery Level and all the way up to Class 4. The school's attendance has grown tremendously over the years and the faculty is now able to accommodate a curriculum in Class 5.
We are still planning how to manage classrooms, as the school facility is bursting at the seams with eager students from the local villages. But with added faculty, we have come up with a plan to share classrooms until we can expand the facility to meet the growing needs of the community.
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
August 2022 - Meet our devoted Primary School faculty from Sindhupalchowk
by Steve Mannshardt
Each school term, we find ourselves very lucky to have such a great faculty available to teach our seven class levels from Nursery up to class four. As the school attendance grows at the Sano Sansar Primary School, we have needed to increase the faculty to help handle the needs of the incoming children.
Beginning with two faculty many years ago, we have now grown to nine faculty members to teach all the classes that we administer. We have also set a goal to increase the salaries for our teachers, as that has dramatically increased the quality of the instructors that we are able to hire.
Starting many years ago as a far-off dream for the village of Sipapokhare, this school has grown to serve the education needs of so many impoverished students in the area. Please help us continue to provide quality education resources for our students, and our faculty, as the Sano Sansar Primary School begins its sixth year of successful programming.
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
June 2022 - World Environment Day in the Rural Villages
by Steve Mannshardt
In honor of World Environment Day 2022, the children of the Sano Sansar Primary School and Kindergarten in the Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal participate in activities to help promote a healthy and sustainable balance with Mother Earth. Funded through our special activities program, and facilitated by our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal, children from the school are taught about the responsible and ethical practices that they can do to help care for the natural environment around them. Tree planting activities and lessons about sustainable farming are the focus of these celebrations on June 5, 2022.
Opened for local children in 2016, the Sano Sansar School provides much-needed preschool and primary school education for dozens of children of the nearby remote villages. WWEP’s Classroom Supplies and Faculty Support programs are invaluable to these children, who otherwise would not receive nearly the academic resources and attention if left to attend local government-run schools.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
December 2021 - Orphaned Children Transitioning Well into Sustainable Career Paths
After one of the seven students lost his sponsor earlier this year, WWEP arranged to secure a new sponsor for this student through the end of his university degree in Hotel Management. The Nepali economy is based a lot on technology, medicine, social services and tourism, so we wish Rajendra well as he pursues his desired career goals in this useful industry. Other children at the Home are approaching the end of their education sponsorships as well, and are successfully transitioning into careers in social services, retail, and the arts.
by Steve Mannshardt
During my recent trip to Nepal, I spent two full days at the Mitrata Nepal Home for Children. Once serving over 100 young residents, the Mitrata Children’s Home has transitioned dozens of students into secondary schools, universities and full-time careers over the past decade. While the US branch of Mitrata still cares for over 50 students in the Kathmandu area, the Nepali Home has pared down its enrollment to seven sponsored students in residence.
Photos: Mitrata Nepal Children's Home
December 2021 - Small Kathmandu Monastery Thrives During Pandemic
Led by our good friend Karma, the monastery has 16 young students who are enrolled in school and housed in a nearby dormitory. They mainly speak Nepali, but also have English and Tibetan in their curriculum. WWEP mainly helps with general operating expenses for the dormitory. Many of the students are orphans or otherwise did not have the ability to go to their home village when the school shutdown occurred. Luckily, the senior monks at the monastery were able to keep the children safe and cared for in the dormitories, while also providing a limited set of in-house classes.
Keeping them occupied during the shutdown was a big factor, so WWEP’s funding help to purchase a ping pong table and some other games for the kids. During my recent visit there, the children were seen playing and staying active and appeared happy even though they were not able to see their friends outside as much as they wished. As schools open up again, the students here will return to classes without missing a great deal of education in the meantime thanks to the efforts of the monks here at the monastery.
by Steve Mannshardt
The Covid Pandemic has hit Nepal hard on almost every front. Luckily, some smaller organizations have been able to weather the storm better due to the nature of their isolation. Last week I was able to pay an in-person visit to the Drupgni Khadhing Ling Monastery, a small facility on the northern side of the city which educates Buddhist children from the local area and from remote villages in Nepal.
Photo: Karma Sherpa
September 2021 - Raksha Bandhan: A Celebration for the Children
by Steve Mannshardt
Here our students in the Nepali village schools celebrate the annual ceremony of Raksha Bandhan, which takes place in August. Literally "the bond of protection, obligation, or care," this rite entails tying a holy thread on the wrist to protect from unnecessary evils. It is one of the important festivals of Hindu culture where Brothers and Sisters worship each other and give wishes to each other for good health. Although a beloved annual ritual, this ceremony is especially important this year for good health.
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
August 2021 - WWEP’s Rural Pre-School Gets an Upgrade
by Steve Mannshardt
Even though the daily situations of life in Nepal are challenging at best, we have still been able to keep our schools in good shape. The summer monsoon rains are pouring down onto the mountains and valleys with thunderstorms every day this week. Also, the global pandemic is crippling most of the major cities and the suburbs of Kathmandu, although we are lucky that cases are significantly down from the holiday surge in April and May. Still, almost all of our programs are able to move along and help serve the affected communities that we have provided for these many years.
One of our recent landmark projects is the staffing and upkeep of the Sano Sansar Pre-school and Kindergarten facility in the remote reaches of the Sindhupalchowk District of Nepal. Opened five years ago with leadership from our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal, the pre-school serves between 60-70 young children, with seasonal surges to 80 or 90 kids. With that many children running around each week, the facilities get lots of daily wear and tear. After being able to re-paint the interior over the April school break, we were just last week able to finish our renovations of the classroom furnishings.
As seen here, the children are enjoying the freshly replaced carpeting on the floor and a host of newly built or repaired furniture. The children shown in the upper photo are in Kindergarten and require simpler furnishings, while the children shown below are transitioning into higher class levels, which requires full desks and benches.
We also are able to supply the children with exercise books and writing implements for their classroom work. Finally, we continue to support the hiring of qualified teachers to come in and help provide education for the children in many class levels. Our Pre-school program operates nearly year-round and is always in constant need of financial support.
Please visit our DONATE page to help.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
July 2021 - Maintenance in Nepal’s Schools: A Constant Task
by Steve Mannshardt
The school buildings in Nepal are always facing a struggle to keep clean. With most of the roads unpaved and all water needing to be carried for miles from the source, the rural village schools certainly need a lot of annual cleaning and maintenance. As seen in the “before” photo to the right, the lower parts of the classroom walls always get dirty the most due to children leaning against the walls and often rubbing their hands along them too. Some scrubbing is done in the high traffic areas but, with water being a precious commodity in the dry hills, it is not always practical to rely only on that. With the coming of the summer monsoons, water is a lot more available but only for a few months.
Each year, WWEP contributes the needed funds to maintain, repair and even dress up the rural school facilities that we sponsor. Walls are repaired and painted, the roofing is checked for leaks, gardens are often re-planted, and sometimes hardware needs to be replaced. The Sano Sansar Kindergarten facility in central Sindhupalchowk District is seen here getting its annual coat of fresh paint during a break in scheduled classes. The choice of the darker color on the bottom will keep the lower half of the rooms looking a little better for more months out of the year.
Keeping the facilities clean and attractive is not only a health benefit but it also encourages the children to attend their classes. We have found that the psychological reinforcement of freshly painted rooms and neat uniforms for all students dramatically helps boost attendance, especially in rural village areas. We appreciate the work of our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal for their supervision and maintenance of these school facilities.
BEFORE
AFTER
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
June 2021 - Covid-19 Relief Efforts Reach the Rural Villages of Nepal
by Steve Mannshardt
A week ago, we were able to provide cash funding to our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal (SUK), all of whom were poised and ready to act in response to the great needs in the villages. Within days, they were able to mobilize both protective gear and medical aid supplies into the villages of Sipapokhare, Bhotsipa, and Badegaun. We at WWEP cannot find the words to adequately express our great appreciation and deepest thanks for the generosity and compassion shown by our long-time donors in our most recent campaign to help those in Nepal dealing with Covid.
