Dansing- Syangja visit by Namaste Nepal Team

Namaste!

Visiting Dansing village

On 20^th August 2019, the Namaste Nepal team (President, treasurer, coordinator, and assistant coordinator) left to Dansing village of Syangja for a project site visit to observe the current status of the ongoing project and distribution of school bags and uniform for the students of Dansing Kindergarten and Ram Rajya Basic School. 

During our visit, educational materials, stationery, and sanitary items for kindergarten and pre-primary class were delivered to schools, those materials were bought from the annual budget of Namaste Nepal. School bags and uniforms were prepared in Kathmandu as one of the students in Cotta received funds to support Dansing students in order to motivate and encourage them in their study in those particular schools. Normally students in government schools have a single pair of uniforms and they use the same for a week while going to school. Likewise, students do not pay much attention to their education due to inadequate stationery. The main reason for the development of a plan to distribute school bags, uniforms, and required stationery to motivate and encourage students for regularity and increase the enrollment rate.

Objective of the program:
To observe the current status of the school 
To distribute the school bag and uniform to the children 
To aware the parents about the importance of cleanliness and other health issues related to the child and mother’s health.

Activities and findings:          
Some of the major activities done by the Namaste Nepal team during Dansing visit are as follows:

In the morning, we walked around Dansing village and interact with villagers before the arrival of kids with their parent in Kindergarten. Villagers were very pleased to see us and know about the purpose of the visit. When we arrived at the kindergarten all the teachers, children along with their parents were at School to participate in the program as all the parents were pre-informed. With this, it became easier for us to conduct the program according to the program schedule. We reached there at 8:30 am. Then an introductory session was conducted with parents and teacher as Namaste Nepal have new Treasurer and a staff member. We also gave detailed information on the support and reason behind the distribution of the stationery and sanitary items for the children. Then knowledge on the health of children and mothers was shared by Mrs. Griha Laxmi Lama, new treasurer of Namaste Nepal. Also, more emphasis was given to parents to reduce junk food and to discourage its use by highlighting the harmful effect of junk food on their children's health. All the parents were given some ideas on how they can be part of the improvement of their children's education.

 Our treasurer at Kindergarten

Then, names of kindergarten children and parents were collected for the distribution of bags and uniforms to the Kindergarten children. As there is no school uniform for the kindergarten going children; all the children were full of joy and excitement after receiving the new bags and school uniform for the kindergarten. In happiness after getting new school bags and uniform, all the children also sang rhymes for us. A schoolbag was also given for teachers which could be used to carry the required education material for teaching the kindergarten children. Then some pictures were taken with children wearing their new uniforms for kindergarten.

Distributing bags to the kindergarten children

Currently, Dansing Kindergarten has 11 children including 6 boys and 5 girls where two teachers are looking after kindergarten operation. Comparatively, the numbers of children are less than earlier due to students are going to another school after completion of basic education at Kindergarten for higher class and study from the new session. Dansing villagers were very happy with our support for various facilities and education in kindergarten for their children. Kindergarten operation is going well by following a specific routine and schedule. Teachers prepare healthy lunches for children according to the routine set for particular days. We found that children in the kindergarten are neat and clean. All the children have maintained a habit to brush their teeth after their lunch in kindergarten.

Kindergarten children along with the teacher

               

The renovation of the kitchen and toilet has started and has completed the foundation. Due to the monsoon, they couldn't transport the required construction materials so they had to wait for a while which will continue to complete soon.

Moreover, from the interaction with the kindergarten teachers we have come to know that there is a high chance of increment of a number of children in the next session. So, few more extra school uniform and bags were given to the teacher for upcoming new children in Dansing Kindergarten.

Teachers and Student of Dansing KG in new uniform

Namaste Nepal team at Ram Rajya Basic School

After the completion of the program in Dansing kindergarten we walked down to Ram Rajya Basic School. All the teachers and student and school management committee members were very excited and waiting us to welcome in their school.

Ram Rajya family & Namaste Nepal Team 

We reached there at the school at 11:45 am and made a short introduction with the entire teaching and non-teaching staff member. Currently, there are altogether 42 student and 8 teaching staffs in Ram Rajya School. Then we went to observe classes know about the improvement of lessons after the appointment of new teachers. Direct interaction with the student was made to know more about the activities performance of new teachers. After the arrival of all the parents of the student, we begin our program. The program begins with sharing detailed information on the reason for distributing school bags and uniforms to the students of Ram Rajya Basic School. 

Nursery kids learning rhymes from their teacher

There was also given short counseling to all the parents regarding the role and responsibility of parents in improving behaviors of their children and create a better learning environment for children at home. Our treasurer shared the knowledge on the advantages of healthy foods and facilities provided to their children at home. Hopefully, parents will be aware of the maximum use of healthy food, vegetables, and products that grow in the village instead of using the market product. At the same time, we requested all the participants to discourse junk food since it severely affects health and the environment. In response, parents expressed their feeling as the program day was a great opportunity to know about the consequences of consuming junk food available in local shops. We noticed that most of the students consuming junk food in school during the lunch break. So, this time we have to emphasize parents provide homemade food for the children for the healthy growth of the child.

Explaining basic roles and responsibility of a parent 

At the end of the formal session, school bags and the uniform was distributed to the student of a class nursery to class 5. Students were very happy with a special gift, on the other hand, all the teachers were glad to received school bag for them to carry educational materials to the school that could help the teacher to teach the student practically using the various resources

President distributing school bags and uniform to teachers and students

Besides, school bags and uniform other useful educational materials, stationery, and sanitary items were given for pre-primary class which was bought from the annual budget of Namaste Nepal. Similarly, we handover books of different subjects and levels to the library from where children, as well as teachers, can learn for additional knowledge. The program ended up by speech and singing a typical folk song by our president Mohan Lal Shrestha and some parents give accompany to him and enjoyed it a lot.

President singing the folk song at the end of the program

At the end of the program, several groups pictures with the students, teachers, and parents were taken for memory. The entire student along with parents had great fun during the program hours and also they were thankful to the supporter for providing school bags and uniform to their children studying in Ram Rajya School.

Students in their new school uniform

Moreover, new teachers funded by Namaste Nepal are trying their best but still, there is necessary for training on subject-wise to all the teachers and additional educational resource to improve the quality of education in school. We asked them to change the education system and implement various modern teaching methodologies to attract students for the improvement of education as well as to create a better learning environment in school. All the teachers must be well prepared and develop the use of teaching materials for a particular subject in different classes according to a unit in their course books that we don't find in a government school. 

Students with new school Bag

Lastly, many greeting, immense thanks, and best regards to the AG Nepal Cotta team from Dansing Kindergarten and Ram Rajya Basic school family for such a wonderful project. They are very excited and looking forward to seeing you in October. We Namaste Nepal team would like to thank our development partner for the great support on the improvement of education and basic needs to operate school regularly for the children of Dansing Kindergarten and Ram Rajya Basic School. We had a wonderful visit to Dansing and was a successful program.

Namaste Nepal

- Jyotshana Ranjitkar( Assistant Project Coordinator)