*Video* - Visit of the Freiberg-Group in Gati

At the 28th October 2015 it was finally time - the time for me to come back to Gati!

As a student and member of the Namste Nepal S-GmbH Freiberg I visited the village 7 years ago. Even though it was my third time in Gati I couldn't recognize it.

I made a short movie filled with my experiences within our 4-day visit. I kept the sad surroundings as well as the happiness and luck.

To see the whole video on youtube click here!

Article and Video by Anne - Volunteer of Namaste Nepal Kathmandu

current information of our stay in Nepal you will find at my travelblog: Body and Soul Travel

Freiberg-Group in Gati | 28th-31st October 2015

-Anne Knoll | NNK Volunteer

The group from Freiberg arrived at half past 3 in the afternoon in Gati. They were welcomed with lots of flowers and love by the kids from the Gati Kindergarten, teachers, students, and representatives of the whole village. 

They were given a community tent next to the Kindergarten as their meeting place and dining space. After that, they were separated and brought to their night shelters. Some people in the group slept in a tent next to the Kindergarten, the others in the houses of three families in the village. 

The first evening ended with a great Nepali tradition (food Dal Bhat) in the community tent.

The next morning guests from Freiberg wanted to visit the damage to the school and the village. When they arrived at the school grounds they were warmly welcomed by all students of the Kali Devi Secondary School and attended their morning Assembly.
 

The group took a look at the current classrooms at the sports yard and found them not appropriate for the upcoming winter. They were sad to see the old school building that was completely destroyed and examined the still-standing building. They went through all rooms and learned that there are several cracks along the pillars. The engineers of the Freiberg group had the feeling that the building just needs to do some repair otherwise was safe to use at the moment.

After examining the whole school grounds they found it important to hold a meeting with the teachers and the School Management Committee (SMC) to decide on further plans and activities. Then it was scheduled for the meeting in the afternoon at School.

Before lunch, they went to take a look at the damage to the other part of the village. To their great consternation, they found all the houses destroyed. At the same time, the group also went to take a look at the recently build health center and found it well equipped and clean where villagers are satisfied and glad to receive health service in the village. 

After lunch, the guests joined the kids from the Kindergarten and gave them some presents from the Freiberg Kindergarten.

In the afternoon they all came together at the library room of the school. The members of the SMC and the teachers of the school had already been assembled. Nima Tshering Lama was guiding through the meeting.

For the Freiberg group, it was important to learn about the ideas, wishes, and plans of the people of Gati on how to proceed with the current situation at school. They wanted to make sure that all students will have appropriate classrooms for the winter.

The guest was happy to see that all Nepalese were debating on the next steps very intensively but they also suggested general concepts and possibilities on plans and activities that need to discuss.

On the 3rd day, our guests divided their groups and decided to get physically active themselves. Project coordinator Steffen and volunteer Anne went with Nima Tshering and 2 representatives of the SMC of Gati to the different villages of Gati VDC but due to limited time, the group could manage to visit Singache and Kasheri only.  The group visited the current schools to observe the current situation of the school and raise the awareness of the representatives of these villages to provide winter classrooms and further plan for school as well.

Meanwhile in Gati, the others of the Freiberg group began to free the school ruin from big stones and reusable material. The aim of this action was to create a clean space where the winter shelter can be built to provide better classrooms. 

Soon the group was joined by lots of villagers from Gati village and the senior students of the school. The work they did at the school was accounted for them as community work and allows them to get food from NGOs. Fast the ruin was decreasing.

After dinner people of the Freiberg group as well as people from Gati came together in the Kindergarten to keep on talking about the next steps and the motivation in the village. 

On the last day of the NNF group in Gati, they wanted to finish their work in school. The group went soon after breakfast and was amazed to see that lots of villagers were already at the construction site. They had gone on with the work and had made great results. Everyone worked there together and because of the great manpower of all helpers, everything was finished at around 10:30 am.

At around 1 pm our guests went to the sports yard to attend the welcome and felicitation program at school the guest were welcomed with lots of flowers from students again. They were kindly asked to take a seat and watch the festivities the students had planned. They were able to see lots of fun sports games and competitions among the students, could watch great dancing performances, and enjoy singing. Nearly the whole village was watching. In the end, the students who passed their exams in April were honored and coordinator Steffen proudly gave them their presents. 

