Ashirwad Tripathy

The whole purpose of education is turning mirrors into windows. Imagine looking at a mirror, what do we see? Our face, our room; doesn’t it confine our thinking on what is inside? Do we get to see what awaits us outside? Sadly, no. All it does is make us think about things that we have, things that we want for us and the thing that could never be ours. What happens with this mindset is that we slowly start confusing our wants as our needs. We think what we want is what we need. And often we have expectations, so much, that disappointments are inevitable. Would that make us happy or satisfied, at least?

Now let’s turn those mirrors into windows! Outside lies a world that is equally ours as it is of others. All of us have our role and own duties towards the society that has raised us. When we start caring about the locality we live in and the environment where we exist, we will realize how weak we might be as an individual but how important each of us are in making a stronger unit we call society. Yes, service does start from self but we start serving ourselves in such a way that it is not only beneficial for oneself rather the whole community benefits; not just a generation but it also benefits generations to come. After all, sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

I strongly believe that the day is not far when we have a world where respecting other’s right will be more important than exercising one’s. The faith in justice will be restored and the world will be able to prosper just the way we all want. That is why education matters. Say development, say prosperity the foundation is education; an education system that makes better human beings. It is up to an individual to decide how and how much society deserves from him. But please keep in mind; we are also a responsible citizen and a conscientious resident of planet earth.

Manoj and Astha flew from London only to be in the village on the anniversary day to hand addition support and voice solidarity. Manoj and Aastha have been the integral part of our team since our initial days. They support and represent our cause from London, UK.

The first day was much about interaction with the community, about our progress along one year and re-plan the recovery path thereafter.

Jholunge currently has all debris from earthquake cleared up. 85 families are residing on temporary shelters made up of Plywood and tin sheets. The land has been flattened to restart permanent reconstruction.

On the other hand Jholunge college has expanded to different income generating activities like Jholunge Transportation company, Jholunge Sawmill, Poultry farm, Jholunge grocery shop, Jholunge Resturant, Jholunge Rice mill and so on. This is the pathway to economic independence after disaster and our original means of sustaining the community school.

The second day was a celebration. Children and people from community sang and danced to their folk tunes. We projected some footage from the past to remember how we have progressed since then. The celebration ended with Mo-Mo Party. Thank you Astha for taking in charge of the kitchen for Mo-Mo was inexplicably delightful

The final day, we laid the foundation stone for the newly being constructed building for the school. All our friends and well -wishers, the old Suryodaya Primary School building is no more. We will get personally to you on that.

We have all strived beyond some excruciating hardships last year. Let`s take a moment to celebrate life.

Transcendence of yesterday’s pain is the sweetness of today and probably the glory of tomorrow. Pictures, stories, news often speak the reality of Nepal. At one side, we see how simplicity is actually blissful. But we also see the harsh reality underneath. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world with 44% of the total population still living below poverty line. Very few here can afford to enroll in good private schools. The government schools are incompetent with high percentage of early dropouts. Even in the likes of above odds, we believe we can be the change we desire to. All we need is a little bit of support

Why Education? Why Educating Nepal?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 26 (Education for all)

Everyone has the human right to education including free and compulsory elementary education. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit

I strongly recommend you to be part of a social initiative the works in the area of your interest or on the weaker sectors of Nepal that you crave to prosper. But also know that education is the highest return investment for a developing nation like Nepal. Education is the root of development. So if we nurturethe root during juvenile stage the remaining infrastructures of development will surely thrive on its own, like that of a plant.

We at Educating Nepal believe that every child has the right to free education. To be able to expand one’s knowledge and become an independent, responsible and a successful citizen is every child’s birthright. We aspire to make this dream come true because we care about them. We want the children, regardless of caste, creed, and wealth to get equal treatment. We want the children to be trained is all aspects of hygiene, national and global awareness as well as information technology.

The current requirement of fund is for one of the most deprived indigenous communities of Nepal. The Majhis, descendents of fishermen from ancient Nepal are amongst the poorest people. The establishment SuryodayaPrathamik School by Educating Nepal has made Majhichildren the first of theirkind to have attended a school. Now with increased number of students we are in a need of permanent building with proper classrooms.