SUK was able to provide 20,000 surgical-grade masks, 200 liters of liquid hand sanitizer, 1000 bars of soap, seven hospital style beds for patients needing isolation while sick, ten 9000-liter oxygen cylinders, and 20 full sets of PPE gear for medical volunteers who are helping to treat those in the isolation rooms.
All told, the SUK team was able to help 900 families in the village regions in Sindhupalchowk District with small aid packages based on their immediate needs and their family size. The local aid efforts are valiantly spearheaded by Basu Adhikari, the local field supervisor for our rural programs. Basu, seen here in blue, has been our primary person in charge of the education programming in the villages for many years now. He has recently shifted his efforts towards health care and virus prevention in the surrounding areas. Basu certainly has a great amount of volunteer personnel support from those in the villages who are not yet directly affected by the virus, but his tireless efforts have certainly held our programs together and we owe him a great deal of gratitude.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
May 2021 - New Covid Clinic in Rural Sindhupalchowk Village
by Steve Mannshardt
To all of our generous donors who answered the call to help us provide medical supplies and beds for the new Covid clinic in Nepal, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. The residents of the remote villages in Sindhupalchowk District that are managed by our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal (SUK) were overjoyed to hear of your outpouring of compassion during their time of great need. Covid cases in Nepal have skyrocketed and even the villages, previously sheltered from the virus due to their remoteness, have been seeing a dramatic rise in recent weeks.
The branch office that typically serves to coordinate school registrations and vocational services for the villages has now been converted to a small emergency clinic, as seen here. The purchase of beds, PPE and medical supplies will dramatically increase their current stock as more children and adults in the villages need medical care.
Transport to Kathmandu by bus for medical treatment can take five to six hours each way, if the buses allow infected residents aboard. Soon, most likely in July, the monsoon rains will commence and the rutted roads will be impassible for anything but motorbikes until October. Quite often, our team relies on motorbikes for delivery of small shipments for the schools but the larger items needed for the clinic must go by jeep before the rains begin. If you are able to donate to this effort, we may be able to get another shipment to the villages before the monsoon rains close the roads for the season.
Please click the yellow DONATE button above to help.
Just last week, SUK marked its eleventh anniversary of providing education-based services to rural communities, nine of those years in partnership with WorldWide Education Partnerships for Nepal. SUK’s valiant efforts to provide crucial services to residents in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes showed their intense dedication to helping those in need and we trust that their efforts at this time will be very productive and greatly appreciated as well.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
May 2021 - The Health Situation in Rural Villages is Changing Rapidly due to COVID-19
by Steve Mannshardt
In all the many years that I have been traveling to Nepal, two things have always been clear to me; things change very slowly in Nepal and things change very quickly in Nepal. Despite the everyday challenges that residents face in Nepal on a daily basis, we were previously able to report favorable health conditions surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic. Once the tourism season had been shut down in 2020, Nepal became very isolated from the rest of the world. Although devastating to the economy, the lack of foreign visitors in the country meant that the risks from incoming tourists bringing in the virus or spreading it out to other parts of the globe were very small.
But that window of safety has closed at this point. Although international flights were cancelled for the better part of a year, much needed trade routes with India and China remained open for many months. With limited resources for manufacturing, Nepal relies heavily on imports from India and China for many of the most basic goods for daily life.
And with this daily influx of necessary trade, the COVID-19 virus has gotten a foot in the door and is spreading rapidly in the country. Many of our partner organizations were previously able to handle the small need for protective gear and cleaning products within their own communities. However, we are now seeing a mushrooming spread of the virus, both concentrated in urban centers and also reaching out into the rural communities. Shown here at the right are school classrooms, recently closed during the April term break in classes, being converted into make-shift isolation rooms for local COVID patients.
Requests have been coming in recently from our education partners in Nepal to help with much-needed funding for beds, medical supplies and personal protective equipment for the staff who have been working to help neighbors and families.
We are asking our regular donors, who have already helped us maintain school-based education during 2020, to help us now with the constantly shifting needs that arise for the communities whom we support. If you are able to provide financial support to us at this time, we will be able to provide vital medicines and protective gear for the small clinics and service centers that are springing up in the urban and rural areas.
Please click the yellow DONATE button above to navigate to our donation page. Due to sky-high shipping costs, donations of material goods are not practical for our needs. With prices being lower locally, each dollar goes even further in Nepal if we are permitted to distribute funding to our local facilitators on the ground in Nepal. Thank you for your support and we keep you all in our hearts as we help Nepal with this monumental struggle.
Photos: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
April 2021 - Kindergarten children receive food aid in addition to their normal schooling
by Steve Mannshardt
In the final days of the current school term (Nepali year 2077), our new Kindergarten program for rural village children is brimming to capacity. Now in its fourth year of operation, the Sano Sansar Kindergarten facility in Sipapokhare has 87 pre-school children in regular attendance. Managed and administered by our local partners, Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal, the kindergarten now has six classrooms. As of the past term, the pre-school required additional faculty to teach all of the children that enrolled for the current term.
We have found that providing opportunities for children in the rural village to participate in simple classes prior to their entry into Class One dramatically increases their reading levels and their retention in classroom attendance as they move into primary schools.
The children of all three pre-school class levels are shown here at the end-of-term picnic (tiffin) that was provided free of charge by the staff at SUK. Even small meal service to the children ensures greater attendance in the school programs. As the pre-school attendance grows, we hope to add more tiffin programs for the children in the future.
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
February 2021 - Schools are Open in Nepal
by Steve Mannshardt
Although conditions around the world have been dire and tragic in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown of businesses and schools, Nepal is currently faring rather well in terms of education facilities. Most of the schools that WWEP supports reside in the mid-hill pahad districts, such and Sindhupalchowk and Rasuwa. With the village children being isolated from the crowds of people in the larger cites such as Kathmandu and Pokhara, the schools can operate in their own bubble. Shown here is the Conscience Primary School, which is located outside of Kathmandu. Being that the school has its own dormitories where the children stay, the school has been able to operate under a fairly normal state of affairs. Visitations to and from the cities have been curtailed as much as practical, which helps keep the staff and the children safer.
Photo: Kids of Himalaya
December 2020 - Happy Holidays from Nepal
by Steve Mannshardt
Despite the great hardships felt throughout Nepal at this time of global pandemic, our students have taken a moment to send our donors and our staff a special holiday greeting. WWEP has made an extra effort this year to provide additional support to our partners in this time of extreme challenges. We wish to thank all of our donors who have made an additional donation during this holiday season to help us help our students and families in Nepal.
Photo: Kids of Himalaya
November 2020 - Rural schools still in operation
by Steve Mannshardt
Although so much of Nepal, and the rest of the world for that matter, is experiencing great hardship as never seen before, some small corners of the world are able to move on. Nepal's primary school system, especially in the rural areas, has always had great difficulties and challenges in trying to maintain a sense of normal education for so many years and decades.
Being far from the centers of civilization has typically been one of the biggest challenges, as getting materials, supplies and personnel to the villages has always been difficult. But in the midst of this global pandemic, that remoteness has become a little bit of a blessing, as that has allowed the small rural schools to function somewhat close to what is usually called "normal." It is by their sheer isolation that the schools in one of our large villages in the Sindupalchowk District have been allowed to carry on with what could be called a normal existence.
With the help of our dedicated partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal, the pre-school has been functioning fairly close to normal in its operations. It has been serving dozens of young children as they aim to transition into primary school. Day to day classroom activities have been punctuated with special activity days, such as "Green Days," where the kids go out and plant trees in the hillsides to assist with the village food supply and to help prevent erosion during the monsoon months.
It is great to see that, in all of the adversity and suffering in Nepal, some parts of the world can bring valuable education and plenty of joy to the children and their parents.
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
September 2020 - Rural Village Headquarters Expands Both Space and Services
by Steve Mannshardt
One of our primary partner organizations in Nepal is Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal (SUK), a small but ambitious organization run by energetic residents of Kathmandu who were born in the village of Sipapokhare and have had roots there for generations. The SUK staff is dedicated to the advancement of education resources in this cluster of remote villages, located in the mid-hills region of Sindhupalchowk.