 



At around 4 pm the ceremony came to an end and as well as the time of our guests in Gati for this year. We are looking forward to having them as our guests again next year.
 Thanking you all for your kind cooperation.
 

Namaste Nepal | 8th AGM Report

- Nima Tshering Lama | Project Coordinator

The 8^th Annual General Meeting of Namaste Nepal held on 15^th of December 2014 chaired by President Mr. Megh Bahadur Ale in the presence of the following board members, started at exactly 9:00 PM at the Hotel Tibet, Lazimpat with a formal conversation.

    

   Participants in the meeting

1.      President                           Mr. Megh Bahadur Ale

2.      Vice President                   Mr. Mohan Lal Shrestha

3.      Secretary                           Mr. Vishworaj Gyawali

4.      Treasurer                           Mr. Nima Lama

5.      Member                             Mr. Durga Das Shrestha

6.      Member                             Mr. Kul Bahadur Tamang(Ramesh)

7.      Member                             Mr. Chitra Bahadur Rana

8.      Coordinator                       Mr. Nima Tshering Lama

Agendas:

Following are the major agendas of the 8th Annual General Meeting of Namaste Nepal Kathmandu:

1. Annual report presentation 2070/71(2013/14)
2. Financial report 2070/71(2013/14)
3. Budget Plan for 2015
4. Project with Quality and sustainable
5. Office management
6. Education expert/Mobilize
7. Board reshuffling
8. Mandra Kindergarten Building
9. Internet connection
10. Monitoring and Evaluation from SWC

Decisions:

1.  Annual meeting started with a presentation and brief reports about the history of Namaste Nepal from Mr. Megh Bahadur Ale, the chairperson/president of Namaste Nepal explaining the achievement and successes of the organization from the beginning to till date. He highlighted the reason for success was constructive effort and better harmonization of all the board members and financial support from development partners of Namaste Nepal.  

2.  Annual progress report 2070/71: Annual progress report presentation done by the coordinator informing all about the activities and achievements of the organization in the fiscal year 2070/71. During the session, he also explained the current situation of the ongoing program in the respective projected site. 

    

    Conclusion: After a long discussion, Board resolved to approve the progress report with comprehensive information and implication for the upcoming program.  we have come to generate different ideas, views, and possibilities to move forward on the efficiency of the action plan. The major decision of the agenda made on AGM included the following points.

 

A.    Teachers' remuneration:  Compare with other privately funded schools’ teachers, Namaste Nepal-funded teachers' remuneration is higher and they are comparatively better. Though the pass rate of Kali Devi Secondary School is better than another government school in the region there is a pretty difference in the quality and need to improve from different dimension. So, the board has decided to continue with the existing remuneration for the time being and will reward them with incentives for their performance and effort toward the improvement of quality education of respective schools. But they have to show determination to better performance with acceptable results from their duties and responsibilities. The school management committee, teachers and guardian committee, and student committee will be responsible to observe and find out the outputs.

B.    Proposal for Infrastructural development support:  Board has decided to hold accepting proposal schools for infrastructure development for a couple of years in view of the fact that the time has come to focus on the quality of education and its sustainability. Support on the physical infrastructure development and construction for the last ten years had relatively well enough for the present condition of the school, so we keep this as the secondary plan of the current situation of the project plan. 

3. Mandra Kindergarten:  Namaste Nepal has decided to request additional funds to cover the excess expenses during the building construction of Mandra Kindergarten. Expenses are higher than the budget allocated because they had to build a retaining wall from the base, the cost was not included in the budget for the year 2014. So we urged the management committee to find out the detailed cost estimation from an engineer that will help us to figure out the exact required amount to complete the building by this year. The chairperson of the Kindergarten management committee, Mr. Phurpa Gyaljen has the same opinion and assures to provide detail before the final proposal is forwarded to Germany for review and get final approval.

4. Kitchen Garden/Organic farm:  Namaste Nepal had been supporting on School Kitchen garden at Shree Kali Devi Secondary School for practical education to the student as well as the parents to cultivate organic vegetables in Gati. Herein we found that investment continuously rising and it isn't effective from supported projects. In this circumstance, Namaste Nepal decided the alternative option to hold support on Kitchen Garden and will continue only if the school management committee comes up with a clear acceptable action plan in the near future.

