Fresh fruit supplied by KetaKeti every week to every student. Photo by Rajan Niroula Sports Day Photo by Dawa Norbu Sherpa

Transcription

1 Shree Melamchi Ghyang Secondary School. Newsletter Number 4. Chaitra 2073 Fresh fruit supplied by KetaKeti every week to every student. Photo by Rajan Niroula Sports Day Photo by Dawa Norbu Sherpa

2 Head Teacher s Message Near to the anniversary of 25 th April, I would like to thank everyone who has given their hard work and thoughts supporting us morally, physically and financially. On that day all the Nepali offices were closed but Melamchi Ghyang school had scheduled entrance exams for new applicants to the school. We had 71 children sitting the exams, all our teachers were supervising and the parents were waiting outside in the yard. Some parents were with me in the office. 135 hostel students were in the lunch queue. Corin Hardcastle UK IT Volunteer teacher was working in computer room. At the time we were talking and thinking about how can we improve our school and make it the educational hub for the Hyolmo valley and the district. Almost all the infrastructure and manpower needed in the classrooms was sufficient. Overall the achievement of each class and every individual was increasing. Unfortunately of 56 seconds earthquake took it all, changed to rubble to beautiful class rooms and our dreams. We survived. No one was badly injured in the school. Three people lost the life in the Melamchi Ghyang community out of 645 in the village.our dedicated staff moved quickly to rescue any trapped children and looked after them for five days. Finally they took them safely to their parents home and even walked to the surrounding villages with first aid kids immediately after the shock. We tried to console those who survived. Many thanks to the parents and students who have trusted us in the quality of our compassion, dedication and facilities. Also many thanks to our dedicated colleagues who came and joined us in building our Temporary Learning Centre. Our thanks go to the people in our community who came to help in the construction of our classrooms. Our deepest gratitude to Sir Doug Scott for his magnificent contribution over 18 years in Nepal and immediate relief after disaster and his support for the rebuilding. Similarly gratitude to Corin Hardcastle and his friends in the UK, Gwenda Culkin and her friends in the UK, Hilde Kuypers and her friends in Belgium, Eveline Muller and her friends in Germany, Pum Hug House in South Korea, Len Devis in the USA, Chhring Wangdi Lama in Tarkeghyang, Rajendra Kumar Lama, Lopsang Tsering Lama, Dr Kanchha Babu Sherpa, Chairperson Pasang Temba Lama, Norbu Kalden Lama in Kathmandu, Nyima Lama Bouddha Fulbari, Hyolmo Sampark Samaj in South Korea, Youg Bahadur Aryal in Talamarang and many more people who have been giving so that the school can be rebuilt and extend itself. Many thanks to Caritas Swiss and CAN for their big commitment to rebuild the class rooms and the hostel. Really I had and I have trust of my western friends, Nepalese friends, parents and my ex-students who continue to help us with financial support. We received much and have achieved much. it can be that we are the first rebuilt school among the 14 affected districts. We shall make better classrooms then in the past. Better accommodation and kitchen arrangements and hostel for both the children and staff. Some staff give up after disaster and became a difficult to find replacement teachers in time for the term start. I would like to apology for any inconvenience to all students and parents. May Slowly we are forgetting the day a year ago and slowly returning to normal. We have developed the plans to rebuild earthquake resistant rooms within 2 years with different partnership organizations, then we will face the future with courage and a very positive attitude. I would like to ask everyone for your positive and constructive thoughts and hands to achieve the goal of the future. I can do things, you cannot. You can do things, I cannot. Together we can do great things Mother Teresa. We hope to make this difference visible in this academic year 2073 (2016/17).