Although the local schools in the area have been closed over the spring and summer, this has allowed the SUK team to complete the expansion of their regional services headquarters. The small building houses the office of the village facilitator for SUK, and a program to help rebuild local homes still left in disrepair since the 2015 earthquakes. It also contains a local health clinic for the residents of the nearby villages.
My last visit there to the village allowed me to see the building with only one story, including some plans tacked to the wall outlining the eventual completion of the second story. The new space has allowed SUK's local programs to run more efficiently and the facility serves as a community center for residents to come for services.
Photo: Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal
March 2020 - Schools to Close in Nepal and International Borders as Well
by Steve Mannshardt
The COVID-19 global pandemic has reached Nepal and government officials are taking swift action to combat it. Although the first reported case of the Coronavirus was seen in January, a second case appeared today and officials did not hesitate to shut down the borders with India and China as well as cancelling all domestic and international flights. The streets o Kathmandu are also in shutdown for a week's time.
All children are being sent home from schools in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak potential in Nepal. But even the most well off students have access to only basic care facilities in terms of medical treatment. Those students with more difficult situations are being sent back to their rural villages where, in most cases, no facilities exist.
Our partners at the Bhuvaneshwori Satyal Foundation, located within Kathmandu, and numerous other partner organizations, are preparing to assist young students who are being sent home to a less than ideal situation with their families. They are preparing health kits and education kits to send out with the students as they head home.
Below is an update that we received moments ago from our partners in Kathmandu:
"Our main concern is the health and welfare of our children, their families, and BSF staff as Nepal faces heightened challenges from its lack in infrastructure including water and healthcare facilities. BSF staff are maintaining a skeleton crew at work and mostly working from home. Our Contact Center is closed, and BSF staff have distributed many items from the Contact Center’s store of supplies to the families of these most at-risk children, including food and educational materials. In Nepal, healthcare is only given if you pay first. Our families have no ability to take care of such expenses, so we will be reallocating some of our funds to be able to meet these needs in anticipation that some of our children and staff will need hospital care. If you want to help us build emergency kits for these families who so greatly need supplies in this time, please donate now."
The staff of the Bhuvaneshwori Satyal Foundation is shown here before the shutdown, meeting to devise a plan to best serve the many students whom the center serves. Senior staff is also seen assembling aid kits for the children, both providing basic medical supplies and educational materials to hold them over during the one week shut-down.
If you wish to help us assist these children by supporting BSF and their mission to create emergency kits, feel free to donate here at WWEP. We are able to receive these donations and immediately forward them onto the Mitrata Nepal Foundation, located in the USA, which works hand in hand with the BSF Contact Center in Kathmandu.
We are also able to forward similar donations directly to our numerous partner organizations in Nepal who are offering special assistance to children and adults in light of the pandemic.
Please help us at this time of great need in Nepal.
Photo: Bhuvaneshwori Satyal Foundation
Photo: Bhuvaneshwori Satyal Foundation
December 2019 - WorldWide Education Partnerships for Nepal Turns Ten Years Old
by Steve Mannshardt
In some ways the time has flown by so fast and in other ways it feels like it has been a lifetime.
NEWS UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 2019:
As we have moved ahead with a new look for our website, we have also refined some of our programs to suit the evolving needs of the community whom we serve.
1) With the opening of the rural kindergarten in Sipapokhare and regional partner offices in Sindhupalchowk, we have expanded our services in developing the growth potential and self-sufficiency of the organizations that we work with. We provide support for them to hire local staff in the villages themselves, thus allowing both immediate solutions and also building the organization’s local credibility.
2) We have eliminated our hiking boot program for porters, as all of our recipient organizations have secured direct deals with footwear manufacturers and are doing very well on their own.
3) We have increased our English language classes and practical field skill courses for adults, as that has shown to reduce parental reliance on WWEP’s classroom programs due to increased earning potential. A number of our students have been moved out of support programs based on the dramatic increase of household stability and income level. Both students and parents see the value of breaking free of our support and take pride in being able to move forward independently.
4) Our support program for disabled students has been temporarily disbanded, as the prior recipients have been provided permanently support within Nepal by generous local residents. The program will be reinstated if the need arises in the future.
5) The need for school facility renovation continues but has seen a reduction of urgency as the Nepali government has at last begun to reach rural communities affected by the 2015 earthquakes. We still provide ongoing annual maintenance for smaller schools that have not seen an influx of long-term support.
6) Our education sponsorship program continues to cycle students in and out, fortunately for the best of reasons. As we find more students who need support, we make efforts to add them into our established program. We also lose students as they graduate out of the program with completion certificates or university degrees. One student of ours obtained a Law Degree and many others are working towards Business Degrees.
Seen here on the right are some of our students from the original class of 2010 and some of the same students seen recently in 2019, one of whom has graduated from secondary school and is now attending university.
As we move ahead into our second decade of providing such a successful future for so many children and adults in Nepal, I am continually humbled by the love and support shown by all of our donors and the charitable community at large.
Thank you all for being a part of this journey thus far and we look forward to having you along with us for the future.
On behalf of myself and the Board of Directors for WWEP, I am proud to announce that we are now celebrating ten years of providing comprehensive education resources to impoverished residents of Nepal. As many of you know, WWEP started almost accidentally as a profound inspiration for me on a mountaintop in the Himalayas of Nepal. Over time, we have developed and refined the details of our education programs but have always stayed true to our original mission of providing financial assistance and educational opportunities to communities and schools in both underprivileged urban areas and remote rural regions of Nepal.
Photo: Pawan Dahal
Photo: UniGlobe SS High School
Photo: Leena Satyal
September 2019 - WWEP's Graduating Class Proceeds from High School to University
By Steve Mannshardt
When WWEP began to support some of the younger children in our programs ten years ago, we hoped to see the day when these students would get to complete their studies in secondary school. We held out the hope that they would have the strength and determination to stick out the many years of difficult and strenuous studies, whereupon they would have the opportunity to continue onto university. Much to our great pride and pleasure, we are now seeing that class of fine students graduating into a level of higher education they had never even dreamed of.
Earlier this year, Sabin graduated from his Class 12 studies and is currently awaiting entry into a local university next month to earn a degree in Business. At the same time, Rajendra passed all of his classes in Class 10 and proceeds into college prep courses in Classes 11 and 12. His intentions are to pursue a double major of Business and Art/Music when he is done with Class 12 in about 18 months. Over the years, we have seen these two fine young men progress from small children into adulthood, all the while demonstrating an amazing transformation along the way.
Photo: Chitra Magar
Photo: Mitrata Nepal Foundation
Sometimes the students come from families that are stable but struggling deeply with poverty and unemployment. Other students will be rescued from the streets of Kathmandu, often found homeless and destitute while dressed in dirty clothing and malnourished. The children are provided with a home at a local orphanage, if required, all supplied with nourishing food and warm clothing. Those in a better financial situation will benefit from tuition and school materials as well as social services provided by local aid organizations.
Congratulations to our graduating class of 2019. We wish them the best as they continue their studies with our help.
August 2019 - Kindergarten Classes Make Father's Day Cards
By Steve Mannshardt
Just three years ago, the options for pre-school education in the remote village of Sipaphokare were non-existent. Young children wandered the village, located high in the mid-hill region of the Sindhupalchowk District, looking for bits of trash to fashion into rudimentary toys as they played in the dusty streets. Now, with the recent addition of the Sano Sansar Pre-school facility, the same children are provided with art supplies to create colorful cards to bring home to their fathers and Father's Day.
The majority of Nepali children start schooling at the age of five or six, entering Class One and proceeding ahead with the basics of government funded education programs. The supplies are limited by the meager budgets provided and the classes are grounded in standard studies such as language, math and science. The children generally love their classes, as it provides them with a much needed education that they know, even at age six, will lead them to some level of success. But so often little emphasis is placed on pre-school education, the years prior to the start if Class One. It is these earlier years where children can begin to explore the ideas of language, numbers and the world around them in a less academic setting.