5. Internet connection:  Due to the geographical location we are not successful in setup the internet connection in Gati sooner. Earlier we talked with Nepal Telecom at Barahbise for WIMAX which will be reasonably cheaper than others but the construction of the signal tower in Mandra is yet to be completed which may take longer. There are few internet service provider (ISP) companies working for the remote area but of course, the installation cost is higher to setup for a few clients. Currently, we are consulting with SUBISU which provides internet in another place in the region. Board has decided to confirm by the end of the month to move forward, Mr. Durga Das Shrestha has taken responsibility to consult with SUBISU Company with its detailed cost estimation.

6. Education expert: In order to maintain and improve the quality of education there must be a person who has the best knowledge and skill to improve the education system. Board has decided to recruit education experts for frequent visits to every school where the project has been supported to guide them to advance the education system and improve standards from existing practices with new teaching methodology and techniques. Generally, education experts need to facilitate teaching staff and schools, and the management committee of the school. Education experts will also facilitate villagers and guardians along with teachers' frequent interaction programs. Board has high priorities for this plan and decided to draft TOR for education experts and will start from the beginning of the new session.

7. Partnership school:  Board has decided to find a renowned and interesting education institute/School in Kathmandu and will start to have an exchange program/partnership with Namaste Nepal supporting schools to observe and learn about the environment and management system. Coping with them will be an advantage to learning the education system and institutional development of the existing system of the school.

8. Coffee Cooperative: The coffee project will be a major source to support the education of Gati School in the future. Still, we are in the initial phase since plants have not started to give beans but this is the right time to make a decision on its implementation. So, the board has decided to inform the coffee cooperative group to come up with the final decision about the contribution of total income to the school for the suitability of education from the cooperative by the end of the month. 15 days can be the enough time for them to hold meeting. The President of the cooperative group Mr. Sanje and Nurseryman Mr. Dev Bahadur Gubhaju have taken responsibility to come to the decision.

3.  Financial report 2070/71: The financial report had to prepare to present at the 8^th AGM of Namaste Nepal audited by Mr. Ram Tamang register auditor of Tamang and Associate com. A copy of the financial report was distributed to every participant of Namaste Nepal’s AGM. Treasurer clearly read out all the financial reports of the fiscal year 2070/71's expenses and explained the procedure of the financial management system to the participants. The financial report was prepared according to the Nepali fiscal year which starts from mid-July to mid of July next year.  

Conclusion: Board has approved the financial report and its arrangement. However, everyone has assured financial transparency within the organization. Adding to this point, the board has also decided to change the auditor for the next fiscal since there is a provision for every individual auditor who can audit only three fiscal years of a particular organization.

4.   Monitoring and Evaluation from SWC: At the end of completion of each project, submission of the report to the government’s authorized body i.e. Social welfare is mandatory for the transparency and information about the current situation and activities of NGOs. We are well practice and informed with SWC about our project, at the beginning we have been taking approval and submitting reports at the end of the project implementation phase. Since we are supporting various activities of different education institutes, the funding is relatively higher so, they want to have monitoring and make sure about all the project sites. So the board decided to take representatives from the Social Welfare Council for monitoring and evaluation of the project.    

5.  Reshuffling of the executive board:  Namaste Nepal has been working on the headship of Mr. Megh Bahadur Ale since its establishment with the impressive achievement of the organization. Now the president wants to transfer the president's role to other board members of the organization. With the president's strong intellect decision, the board has decided to reshuffle the executive board on the headship of Mr. Mohan Lal Shrestha for two years of working duration according to the constitution of the organization officially registered at the Kathmandu District Administration office under the organization act of Nepal.  

Following are the details of the executive board from the 8^th AGM of Namaste Nepal.

1.      Mr Mohan Lal Shrestha                  President

2.      Mr. Durga Das Shrestha                Vice President

3.      Mr. Chitra Bahadur Shrestha         Vice President

4.      Mr. Nima Lama                              Treasurer

5.      Mr. Vishowraj Gyawali                    General Secretary

6.      Mr. Kul Bahadur Tamang                Member

7.      Mr. Megh Bahadur Ale                    Member(ex-officio president)

 

With all above mentioned formal decisions of Namaste Nepal, Mr. Megh Bahadur Ale the outgoing president has felicitated and expressed his best wishes to the new executive board. At the same time board of thanks was given to the team with highly appreciated their support and coordination during his working period and heartily thank all supporters and the development partners of Namaste Nepal.

Best Wishes "Happy New Year 2015"

Thanking you all.