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The new year has gotten off to a busy start for the foundation. As we mentioned in our December update, we have a few things we are looking forward to this year. Here is a quick summary:
- Foundation Advisor, Laxmi will share some inspirational stories from her time in Nepal this year - in this update, we include the story of sisters, Sanjita and Ganga and how they are empowering their communities during COVID
- We will continue to work to bridge the digital divide - in this update, we will share some updates on
- Our foundation will look to play a key role in how any vaccination is delivered and rolled out into the communities.
- We know there will be a huge emotional toll from this year, and our team will be working hard to provide the necessary support for our girls, but also the families and for our own team as well.
With food security continuing to be a challenge, we also determined that we need to look to expand our meal programs, which have been so successful. These are just some of the things we are focusing on for 2021, but we know that we must be flexible and resilient to deal with whatever challenge that we may face this year.
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In January 2021, we launched another day meal program at Chamadevi Secondary School.After winter vacation / COVID lockdowns, the school has opened and students are happy to be back in school. However, many of them are still coming to school hungry. The pandemic has made this issue even more severe.
The students of the school and the teachers were also very excited to see that from now on the students will received a hot meal as part of their daily program. All the members of the Rukmini team actively participated in launching the program, and we are grateful to the school team for all of their work.
A recently appointed nurse Ms Ganga Karki also started her job at this school at the same time, and we worked with her to check the BMI of the students. As today was the first day of school after the winter vacation, only 131 students attended. The school administration said that the total students admitted to this school is about 275, and we believe that attendance will go up because of such programs. A few of the students even managed to eat three plates of food at lunch time, which made us happy to see, but also showed us the scale of the problem around malnutrition and food insecurity.
See some encouraging photos of the launch of this new program.
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From farming their own land to working as day laborers to raise money for their mother and even finding time to tutor other children in their community so that they would not miss out on education during the lockdown, Sanjita and Ganga are more than worthy of being called heroes. If you only have 10 minutes to spare today, this post from Laxmi Aryal about these girls may give you the motivation you need.
Read Laxmi's post about her hero(es) of the month, Sanjita and Ganga
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In January 2021, we organized a Handwash Program at 3 partner schools: Kalidevi Basic School , Lamagau ,Kalika Secondary School, Phakhel and Panchakanya Secondary School Bhadarkharka. We also brought along a nurse to teach the proper methods of handwashing. In this program, we were able to distribute soaps that we acquired from our good friends at Eco-Soap Nepal. The main objective of this awareness program was to teach students how proper handwashing can prevent diseases, such as COVID-19 from spreading and also to make soaps more available in our communities.
Some wonderful pictures from this simple, but important program
Learn more about the wonderful work of Eco-Soap Bank
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In our efforts to bridge the digital divide that exists in Nepal, we have started by increasing access to hardware, such as laptops. This effort has been affected greatly by the pandemic and the resulting demand on such devices. However, this did not stop us from piloting the program at a small scale with some students to see what we can learn along the way. 2 of the girls that are part of this pilot program had a follow up training session conducted by our lead on this project, Ms. Usha Poudel. Pramila and Manju Waiba (no relation) got an overview of computer basics, and are now learning to do things, such as:
- Basic Shortcut keys and their function- copy, paste, select, undo
- Composing and replying to email
- Attaching document to email
- Formatting text or paragraphs in MS Word
- Searching topic on Google
Manju is using a laptop at home to improve her typing skills while Pramila is watching different creative videos and using the Paint app to draw different things.
Even in a short period, here is what we have seen:
- Bahinis are improving their typing skills.
- They are confident in opening and using programs.
- They can now send email with attaching documents.
- They have basic knowledge of productivity applications, such as MS word and PowerPoint.
- They can use their computer for creative tasks.
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Lastly, as January is Cervical cancer awareness month, our team, in partnership with our friends at Nepal Health Corps, organized a two-day awareness program. Our scholars, mentors, staff, local women, and partner schools participated with over 130 girls and women learning about this disease, which is one of the biggest health issues for women in Nepal.
Presenters, Shraya Kayastha and Garima Adhikari from NHC explained in detail about the disease, and all of the participants learned about the causes, symptoms and preventive methods.
Sabina Rumba, one of the girls who participated, summed it up best, when she said:
“It was a wonderful experience to be a part of this. Women of our community learned a lot and I know much more about this disease now. I love to see programs like this. It is our human right to know about our bodies and how to take care of them. Thank You Rukmini and NHC for educating us through this program.”
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