The class levels of Play Group, Nursery, Lower Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten in Nepal are all structured to allow younger children to learn the introductory skills needed for learning before they are thrust into the more intensive studies of Class One. We in the West may think that First Grade is the time for basic play and the introduction of simple concepts such as the alphabet and numbers. But in Nepal, where education is a prized commodity and students sometimes do not make it to Class Six before dropping out, the teachers hit the ground running and push the young children to learn at an accelerated pace.
However, we at WWEP have learned from the administrators and local facilitators of rural education that the value of pre-school play is vital to giving the children a leg-up. Children participating in pre-school tend to be far more prepared for the level of studies found in primary schools and show more success as they progress.
Photo: Raj Bhattarai
Photo: Raj Bhattarai
In 2016, our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal raised the funding to create the Sano Sansar School, a small four room facility to serve the needs of the younger children so much in need of beginning education skills. The opening of the school was a great success and attendance immediately packed the classrooms to capacity. The pre-school facility was doubled in size this past spring with additional fund-raising and the school now serves 75-85 children on a regular basis. In the past three years, children promoted out of the pre-school have entered their assigned primary schools far better prepared than expected in prior years.
Although aggressive study procedures may encourage the children of upper classes to learn quickly, some can get left behind if they miss some of the basics along the way. The introduction of this pre-school program has allowed more students to develop their learning skills before they are required to apply them to their studies.
WWEP has been providing ample funding for the classroom furniture, activity supplies and art materials, in addition to the support for salaries for the faculty and staff of the school.
June 2019 – The Mitrata Nepal Home for Children Gets a New Home
By Steve Mannshardt
I am pleased to note that the Mitrata Nepal Home for Children has re-located into a brand new facility.
It was October 2008 when I first visited the Mitrata Nepal Home for Children; their first home. It was a four story brick building in a dusty and noisy neighborhood of Kathmandu. It was rather spacious, until you realized that it was for 65 children and eight staff members. The rooms were sparse on furniture and most had few windows, so things seemed a little empty and dark. And the walk to school for the children was rather hazardous, given the amount of traffic on the busy streets.
In early 2012, the Home moved to a better area, higher on the hill to the west and away from traffic. It was a step up, for the sake of the children’s health. The property was a bit more roomy and the number of children had been reduced to 35 due to a change in the program. The rooms were more open and there were far more windows. The walk to school was shorter and safer.
In April 0f 2014, the Home was forced to move again, this time due to rising rents. I was fortunate enough to be in Nepal for the moving day and was happy to help organize the schlepping of items from one building to another via hired bus. It was also at that time when I realized that Nepali children are quite resilient. I figured that this move would be traumatic, yet the children took it in stride and actually found it to be an adventure. I tried to help carry things but had an eight year old kid asking to carry my burden so that I would not get injured. It was a propane gas tank and it was the size of the child but he still endeavored to make things easy for me. This was the moment when I realized that despite all of the challenges, the children can manage through anything. The rooms of the new home were large and the light was good in all of them. Being on the north end of the city, the walk to school was even shorter and safer. This time, they were able to have a garden, a valuable asset for them when food supplies ran short.
This past May, the Home moved again, this time only a short distance away. But this move is the last move for them. For the Mitrata Nepal Home for Children has now found a permanent home. No longer bound by rising rent payments and an uncertain future, the new home is now owned by the director of the orphanage. The number of children has been further reduced to 15, as many of them have been able to re-join family members as the economy has improved conditions for many residents. The new home has four stories, many spacious rooms, a large and efficient kitchen, a small garden and a great view of the city far off to the south. The walk to school is even shorter now.
The children are happier now, as they can understand that this is their home for years, until they are graduated from school and enter the world outside as adults. I visited them all this past June when I went to Nepal once again. So many of them I have seen for the entire past ten years, as they have grown up and become more educated and responsible. Some children have come and gone, as they enter and exit the sponsorship program. I even keep in touch with some children whom I met on that very first visit but they are now graduating from University with advanced degrees.
Every time I see the children here, I see so much hope and potential. All of this is due to many very generous donors who wish to help and a stable place for them to live. Thank you for your support.
February 2019 – The Importance of the Future for the Children of Nepal
By Steve Mannshardt
I have been traveling to Nepal for over ten years now and I will say that I have never found a community of residents so determined to make things work in life, despite tremendous adversity. At this point, I have traveled to 63 countries and have seen the various highs and lows of economics, politics, natural resources, standard of living and employment opportunities from many of these countries. I have seen some of the highest per capita GDP in many well-off European countries and I have seen some of the lowest standards of living in many impoverished Asian countries. But not anywhere have I seen as much will and determination in the residents of a nation as I see in Nepal.
One of the things that I notice with every trip I take to Nepal is the concerted effort to keep the opportunities of the children as high as humanly possible. I have seen families struggle, with each person working (sometimes multiple jobs), in order to further the education and future for their children. Nowhere have I seen so much determination to make the future brighter and happier than I see here in Nepal.
And much of that I see is in the lives of the children here. There is so much poverty here but also so much joy. So many of us in the West feel that self-worth is governed by the amount of goods and materials that we buy, own and keep. Yet it is all of these items in our lives that often give us so much emptiness and lack of satisfaction.
In contrast, I see the residents of Nepal with so little in terms of possessions. I see them holding onto only the basics needed and maybe one or two extra items that may be called luxurious. But in this basic lifestyle, I see so much inner peace and joy in people’s faces. In all of my visits here, I find that I strive to become part of that simpler and more peaceful lifestyle, if I am able.
Seen here are some of the many children I have met over the years. Although I often see them out in rural areas with ragged clothes and little in the way of toys, there is a peace and satisfaction I see in their spirit that shines through the dirt on their faces. For those children in the cities who are perhaps a little better off, they might have a few more possessions but nothing in any way excessive. Yet in their eyes as well, I see a magical quality that shines a tranquility and inner contentment. Yes, they can recognize that having a little more is better for their family. But they do not have any obsessions on that idea and find that what they have is valuable in terms of the context of their friends and family.
It is all of those people, both young and old, that I find the most inspiring to me. I have so many photos of myself visiting with children in various schools, villages, orphanages, monasteries or just walking down the street. It is all of these memories that I find the most enduring and the most cherished for me.
Photo: Khadak Rokaya
Photo: Bidur Bhattarai
Photo: Khadak Rokaya
Photo: Karma DM Sherpa
Photo: Ranjan Bhattarai
July 2018 - Creating a Safe Space for Kids in Rural Himalaya Village Schools
by Steve Mannshardt
In October of 2012, I ventured way to the far north of Nepal to begin an ongoing relationship with a small community of villagers who had previously been completely bypassed by the charity world. Arriving as the very first westerner to offer any assistance, I was greeted with great fanfare in what turned out to be a very emotional ceremony for myself and all the residents of the tiny hilltop village. Our programs immediately set about to provide basic classroom supplies for the students as well as a plan for renovation of the aging primary school building. Cracked concrete floors were re-poured and carpeted, dark and dingy walls were re-painted, a leaky roof was replaced and a small library was opened.
But on April 25, 2015, a series of massive earthquakes struck Nepal and reduced the school to unusable rubble. Thanks to an enormous outpouring of support, we were able to re-build the school with more resilient wood construction. But alas, the small play yard for the children was altered from a grassy patch to a pile of sharp rocks. Perched on a ridgeline high above the valley below, the school yard required the children to manage on what is basically the edge of a steep cliff where errant soccer balls would often tumble nearly a kilometer to the river below. If this sounds like a case of “how can this be true”,I admit that I am often amazed by the Nepali people’s ability to live a reasonably content life in what we would consider unacceptable conditions.
At the suggestion of my good friend Passang Lama, the resident facilitator for the Mendo project, a new play yard for the children was high on the wish list of the local villagers. Passang has volunteered so much of his time over the years helping hundreds of children, both in this rural village and in the urban capital of Kathmandu, and his insights for their well-being always shows when I visit the schools in Nepal.