3 wow! School Picnic The students, teachers and school administration felt very happy and full of curiosity on Paush 18. It was our annual picnic. The school decided to hold our picnic at a lovely place surrounded with trees and lots of great ground to play in Nading. We all gathered at the school ground and got ready to walk to Nading Everyone was well dressed and every face was filled with joy and curiosity. We started our journey from school at 8:00 clock in the morning with lots of songs, enjoying the beauties of nature and the fresh and clean environment. Everybody were feeling so happy and excited. With lots of laughs, we reached our picnic spot. The students and the teachers were getting more and more excited and happy. When reaching the picnic spot the children started to play and enjoy themselves. Then we all collected some firewood to prepare the food. So back to play with lots of fun. Around 10 o clock, the breakfast was prepared by our cooks. It was yummy and tasty and included a hot drink. Everyone enjoyed their breakfast. All of us were busy and enjoying ourselves. Suddenly, one of the teachers along with some student started to play the music system. slowly most of students gathered and started to sing songs and danced. All were doing their own task like bees and ants. I suddenly realised that every body was enjoying themselves every body was busy smiling and their faces were full of happiness. All of us were tired and feeling hungry. Even though they looked tired and hungry still they keep enjoying and laughing with each other. Then around 1 o clock, we all went to have lunch. The lunch was more delicious and tasty... Everybody enjoyed their lunch. After that, more games were played. The teachers and students played volleyball, some of us were still dancing and having lots of fun. About 4 o clock we drank tea and started to pack our things. But everybody still wants to enjoy it because they know that this moment will never return. Carrying all the memories and then nature's beauty in our hearts and minds, we started to move downwards towards our school. Still everybody was happy and again singing songs. Even though we had lots of fun, we have to return. As it was our annual picnic, everybody enjoyed themselves and every face seemed to be happy and excited because they knew, that this special moment, with it s memories and enjoyment spent with friends and school members would never come again. Name : Pemba Sherpa Class : Nine '9' Roll : seven '7'

4 Hostel at School Date: 2072/12/12 Only the outline of the classrooms and the outline of the school yard survived the disastrous earthquake of 2072 Baishak 12 th. We lost our previous well (water supply) and the furnished hostel dormitory buildings and the school classrooms were swept away by the disaster. We have started rebuilding the hostel at Melamchi Ghyang school, for the childrens betterment. We work with new effort and energy stretching hands to build the future closer to perfection. With the help of teachers, parents and helpful hands we began in 2072 Jestha, despite the continual warnings of fresh earth quakes. The hostel is one of the sources of empowerment which has led to the high academic standards achieved by our school. So in each and everything, we try to provide good quality furniture in the dining hall, the study hall and as far as possible for boys and girls in separate dormitories with tented residence in open space. Apart from the physical structure of our school, we strive to maintain the quality education in order to achieve aims and objectives of school. Additional and co-operative programs have been running in the teachers hostel. In the hostel more then 145 students are living in tents along with 5 teachers. We have different lunchtime activities. Each morning and evening there are free couching classes for junior to seniors. These additional activities cover daily hygiene and sanitation, education and culture. The hostel teachers give these lessons as mentioned in the school calendar. We believe that this will hlp to keep away the fear of further earth quakes. 1) Each student should have deposited Rs 5000 as a hostel deposit, this amount is returned when he/ she leaves the school. 2) Each student should bring their own belongings such as plate tin box and bedding to the hostel. 3) Parents are not allowed to visit the students hostel without informing the staff and obtaining permission. 4) At the door of each tent there is an information box for collecting information and passing messages of the students in that tent. 5) Students must clean their own tent every morning and evening according to their own routine. 6) Each of the Friday there will be a sharing meeting at the hostel for a discussion of ways to improve the hostel. The principal and hostel wardens will be present to discuss any problems and to work with the students to find solutions. 7) The kitchen expenditure is shared by all the students, as a proportion of the purchase totals. Rudra Kumar Shrestha Grade teacher-9 / social study teacher

