Rural Assistance Nepal Update (July 2010)
The past year has in particular seen the school at Garimudi go from strength to strength, with the healthpost at Deusa running smoothly, with good supplies of medicines and regular visits by volunteers. RAN is very grateful to everyone who makes this possible. THANK YOU.

Deusa

Healthpost

The New Year saw the arrival of a couple of volunteers and RAN accompanied them on a visit to Deusa's healthpost and school. While Dr Cath spent a few days helping Dev Kumari with diagnosis and the delights of urine testing, Steve helped by fixing some of the broken doors and shutters at the school.
Three medical students from Manchester who spent time at the healthpost during the summer of 2009 are supporting the salary of a second nurse. Kamala Rai lives in Deusa with her family and will provide Dev Kumari with cover, but primarily is to focus on visiting schools and women's groups in the village, to teach basic health and sanitation. Kamala started working in June 2010, in time to cover Dev Kumari who is attending a dental health course in Kathmandu for 2-3 months, supported by Young Star Club, the local community association in Salleri and DANIDA, the Danish government agency.
HexN (UK) continues to provide regular supplies of a good range of medicines. Several medical students, doctors and nurses have spent varying amounts of time helping, providing the nurse with valuable on-the-job training.

School

Yadav, the school's former head teacher has returned to the Terai, to his home and Rudra KC, teacher of social studies is now head teacher. Construction of the additional classrooms is very slow, but the science room and library are completed. Benches are still needed for the science room, but the library is being used.
School Leaving Certificate (SLC) results were not as good as the previous year's 100% pass rate, with 50% passing this time. However, four more students excelled with first class passes. Dev Chandra continues to teach English here for RAN.
 

Garimudi Secondary School
The school is going from strength to strength. Following the successful set up of three computers by Drew and Heather, two volunteers who spent a month at the school last summer, a few more volunteers have spent time assisting with computer lessons at the school. In particular, a big thank you to Exodus UK for donating money for more books for the library and Royal Mountain for giving three new computers to add to the school's computer class. Volunteers who, as well as giving students and teachers a chance to practice their English, have helped with computer classes.
 
The school has two RAN teachers (science and maths). Since last year, the school is teaching up to class 12, with the first class 12 just starting their academic year a couple of months ago. Results for the SLC were around 68%, with 17 students achieving first class passes.

Shree Jagadamba Higher Secondary School, Bardia
Gaurie, manageress of Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge at Bardia is helping Shree Jagadamba Higher Secondary School link up with the Sacred Heart Primary School in Bolton, exchanging questions using the internet.
The school in Bardia, in the far west Terai in Nepal has 13 classes and 1,700 students, with many of the classes having more than 100 students to one teacher. It is hoped to be able to raise funds to fund one or two additional primary school teachers who could then enable the school to split one or two classes.
There is an active eco-club that is seeking to raise understanding and awareness of the importance of the environment in this area that is rich in wildlife and where there are many endangered species like tigers, rhinos, elephants.

Thank You
Big thanks go to HexN (UK) for their support of the healthpost, so it was very good to meet Dr Jeremy Ward and his wife and baby in Inverness and then a couple of days later, Dr Raj Rajbhandari and his family with Drs Kate and Gillian at The Great Kathmandu restaurant in Manchester.
Thanks go the RSPB, who have donated to RAN some second-hand binoculars. A few will go to the Bardia school's eco-club, the rest to Friends of Birds Nepal.
Books Abroad UK, a Scottish charity are helping to send school books that Gill has collected from a number of schools she works with in Scotland.
During the last week in June, visits were made to a number of schools in Scotland and RAN is grateful to all the teachers and headteachers who made this possible. In particular thanks to Gill for her fundraising and the support she’s raised in schools in Invergordon.
Marianne visited Sacred Heart Primary School in Bolton, to tell them about Bardia and the school there.  
Finally, Kate and Marianne visited Sacred Heart Primary School in Ruislip, who have been supporting RAN's work in sponsoring teachers' salaries for three years. As well as the opportunity to talk with classes 3,4 and 6, they were treated to an excellent performance of Camelot.

A huge thank you also to all the help that volunteers have given to the schools and healthpost. As well as helping the schools at Deusa and Garimudi, RAN has been able to help volunteers spend time at schools in Helambu, Chitwan and plan on sending volunteers to a number of other schools. So many volunteers have contacted RAN about helping the healthpost, that a couple of healthposts and a women’s clinic run by the village in the Annapurnas are also being included as places that could receive volunteers.
 THANK YOU so very much, to all of those who contributed, whether with money or time to help sponsor the teachers and nurses salaries, and provide books and materials to the schools, without which this work wouldn’t be possible.

Targets for the Coming Year
RAN  continues to pay salaries of two teachers at Garimudi, a teacher at Deusa and two nurses at Deusa healthpost. In addition, volunteers, medical and non-medical are contacting RAN and helping in a number of schools, not only at Deusa and Garimudi.
More than anything, money is always needed for teachers' salaries (the nurses are sponsored by doctors).
The exchange rate has been very unkind, also government salaries for teachers has gone up, so currently it costs around £100 per month for a primary school teacher (paid 10,000Rs a month x 13) and about £120 and £150 a month for lower secondary and higher secondary teachers.
As well as the three teachers currently employed, it is hoped to be able to have one or two more primary teachers, which would mean a target of around £6,000 will need to be raised in the coming year.

-    School Libraries Support continues to be given for the libraries at Deusa and Garimudi schools and books from Scotland will be distributed there and some used to help start new libraries at Bardia and Tikot, a school in the Annapurnas.
-    Medical Volunteers Several medical volunteers have asked to help, so Deusa healthpost is fully booked for several months. However, a women's clinic and two sub-healthposts in and around Nagi, in the Annapurna area are being assessed as locations for volunteers to help.
-    Volunteers for Schools As well as the schools so far supported, volunteers are being put in contact with schools in other areas of Nepal that would benefit from their help.
-    Shree Jagadamba Higher Secondary School  Two volunteers are expected to visit for a month later in the year. In addition, one or two primary school teachers are being sought to help split the larger primary classes.
-    Tikot Secondary School, Annapurna This school will be visited in the coming months to assess how volunteers can help and to help set up a school library.
 

 No charge is made for placing  volunteers. Any money spent is paid to local people directly for food and lodging.  Anyone wanting to donate to RAN or the school or health post where they volunteer is always more than welcome to do so, of course!