Last December, our donors helped raise the funds to totally renovate the aging play yard to a safe and suitable place for the children to gather on their breaks between classes. With funding delivered to Nepal in February 2018, Passang pledged to keep me informed of the progress of the project. As is always true in Nepal, some projects are harder to accomplish than others. The village of Mendo is located at the end of an eight to ten hour journey from the capital on a circuitous and rutted road that sometimes tests even my resolve. Tiny twisting roads, often washed out by the monsoon rains, cling to mountainsides above precipitous cliffs that disappear into the mist below. Riding either jeeps or motorcycles, we sometimes pass buses and trucks with only a few inches to spare, sending a cascade of rocks and dust down the ravine from the weight of our wheels. And it is over this road that most of the materials are delivered, weather permitting. Nepal is currently in the midst of monsoon season when adverse conditions can sometimes delay our projects for months. Thanks to Passang’s unfading resolve and persistence, the project has moved the forward despite day to day challenges that would typically stop westerners in their tracks.
The upper photo shows the children in 2016 receiving their uniforms and annual allotment of school supplies on a rubble-strewn patch at the edge of a cliff. The middle photo shows the same area in 2018 cleared of rocks and then leveled for the introduction of grass. The perimeter wall has been laid prior to the installation of a fence near the cliffs. Passang tells me that the remaining materials have been ordered and are awaiting shipment to the remote village. Kathmandu is currently seeing its typical daily spate of thunderstorms, so I trust that Passang will allow the goods to proceed once it is safe to do so. The bottom photo show two of the children who attend the primary school, dressed in their newly acquired uniforms for the school. Uniforms, whether simple or fancy, will always instill a greater sense of pride and purpose to the children when they think about going to school.
And to give added perspective as to why a small play yard is so important, it is crucial to see that these children have so very little in their lives as it is. Although they fully understand the value of an education, the economic factors of Nepal often pull children away from school to instead gain some modest employment as porters for trekking companies or as field workers for their family. Passang and I often discuss how to provide numerous incentives to encourage these children to stay focused on their education and the perk of a safe place to play their favorite games is always high on this list.
We thank all of our donors for helping to make this small, but very important, project happen. I look forward to my next visit to the village and to perhaps engage the kids in a lively game of futbol, without watching the ball bounce down the cliff beyond as it did so often before.
Photo: Passang Dhondup Lama
August 2017 - The New Kindergarten Doubles in Size
by Steve Mannshardt
Many years ago we were asked by Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal to help develop a program and construct the facilities for a new kindergarten class in the village of Sipapokhare in the Sindhupalchowk District. The road to completion was full of delays, most notably the major earthquakes of 2015. At that time, WWEP’s resources went to the valuable efforts being undertaken to provide emergency shelter for the many hundreds of residents of the village left homeless by the quake. Although the kindergarten project was put on hold, the members of Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal contacted and gained the support of a European NGO that was able to see the building to it completion in the meantime.
In April of 2017, the three room kindergarten opened to great enthusiasm. Enrollment of the young children was not only higher than expected but soon managed to outgrow all of the resources in the small building. Reaching out to the previous donors, SUK Nepal was able to secure funding to build another three room wing for the kindergarten to house the children currently on a waiting list for enrollment. This would indeed double the size of the classroom space but does not address the pressing issue of staffing the classes. This is where WWEP plans to fill the upcoming need.
Our goal is to raise all of the funding for the teacher’s salaries and the classroom furniture by the end of this fiscal year. That will allow the time to commission the construction of the extra furniture and offer a guarantee to the local principal so that he can secure additional teachers for the children. The furniture is estimated at $750, the classroom supplies will run about $400-450 for the year and the salaries for the teachers are about $1140 for all of the instructors.
Today we are happy to see the second phase of construction of the Sano Sansar ("little world") Kindergarten facility nearing its final stages. The official opening for new classes is in April 2018, only eight months from now. Please help us achieve this goal by making a donation to WWEP before the end of December 2017. This will allow us to finish the expanded kindergarten project that has shown such great success in recent months.
April 2017 - Trekking Porters to Receive Much Needed English Language Training Through KEEP and WWEP
By Steve Mannshardt
The majority of trekking porters have limited English language skills to help them progress in their careers. Furthermore, this lack of skill makes it difficult to communicate easily with the guests they are helping to serve. The Kathmandu Environmental Education Project, a well-known NGO located in Kathmandu, has been providing low cost English language courses for porters for many years in order to help those wishing to increase their employment prospects. For the past six years, WWEP has contributed to the funding of these classes at KEEP as part of our Porter Advocacy Program to help those unable to pay for these classes themselves.
Every six months, a class of between 12 and 20 trekking porters meet at the KEEP office for two weeks of intensive classes in vocabulary, grammar and common usage of the English language. In addition, students are given extra lessons in cultural context, worldly experiences and general knowledge to help them better at making conversation with those guests they are assisting on treks. The KEEP staff and volunteer instructors from both European and American countries lead the daily classes based on the pacing suitable for the students in attendance.
At the end of the course, students are presented a certificate of completion by the KEEP staff, as seen here in this photo, and receive an inspirational speech from the Director of KEEP, Mr. DB Gurung. I am fortunate to be able to be in Kathmandu when the next set of courses are being taught, this July and August of 2017, and will be able to help with the cultural education segment of the courses.
So many times I have relied on the skilled and faithful services of porters, guides and long-time friends for assistance in navigating the numerous trails, villages and regions that I have traveled in my many years in Nepal. It is with great gratitude that I am able to return the favor by helping to enable these valuable language courses that are provided by the skilled staff and volunteers at KEEP.
Help us to maintain this valuable program by contributing to our Trekking Guide Training Program here on the DONATION page of our website.
Photo: Arjun Limbu
Photo: Arjun Limbu
February 2017 - Dental Hygiene for Rural and Urban Children Gets a Boost from WWEP
by Steve Mannshardt
Education takes many forms throughout the world, especially in regions that are systematically challenged. Nepal is certainly no exception to this and Health Education is one of our important crossover programs for children. On one of my recent visits to Nepal, I was able to deliver a large supply of new toothbrushes to the students of a Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu. Donors here in America have helped us by providing both funding and material supplies for our various programs.
Maintaining proper health for the children is a key factor in ensuring that they are able to attend their scheduled classes with regularity. In additional to the basics of the Health Education crossover, keeping the children healthy and in good spirits is one of the best ways to encourage an attitude that is conducive to further learning. Thanks to the help of our local partners in the schools, distribution programs like this can be administered over the course of a full year with great success. Without supervision, the children may misplace their supplies due to lack of proper storage. If provided with too many supplies at once, sometimes families will sell extra materials to others.
Our program facilitators are most often the staff of local NGOs, but can also be teachers, caretakers or concerned members of the community. We owe a great deal of thanks to our program facilitators for helping us with the day to day administration of programs while the staff of WWEP is here in the USA. You can also help us by pledging your financial support to our Classroom Supplies Program which is found on our DONATE page here on this site.
Photo: Lea Jobert
December 2016 - A New Kindergarten Facility in its Final Stages
by Steve Mannshardt
We are all aware that Preschool education is a very valuable step in child development. But in Nepal, the advantages of this type of program are even more vital for the successful education of children in this impoverished nation. With over half of the children in Nepal dropping out of school by the age of 14, the first few years of education are ever so important to each and every one of them. We are right at the cusp of providing this valuable program to many of the children in the rural area of Sindhupalchowk.
Four years ago I was in Nepal discussing the future needs of one of the small hillside villages in this district. As I stood in the open fields owned by a prominent resident, I was asked to fulfill a vision that was dreamed up many years earlier. Local elders had asked for a kindergarten to be built in the village and members of the younger generation promised that this wish would be fulfilled.