5 School After the Earthquake As we now know, an earthquake is very dangerous disaster. It is an unpredictable natural disaster which is also faced by us. On the date of April 25 th 2015 it was a Saturday at midday. The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale collapsed our school and hostel buildings, one of our friends was badly injured. It was the day of the entrance exam for new students to our school. So there were many new students with their parents in the village when the earthquake struck. There was no place to sit at night so some of our teachers converted the green house tunnel into a place to spend the night. All the students, parents and teachers stayed in that tunnel. Some of the students and parents went back to their home on the next day. Some of the students, parents and the teachers stayed for 5 days in the tunnel. Everything was managed. After 5 days, all the teachers, students and parents returned back their home. After one month on the date of Jestha 17, 2072 we all met at the school ground. some of the classrooms and teachers office was already built by local villagers. Tents had been erected. The hostel students moved into the tents and all the classes were built soon. Also the library, science lab and computer lab were built. Everything went smoothly. Gradual development took place in our school. The classrooms were managed properly. The course books were distributed free of cost to the students. With the support of different organizations, for 5 months, the kitchen bill for the hostel was also free. Every student was happy to be at Melamchi Ghyang School and to be gaining valuable knowledge Everyone were excited to see the school back at previous state. Though the school is not like the previous school before earthquake, the study is going on smoothly as before. There are more than 200 students who attend this school after earthquake including new students. All the students are so happy and grateful to be students of this school. We are very thankful to our principal sir Mr. Purna Bahadur Gautam for enabling us to get knowledge from this school. We also thank him and his staff for the effective and smooth running of this school. We want to thank those people who have sponsored our school helping us towards our success and all those who have helped in the past helping old students reach their destinations. At last from the side of students, we want to grant special thanks to our principal sir and Sponsors. Thank You Dawa Zangmu Lama Class 9 Roll no.- 5

6 Earthquake Experience There was a slight air of tension at the school that Saturday where 71 new students were applying for a place in Melamchi Ghyang Secondary School. As the best performing school in the whole Sindhupalchok District it has achieved the highest pass rate at the School Leaving Certificate for the last eight years and is acknowledged by the Nepal Government as a model school, a coveted sign of quality. Around 70 parents were present in the school s large paved playground, talking quietly in small groups. They and their children had spent the whole of the previous day reaching the school; most had taken the bus from Kathmandu up into the hills, an eight to ten hour journey. The parents were subdued, they were largely drawn from the salaried class; the remoteness of the village will have been a surprise and at night it is a cold place. Just before midday I was working in the computer room when the corrugated-iron roof rattled - a blast of wind I thought, then it rattled and banged some more. Earthquake shot through my mind as I felt the floor move and saw the walls shift; I dropped my laptop and ran outside. The earth rose and shook and I was thrown six feet onto a wooden stair rail, grabbed it and clawed my way down the stone stairs and into the centre of the playground. The dust from the stone and mud walls filled the air, the ground groaned and moved and groaned and moved. Children cried, parents shouted for their children. Once the movement stopped and the rain damped the dust, the ruins of the school appeared. Teams of people started to search the ruined classrooms and help out the children, as fresh tremors shook the land. We waited in the rain, rescued children were sheltered and we wondered. Then through the cloud we heard the mountains, which were all around us, coming down. We waited for an hour then, cautiously, I moved towards my home - I saw that the village was devastated, not one house remained standing. The massive ancient stupa by the school was a pile of stones. The health centre had collapsed. The temple in the middle of the village was destroyed. Walls had fallen, embankments collapsed, the ground scarred with splits, still the prayer flags stood and offered their help in the wind. The two-floor building that had been my home for 12 months over the last three years was a pile of rubble. My room, clothes, passport, laptop, torch, diary and chargers were all buried under a metre of rubble, concrete and wood. Purna Gautam, school principal, friend and hostel-owner, having crawled out from under his desk and ruined office, found his family, they were safe. Jhangmu, his wife, had been trapped by falling debris in the kitchen; she had escaped through a gap in the fallen roof. Quickly the village built temporary shelters: wooden poles with bars across and tarpaulins, as darkness approached. Then a ditch to stop the water flowing in was dug. My sleeping bag on a plastic sheet was my bed. Lined up to sleep in the same shelter were Deden a Swedish volunteer and Lois an English volunteer, Purna and his wife and son. There was some food, a rather gritty dhal baht, but much appreciated. Karma G bought it to me in bed, very kind. Then sleep as the earth shook quietly during the night. Morning was clear and everyone regrouped. We built a stronger shelter for ourselves deep holes, large stakes and tensioned tarpaulins, followed by a corrugated roofed kitchen and panels to keep out the wind and rain. Now we could think. No one had any spare clothes and there was minimal

