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.