I never gave up on the kindergarten but the earthquakes of 2015 threw all of our long range plans to the wind. At that point, all of our efforts shifted to rebuilding damaged schools instead of creating new ones. Luckily, our partners in the village were able to negotiate a major donation from a Swiss NGO to get the kindergarten project off the ground in late 2015.
Eight months ago, I visited the village and saw the excavation and foundation work for the kindergarten well under way. Speaking with both the younger and elder residents of the village, I was asked to pledge a commitment to the facility to keep it running once it was finished. The promise that we agreed to was threefold; construct furniture for the three classrooms consisting of low tables and benches for the small children, provide basic classroom supplies for the children to use during the year-long term, and supply funding for salaries for the teachers to educate the children.
Today we are happy to see the construction of the Sano Sansar ("little world") Kindergarten facility nearing its final stages. The official opening for classes is in April 2017, only four months from now. We hope to raise all of the funding by the end of this fiscal year so that we can have the time needed to commission the furniture and offer a guarantee to the local principal so that he can go ahead and secure teachers for the children. The furniture is estimated at $750, the classroom supplies will run about $400-450 for the year and the salaries for the teachers are about $1140 for all of the instructors. Please help us achieve this goal by making a donation to WWEP before the end of January 2017. This will allow us to finish the kindergarten project that has been so long in the making.
Thank you so much for your continued support.
Photo: Subash Shrestha
Photo: Subash Shrestha
Photo: Subash Shrestha
June 2016 - Classroom Supplies in Rural Nepal Delivered
by Steve Mannshardt
School attendance in our sponsored villages has risen dramatically in recent months. Many of our donors have helped support our Classroom Supplies Program which brings writing materials, uniforms and book bags to children in rural villages. The program has grown slowly over the years, as funding has allowed us to add more students to the rosters. Little did we expect to see such a peak in attendance over the past six months. Luckily, support after the 2015 earthquakes swelled to meet the needs and allowed us to provide materials for the new school term, even with the amount of supplies that were destroyed.
Photo: Deepak Bhattarai
Which brings us to our latest challenge; we now have more students than ever. Parents who may have looked upon education as a passing activity, now see it as the vital key to their children’s future and a guiding force in providing the motivation to learn. In a country where failed systems and broken promises have resonated over the decades of shaky governments and political strife, WWEP has now begun a wave of change for so many people. In light of this buoyed sense of purpose among the residents, I would like to do all that we can to continue the growth of our Classroom Programs.
In the photo seen here at the top, staff members Murari and Deepak from our partner organization of Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal have come to distribute supplies to impoverished children in the Sindhupalchowk District. The small facility of the Kalika Primary School seen behind them houses classes in a temporary structure that WWEP funded as the nearby permanent structure is being rebuilt by government funding. Ram Krishna Nakarmi, the principal at the school, is seen on the right proudly posing with the children as they came to collect their supplies.
But these distribution efforts do not happen by magic. Dozens of volunteers have stepped in to help with the distribution of classroom supplies since the earthquakes hit last year. Supply chains in Nepal were crippled and roads were often impassible. Still, our partners at Sindhu Utthan Kendra Nepal worked tirelessly to get the needed supplies ready for the new school term starting in April. The members are seen here checking in deliveries of supplies and dividing the load into lots for each specific school. Thousands of blank notebooks were created for the students, many of which were to replace ones lost in the destruction caused by the quake when most all of the local buildings fell.
And still we strive to grow the program larger. After many years of waiting, we are now witnessing our partners breaking ground on a new kindergarten facility for the village’s children who are ready to begin their schooling. The building is due to be completed in the winter of 2016 and then opened in the spring of 2017 when the new term commences. But the opening will only be complete if WWEP is able to fund the day-to-day classroom expenses of the facility. This will entail expanding our Classroom Supplies Program to meet the needs of the additional classroom as well as the added students in the existing classrooms.
Please help us see the successful expansion of this valuable and much appreciated program by offering your support.
March 2016 - State of Normalcy is Returning to Nepal After the Earthquakes
by Steve Mannshardt
After the 2015 earthquakes, schools were shuttered for safety reasons and it took months to not only get temporary structures built for the classes but also to convince the children to come back. After having their homes and possessions destroyed, residents had relatively little on hand to provide day to day sustenance, much less the time and energy to encourage attendance in classes that had nowhere permanent to meet.
Luckily, we were there to provide immediate help. With so much international aid still stuck in bureaucratic red tape even to this day, residents and local organizations were amazed to see WWEP’s swift response and solid support so quickly. Deliveries of both food and shelter were supplied within days of the quake while other international aid was just leaving its home country. This immediate response was credited mainly to our having so many local partners on the ground in Nepal who were able to mobilize quickly. We have received numerous expressions of gratitude as to how fast WWEP was able to fund emergency programs and mobilize local partners to implement those programs.
Within 15 days after the quake, we had funded a program to build interim structures to allow classes to resume despite the summer monsoon rains. By the autumn months, the temporary classrooms were full to capacity which made it necessary for classes to meet on staggered schedules to accommodate all of the children.
In April of 2016, our first permanent replacement school building us due to open in the Rasuwa District. We expect a record number of students, given the absense of any school activities in the meantime. Sitting down with the head of the School Development Committee, we discussed (through an interpreter) how important WWEP’s swift response was to the recovery of the villages and the residents. With so many visitors passing through the area over the years and pledging some sort of vague assistance in the future, WWEP was the first to fulfill its promise and enact substantial change in these communities. And this integrity of purpose was not lost on the many residents in the villages. They have now come to trust WWEP as a loyal source of support.
Phpto Raj Bhattarai
Photo: Bidur Bhattarai
Photo: Rajan Bhattarai
April 2016 - Recovery and Hope: One Year Later the Mendo Primary School Re-opens
By Steve Mannshardt
It was one year ago when I sent out a message to our friends and supporters that both chilled my heart and sent WWEP into action. It was one year ago when a massive earthquake struck central Nepal, causing tremendous damage and destruction. Within two weeks, another equally destructive quake in a nearby region of Nepal shook whatever structures had remained in the center of the country and sent many of those tumbling down as well. Aftershocks rumbled through the wide region day and night and the significant ones have numbered over 400 in the past year. These events were to set the stage for one of our biggest challenges in assessing the damage and figuring out where to begin so as to affect the most relief.
Just last week, I returned from a trip to Asia which included almost a week in Nepal. During this visit, I was able to accomplish quite a few tasks that renewed my faith in the country’s ability to recover and move on. I have seen strength and fortitude beyond anything I have witnessed prior. I have seen courage and perseverance that would put even my best days to shame. Yet the road ahead for Nepal is still a long one, far beyond what we perceive with our known levels of disaster relief. Political struggles that alternate between mere differences of opinion and outright corruption have kept much of the mainstream relief efforts from being as efficient as they could be. Traveling through the country on my own and speaking to affected groups, I have seen that the smaller and more directly involved relief groups have made some of the biggest strides towards getting work done. I am pleased to be a part of that smaller and, often times, more dedicated group of organizations that have evaded the red tape of the government and have struck out independently to create constructive change.
My most recent trip was indeed productive in both the work done and the information gathered. I was able to deliver funding to a number of schools and social service organizations, all of which help residents of various ages and a range of economic hardships. I was able to survey the recovery of numerous communities in rural areas who had lost nearly everything and still moved ahead bravely.
Most emotionally for me, I was able be present for the grand re-opening of a school which had been destroyed by the quake and rebuilt with our funding. The photo of that re-opening, on 12 April, 2016, is seen here below.
And as equally important as helping with the physical reconstruction process, I was able to meet with and offer emotional support to children and young adults, some whom I have known for many years. One student, who is soon enrolling in university, spent close to two hours traveling to and from her home on the outskirts of town to speak with me for less than ten minutes. She came simply because it reaffirmed her belief that WWEP was there to help regardless of the scale and difficulty of our work.
Despite the many challenges, we are indeed able to accomplish a lot. With our help dozens of children are enrolled in public schools, some even entering university. With our help hundreds of poor children now have a far greater respect and appreciation for attending school, an activity which often times wanes in interest by age 12. With our help numerous adults have transformed low wage manual labor jobs into sustainable careers that now support their families. And, most importantly, with our help we have instilled a sense of kinship and respect with these communities which shall not waiver, despite the hard times in life.
