Help us rebuild schools in Nepal

Since April, with the start of a new academic year in Nepal, students in 30 classrooms at six government schools in Kavre District have been able to use book corners (shelves, tables, carpets, cushions and of course Nepali children’s literature) all provided by the Santi School Project with a grant from GlobalGiving.

Selected teachers, parents and administrators from each school attended training this winter designed to use children’s books to encourage literacy development. After the training sessions, the participants then led in-school workshops for their colleagues.

Now, as both students and teachers learn to make their own books a part of their school routine, a team of observers from the Rato Bangala Foundation (our partner organization in Nepal) has visited schools to observe and gather feedback on how best to plan the project’s next phase: a course of follow-up workshop and training sessions.

Based on that assessment, we decided to offer in-school trainings focused specifically on organizing existing (and underused) school libraries. A team of trainers visited each school and work with faculty to put the libraries into working order and, most important, to tackle the difficult logistical task of scheduling this school-wide resource to make it regularly available to all classes.

In addition, at the end of August our initial team of parents, teachers and administrators attended a three-day workshop retreat focused on problem-solving. Since teachers had gained experience in using children’s literature, they were able to consider what teaching techniques are effective and what practices needed to be reconsidered and revised, offering peer-based guidance to one another.

The workshop also included instruction in basic bookbinding and participants will write and illustrate a simple text of their own. Finally, participants will work together to continue planning Bal Sahitya Mahotsavs (Children’s Literature Festivals) at their schools, scheduled during September and October.

One of the most exciting developments of the Kavre Literacy Project has been our decision to offer matching grants to schools that are able to devise budget plans for future purchase of books for classrooms and libraries. Until this point, we have worked with books provided at no cost as part of earthquake relief, but most schools in Nepal have no budgetary provisions for ongoing purchases to replace worn-out copies and to buy new titles as they become available. We believe that it is critical for administrators to make plans to sustain the literature-based reading programs that we have begun together.