7 food. So we dug for food in the ruins of our homes, slowly it appeared rice, dhal, a few spices, mattresses, bedding and pillows all covered in thick dust. There was no phone signal, no electricity and no road to bring us help. We could see the devastation right down the Yolmo valley. It had been four generations since the last earthquake, but the Yolmo rose to the challenge brilliantly. Shelters were erected; tarpaulins dug out from rubble and no one stole from someone else s house. Kukris were shared. A working water pipe was found and slowly a network of pipes began to supply water to the shelters. Showers, medicine and toilets were low on our priorities. Next: rescue the clothes, valuables, house-cash (kept in a carrier bag behind the bed); prayer wheels, ancient handwritten texts, cups, kettles, pots and pans, carpets, rugs, kukri and earth-working tools were all carefully collected. The monsoon was due within a month and these goods need to be kept dry. Secure shelters for all these were next: strip the tin roofs, strip out the wooden planks from the walls - these became a raised floor for storage and sleeping platforms. Teams of people carefully removed debris, adding struts to support roofs and concrete slabs, passing stone along a chain of hands to find the house grain. Even after five days there were tremors and you wondered if the next one was going to be the big one. You paused and listened to the groaning earth and were thankful when she quieted. Torches were in short supply; there were some solar panels and eventually one telephone network offered some signal. After four days the 50 remaining hostel students left the village for the long walk to Timbu, accompanied by five teachers. It was an emotional parting. They had been sleeping in the polytunnel, in which the school had cultivated vegetables. The avalanches continued for the six days I remained in the village we knew they would be stripping away trekking routes and covering the tracks up to the village, making the road impassable and invisible. Much of the forest was gone too. After six days it was time for me to leave for Kathmandu. Lois, a UK volunteer in the village, and I left at 07:30 for what turned out to be a treacherous, and at times terrifying, walk. Much of the road was gone and we found ourselves traversing loose, light sandy scree, which moved if you stood still too long, clambering over fallen trees and massive boulders. A fall would have been 600 feet into nothing. We had one headtorch between us and Lois was in borrowed trainers as her boots had been buried under rubble. We passed through Kakani and as darkness fell a thunderstorm arrived accompanied by heavy rain; on reflection it was a foolish decision to continue walking, as our trek could have been fatal. We eventually arrived in Timbu at 22:30, it had taken us 15 hours to make what usually was a six-hour journey. The next day we took a six-hour bus ride into the capital. In Kathmandu we stayed at Purna s house which was four miles from the airport. The rumble as heavy transport aircraft left was too deep; it had me waking in the night ready to run from a collapsing building. After three days catching up with people in Kathmandu with friends and relatives up in the village I eventually left for the UK. ========= Then the winter snows School continues

8 Donors at Disaster (Earthquake in Nepal 2015) 1. Community Action Nepal - (CAN) UK 2. Community Action Nepal - (CAN) Nepal 3. Keta Keti Belgium 4. Nepalese Childrens Trust UK 5. HELP Nepal 6. Yolmo Connect UK 7. DROKPA 8. Himalaya Pum & Hug House South Korea 9. Madat Garnus France 10. Village Nepal 11. Chhiring Ongdi Sherpa 12. Rajendra Kumar Sherpa 13. Norbu Kalden Lama 14. Kami Lama, Helambu Len Davis USA 16. Khando Sherpa USA 17. Tsetan Yangzom Sherpa Richard & Fredrick Richard Switzerland 18. Lopsang Tshering Lama UK 19. Dr. Kanchha Babu Sherpa UK 20. Hyolmo Samaj Sewa Kendra Tinchuli, Boudha 21. Nyima Sherpa Fulbari, Boudha 22. Hyolmo Consulting Committee South Korea 23. Boudha Shanti Vidhyalaya Boudha 24. Buddhist Jana Adhikar Manch, Ktm 25. Buddhist Sarokar Samanya Nepal 26. Khenpo Nyima Dondrup Boudha, Ktm. All we can say is Thank you for your compassion and generosity. You are in our thoughts.