We certainly look forward to participating in the rebuilding of Nepal, regardless of the amount of time, money or energy it takes. Thank you for supporting us.
Photo: Prem Tamang
December 2015 - Reconstruction Begins in the Far North of Nepal with WWEP’s Assistance
by Steve Mannshardt
A few weeks ago, we were able to begin the reconstruction process for the small primary school in the tiny village of Mendo in northern Nepal near the Langtang region. After being irreparably damaged in the earthquakes earlier this year, this four room structure has sat dormant awaiting the start of the rebuilding process. Our partners at Kids of Himalaya in Nepal worked diligently to clear bureaucratic hurdles, waited patiently for the rains to cease and struggled frustratingly with an ongoing petrol shortage that makes the eight hour drive to the remote village even more of an arduous journey.
But recently work has begun to raze the fractured walls, bringing down the tortured and twisted frame while salvaging all possible materials in the process. The work is slated to take three to four months, despite the bitter temperatures of winter that will buffet the steadfast crew who have undertaken the challenging project. All materials are brought by vehicle to the nearby trekking community of Syabrubesi. They are then carried by hand up the steep trail to the hillside village.
The children can be seen standing near the distant ledge, where their play yard sustained significant damage in the tragic events. The quakes occurred during a break in the school term and the start of classes was delayed for many weeks. Now having resumed, classes have continued in a small temporary building nearby. This is despite moderate tremors that have remained ongoing throughout the year and keep an ever-present sense of unrest in the air.
October 2015 - Adult Education Programs Ramp-up
by Steve Mannshardt
Education is a process that should be kept available to all. In the past six years, WWEP has helped hundreds of primary and secondary school children progress in their education by providing tuition, classroom supplies and uniforms. Whether the recipients are enrolled in private schools, boarding schools or government-funded public schools, the results have been dramatic and inspiring.
But we also have an ambitious adult education program as well, aimed at reaching those residents twenty years of age and above. For so many decades, the concept of someone in their 20s, 30s or 40s attending school was so far from normal that almost no one pursued the options. It was not until 2006, the end of the devastating civil war in Nepal, that the idea of adult education was considered viable. WWEP has maintained a strong will to encourage adults in the greater Nepali community to seek and obtain any form of education that would help them achieve a greater chance of success. In fact, the first program that WWEP started after its creation centered on furthering economic advancement for adults.
One of the adult programs that has found a significant success for us has been our Guide Training Program, a series of classes provided to help porters advance into higher areas of the tourism and trekking field. Many adults leave school in the eighth grade to become a porter on the trails of Nepal. Some leave even earlier if they are needed by their family in the fields. With limited traditional education, so many porters are stuck below a virtual ceiling that limits them from working as anything higher than what effectively is a pack mule for the rest of their life.
This is where WWEP can change the picture. Working with Access-Himalaya, a trekking company, and the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project, a social service based organization helping many Nepali residents, we have been able to provide ambitious adults in the trekking industry with game-changing opportunities in career advancement. Working with our local partners to select suitable candidates, we are providing a series of four courses to advance the futures of promising students. Courses in the program include Basic English, Guide Training, Intermediate English and Wilderness First Aid.
Just the other day, we heard reports of a great success story of this program. The following are snippets of the ongoing conversation between me and Pradip Rai, the owner of Access-Himalaya, on the subject of potential course candidates, shown here with me in Kathmandu.
“Prakash is very pleased to have been funded for the Wilderness First Aid course. He has now registered and will begin the course soon. Prakash is very keen to become a registered guide, and has already taken a basic English course. He feels that the course did not go far enough, and is asking if there is any possibility of Intermediate English also. We have to say that in our estimation Prakash will make a first class guide in the future, and would recommend him highly.”
“I think you will be pleased to see the evidence of Prakash’s first aid course, which he has just completed. He is very proud of his achievement and grateful for the opportunity.”
“Prakash has already made inquiries about the Intermediate English class. He will be very surprised and pleased when he learns that you are funding this for him.”
“We thought you might also like to know that the two guides whose training you enabled last season are continuing their trekking work with increased satisfaction and enjoyment.”
Needless to say, I feel such a profound sense of satisfaction to see that our work has so dramatically improved the futures of so many residents in need. I am due to leave for Nepal within five days and will be meeting with Pradip while in Kathmandu to discuss the expansion of this program into the upcoming year. With the earthquake in April having such a detrimental effect on the trekking industry, we have seen a marked rise in interest for courses provided by this program. With continued support, we can meet this growing need into the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
May 2015 - Assessing the Damage of the Earthquakes
by Steve Mannshardt
It has now been five weeks since the first of many devastating earthquakes rocked Nepal into a state of utter destruction. We have spent a great deal of our time lately contacting our partner organizations in Nepal to collect and assess the information that they have been able to report on the current condition of their respective regions. Ironically, communications systems have been so badly damaged within Nepal that is it easier for people to contact each other through me. Nepali residents may be only a short distance from each other but they have found that using WWEP as an intermediary has proven to be a more effective way to reach each other, even if that communication goes halfway around the world twice.
The various villages in the Sindhupalchowk VDC (village development committee) suffered a great deal of damage. Unfortunately, they sustained more damage in the second quake, as it was that quake that was centered much closer to that particular community. The first quake toppled virtually all of the homes but left many of the schools in usable shape. The second quake completely toppled what had remained and all eight of the schools in the area which we support were reduced to rubble. The rebuilding of these structures is far beyond our means financially. Luckily, there are thousands of residents in the area who are able to help with the process of reassembling the walls of the schools, a task that has already begun in earnest.
In the Dolakha District, further to the east, we had begun to explore projects in the small village of Singba that contained only one small primary school. Damage there was significant but not crippling. Once again, it was the second quake that did more damage in that village due to its proximity to the second epicenter. The residents there have fewer resources but are appealing to the government for help in the rebuilding process.
Photo: Urkin Tamang
Photo: DM Sherpa
Photo: Basu Adikhari
Photo: DM Sherpa
Photo: Urkin Tamang
Photo: Raj Bhattarai
The Rasuwa District, near the Langtang range of the Himalayas, is the area in which we had provided the most critical support in previous years. A small village named Mendo lies virtually unnoticed to the throngs of trekkers and aid organizations who take the east fork in the road past Shyaprubesi to climb the great peaks of Langtang instead of the west fork that snakes towards the Tibetan border less than ten miles away. When I first went to the village two and a half years ago, I saw a bleak environment populated by robust and energetic residents who had not been helped by any outside sources in decades. It was here that one of our larger aid efforts took hold. With a relatively small budget, we were able to affect major improvements in the village simply by making a few much-needed repairs at the school. But alas, that structure sustained significant damage in both of the quakes. Although it is still standing, the perilous condition of the school means that it cannot safely be occupied and needs to be replaced. It is here where we will be doing most of our work.
In the neighboring Gorkha region, the area near Barpak was the epicenter of the first quake. That tiny village was one of my stops on my tour surveying the countryside. It has likely all been destroyed and has possibly tumbled into the valley below. There is no way for us to contact our friends there, given the level of destruction in the entire region and the degree of isolation.
Luckily, all of the schools that we support in the city of Kathmandu sustained little or no damage due to the superior construction methods and materials used in recent years. Also, we were quite fortunate that none of the students or staff in any of our supported schools sustained any major injuries. Most residents of the city are sleeping out in the streets under tarps for fear of aftershocks which occur frequently and do not allow anyone to get any meaningful sleep.
As for the rebuilding efforts, we are currently planning for a multi-phased program assisting various villages based on their specific needs, resources and populations. The timing of this rebuilding program is not helped by the coming of the annual monsoon rains. The entire region of the lower and middle Himalayan elevations are currently experiencing torrential downpours that make daily life on a normal day a challenge and construction projects difficult. In these conditions, the Nepali people are stretched thinner than ever before. Still, we will proceed forward with these efforts as soon as practical.