You Can Help Us

Generous contributions

Donate to us. Whatever modest amount of cash or kind of help you offer; we assure you that your money is in good hands. It will be a valuable and selfless contribution to someone’s precious future. A strong classroom wall will certainly help the children find a safe abode for learning.

If you miss out on donation, you can still help us.

Volunteer to teach

The difference you make to the lives of underprivileged will surely be counted in the form of a priceless smile, a better Nepal or a blessing in disguise. For those who want to make a meaningful difference, please join us and volunteer with us. We are looking to the volunteer teachers to spend a few weeks with the children at school, teaching them English, computer skills, general knowledge, science and whatever it is they know.

Help with educational materials of any kind

Whatever petty things you contribute will not be wasted. We need books and stationery, multimedia tools, computers or whatever you have that may help impart knowledge.  These little things can indeed make a big difference.

Speak out for us to help us garner support for our cause

We need your support in every way. Share our work via Facebook, Twitter, your personal blog or through any social medium; connect us to people or organizations you know that offer similar aid, tell your friends about what we do. That will come a long way. Your support will be greatly appreciated

Life is always about choices; we may take a step forward towards change or do nothing and be stigmatized in the books of history. The first option sounds good to me. Dream without action is merely a wish. Making a wish and doing nothing to fulfill it is senseless. We need to act in order to achieve them. Let the ideas be beyond our imagination but let’s keep them within the reach of our beliefs because what we believe is what we make it happen. So it’s time we take off our gloves, it’s time we do something from up heart to make Nepal a better place to live in; for us, for our children and their children’s children. It’s not easy but I’d say the paradigm is simple; a small act of kindness by everyone   whenever possible. It’s certainly not about how much yougive; it’s about how much love you put into giving. Let’sembrace social responsibility, integrate it into a way of life. Let’s take the much needed step of Turning Mirrors into Windows.

Nobody knew that after April 25, 2015, life in Nepal would change forever. The story was no different for Jholunge Gaun as well. The village had just started with its first endeavor towards progress after the involvement of Educating Nepal. Suryodaya School was a successful start; the Women’s Group was taking a lead in school management. We were one step closer to our vision.

But progress does not always go as planned. The earthquake brought down 85 houses and the entire school to rubbles putting us all back to square one.

We never wanted to limit ourselves to just providing education, and now we cannot afford to do that anyways. We need the citizens of Jholunge Gaun to get back to their regular lives as soon as possible if we want our vision to come true.

So now, our focus is on rebuilding and restructuring and we want to do it well.  We want to rebuild not just for survival but for a sustainable future. This involves a lot of work, skills and expertise.

Our friends at Tono MagokoroNet, of Tono City, Japan have offered to help us. They started working in their own country after the 2011 Earthquake and have been sharing their experiences and knowledge to Philippines, Indonesia and now it’s our turn.

We are going on a trip to Japan which is our first step towards restructuring. It is an incredible opportunity and we hope we return with better ideas to rebuild Jholunge Village and beyond!

Like they say, youths are the back bone of any nation and indeed we are. The nation’s economy, business, arts, music, wealth, prosperity or anything is hugely dependent upon us for the next two or three decades if not more. It’s an imperative to bring about innovative social reforms during this period. We have the power because we’ve got the right tools; we have ample time, highly improved technology, abundant resources and we have vast knowledge. We have the transition momentum on our side. Dawn till dusk we can endure. Friends or foes we can enjoy. And the best part is that we have the urge to do something different, something original. We now know that following the crowd will only lead us to the exit. We are independent and intuitive. This is power.

And as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. The responsibility that isn’t just confined for oneself but the one which contributes to national pride and national prosperity; the responsibility that ignites hope, the responsibility that resonates with our soul and inner voice. This is social responsibility and this is something that will take us a long way. We are like the coal and with right responsibilities at the right time we surely can be squeezed into diamonds.

The question is, why be part of social reform while you may as well sit back and relax. Why?

My answer would be very simple.

It’s because we care,
it’s because we can and
it’s because we want to or rather
it’s because we need to.
If not us, then who?
Today is the moment, now is the right time.