April 2015 - The Earthquake of 25 April
by Steve Mannshardt
Today , our deepest sympathies extend to the millions of residents affected by the major earthquake that took place near the capital of Kathmandu on 25 April. It is impossible to express the difficulty that this presents to every Nepali citizen, no matter how rich or poor. Millions of residents are affected in so many ways as the death toll from the disaster rises with each passing day. In a country where everyday life on a normal day presents challenges that most Westerners could not imagine, a tragedy of this proportion is beyond belief.
In the midst of the aftermath, we are slowly making contact with our facilitating partners who work hard to execute our programs in Nepal all while taking care of our students. One by one, more of our children are being located and deemed safe following the destruction of the main earthquake and the numerous aftershocks.
Twenty five students touring a historic temple site on a school field trip narrowly escaped serious injury when the entire temple toppled to the ground around them. Due to the broad nature of some of our programs, other children are more of a challenge to locate and confirm their safety. We are still connecting with many of our working partners to ascertain the well-being of all of our supported children. News from our sources in Nepal can be very mixed with each passing day.
On the good side, all 17 children from the Mitrata Nepal orphanage have been checked in as safe. The structure is undamaged as, being a much newer building, it has fared much better than the frail and rickety ones in the nearby area that have tumbled down.
Fortunately, Facebook has a "Safety Check" feature that has allowed us to confirm the safety about two dozen of our partners in the Kathmandu area who are still without internet access. Mobile phones have proved very instrumental in keeping the communication going, but even that may falter as gasoline for the portable generators that can be used to charge them is running low. Many on our list of associates are still unaccounted for, so hopefully they will be found safe soon and recorded.
The limited contact in the higher elevations makes it nearly impossible for us to immediately know if any of the porters whom we support are involved in the deadly avalanches that occurred near Mount Everest during the quake. I have only heard from one of our trekking guides, who has reported in safe while on a short trek in a different region of the Himalaya.
On the positive side, we have since heard that all of our kids from the Conscience Primary School are all safe. Their school was newly built in early 2014 with much stronger materials than 95% of the older buildings that can often tumble like dominoes. The CPS School suffered minor damage to support structures but the dormitories are fully intact and the children have safe places to sleep.
But with each report of good news also comes the announcement of dire tragedy. The remote hilltop village of Sipapokhare, located in the highlands of the Sindhupalchowk district, was utterly decimated by the quake. Our partners report that 99% of the village houses are completely destroyed. Of the 800 residents in the cluster of villages along the ridge line, 160 have perished in the devastation. The village is the primary recipient of our annual program for Classroom Supplies Program and now suffers unimaginable losses for both children and adults as well as all of their schools. Reports have come in that all eight of the schools we serve have either been damaged or destroyed.
The residents are now living out in the open with no shelter. And to make matters worse, it has just begin to rain heavily today in the entire Kathmandu Valley. The monsoon rains typically occur in the summer months but will occasionally come earlier. The next three days are also forecasted for thundershowers which, luckily, tend to be of shorter duration. Still, with so many hundreds of thousands of residents sleeping outdoors for fear of aftershock collapses, the situation is getting worse quickly.
As you see and hear the never-ending reports of tragedy and loss, please consider donating to our programs which will aim to rebuild the education infrastructure that has been so badly damaged in this natural disaster. These efforts will not only play a major role in 2015 but will also linger into 2016 and beyond. Thank you for your consideration.
February 2014 - A New School Year and a New Season of Benefits from WWEP
by Steve Mannshardt
Every year, February comes with mixed blessings for me and WWEP. In one way, it is our slowest month of the year and in another it is our busiest.
Nepal is still in the middle of winter and many rural schools are cut off from the urban centers. This often makes it difficult for us to enact any new progress on the work that we have done in the previous year. Also, schools are approaching the end of the academic year which means that most are busy dealing with end-of-year exams. Information in both directions is much less at this time of the year as preparations for upcoming transitions take precedence. Any aid shipments from the prior year are typically dwindling, as students learn valuable lessons about the rationing and pacing of their resources.
Conversely, February is also when WWEP is doing the most strategizing. For it is this relative lull that allows us to assess how the previous year’s program fared prior to embarking on those of the new year. Although communication from the schools is often at a low, the conversations back and forth from our partner organizations in Nepal are usually at a peak for the year. Many of our partners know that we rely on the surge of donations at the end of the calendar year to be able to make realistic and accurate plans for the upcoming term. Reports on progress and requests for support begin to trickle in during mid January and reach a peak about the beginning of February. And then our Board of Directors gets a month to ponder, discuss and decide.
With the majority of our benefit programs doing well, many are gauged for how much we can expand. Occasionally we find some program that does not perform as well as expected. It then gets a thorough assessment of whether to continue the support, the best method to redirect the resources or how to totally discontinue the effort. Once again, the difficult decisions come up. Like with any budgetary process, there are never as many resources as there are points of need. The decisions of where to exact the most benefit are indeed complex. Is helping one child in a monumental way more valuable than helping ten with a significant effort? And is that more valuable than helping one hundred in a simple way? As in most things in our lives, the answer is hidden in the complexities of Balance.
On one end of the spectrum, we have a disabled child for whom we provide nearly everything vital to her successful life; housing, education, food, clothing and health care. On the other end, we allow some students the opportunity to supplement their existing education with artistic avenues to enrich their own lives as much as they choose. But the majority of our assistance falls in the middle of the spectrum, mainly in the form of education sponsorship and classroom supplies. This year, our sponsorship support grows from ten to fourteen students. Our classroom supplies program provides annual benefits to a number that expands to 175 this year. Our adult education programs grow very slowly, most often due to the logistical and emotional difficulty in reaching those beyond normal school age.
Luckily, with all of this growth, comes a dramatic sense of progress. For as we grow at WWEP, we also see a tremendous growth in the organizations which we support. Idealistic residents who formed a new organization only a few years ago with little more than a desire to help in some way, have now become formidable drivers of social change. I see newspaper clippings from Kathmandu of our partners engaging in substantial efforts to help their fellow citizens. And I cannot help but think that all of this is possible by way of the care and support expressed by the donors to WWEP, each and every time there is yet another need to be filled.
Thank you, once again, with all of my heart.
Photo: Raj Bhattarai
by Steve Mannshardt, Executive Director
For those of you who are following our efforts to reach into the schools of northern rural Nepal, we have joyous news of great success in our endeavors. One of the recent additions to our classroom aid program in rural Nepal is the tiny village of Mendo, a tight-knit community of 200 residents perched on a barren hillside near the border of Tibet. In November of 2012, I traveled far north to tour the village and the little three-room primary school that had fallen into great disrepair since its original construction some 25 years ago. Meeting over 100 of the adult residents of the village, I was deeply touched by their balance of tireless hard work every day and a determination to educate their children beyond the bleak and difficult life that they have endured themselves. Seeing the 40 children who attended the classes in the dilapidated classroom, I was moved to action immediately upon returning home to the USA.
In the first week of February 2013, funding sent from WWEP enabled the local workers to start with the renovation of the small school. The first photo shows the run-down condition of the small school house when I first toured the facility. The middle photo shows the staff from Care Himalayan Region working alongside hired workers in April 2013 to pour a new concrete floor and repaint the darkly stained walls to a bright white that would provide greater natural illumination inside the rooms. The final photo shows the children from one of the classes enjoying the comfort of the newly renovated classroom, including carpet on the previously bare floor. Although the work was completed at a modest cost and was done in a relatively short time period during a school break, the show of hope and joy on the faces of the students, their parents and the faculty of the school was an immediate show of great success. With just a small upgrade to the aging structure, WWEP was able to lift the spirits of the entire community by providing an atmosphere much more conducive to learning and proper education.
Thank you to all of our donors for their continued support in this process, as your contributions and words of support have meant a great deal to the children of Mendo and to their parents who look to them as the future that they never had.
April 2013 – Success in Our First School Renovation Project
