Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year: Time for Action

Dear Friends,
On behalf of Sarswati Peace School Family, I would like to extend our warmest greetings and wishes from Nepal. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and the New Year 2011. 


The year 2011 is going to be one of the most important year for us. Our first batch of students will begin their schooling with us. We have come along a long way from running a summer camp in 2009 to starting a school in 2010. 


We are extremely lucky to have friends and supporters all over the world from Tanzania to Switzerland to Belgium to Germany and the list goes on. Our special thank goes to Epic Change (Stacey and Sanjay and all others in the team). They have been so helpful in supporting and encouraging us when were struggling with the project. They are doing phenomenal work in Tanzania and elsewhere. 


Also, our friend and supporter Ania Lichota from UK. She has always been pushing us to move forward with the project and helping us in need. She is an inspiration for thousands of mountain climbers and philanthropists. She did climb Mt. Everest in the summer of 2009. 


We also thank President Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative for granting us $6,000 for our project. The people at CGI U are wonderful and inspiring. 


And of course Renu Di who is instrumental to our project here. She has been with us in every step of our progress and failures. We will always be indebted to her. 


Jen Lemen is like an angel to us. She is a constant source of inspiration and guidance. We will always be in need for her support. So is Mama Lucy and her team. Christina Ammon from California. Thank you for visiting us and helping us. And in recent months Sabi Gurung has been a part of our project. She has been helping us in range of issues from preparing student profiles to helping us connect with people and org. here in Nepal. Thank you young doctor. 


Nicholas Kang, my friend from St. Olaf will soon be joining us here in Nepal to help us with the project. We sat in our small room at St. Olaf and designed our foundation's website. We fought and disagreed but at the end we both have a common goal of helping to change the lives of some of the neediest children in Nepal. We welcome him to Nepal. 
The lives of some of these children will now change forever for the better. 
Most importantly, its YOU All who are making this happen. Without your generous support and help, we would not have started this project. To continue and move forward with our project, we constantly need your guidance, suggestion and help. 


Please go to our homepage and donate to change the lives of Nepal's future leaders. We also explore you to consider sponsoring some of our students. 


We humbly request you to be part of this movement. Please go to our homepage and look for donate button


There are so many people We have to thank. Please forgive us if you are not mentioned here. You will all be part of our life here. 

Thank you all. 
Namaste from Nepal!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Admissions Nightmare!

I definitely anticipated overwhelming number of applicants for our first batch of students at Sarswati Peace School but not like the report I got from the field today. Just yesterday alone more than 80 forms were filled in. More than 200 forms have been filled in the last three days. We only have spot for 250 students  and we are distributing 500 forms at this point. When my good friend Nicholas Kang will be here in the last week of December, we will travel to the village and select the students. I am still trying to figure out ways and means to make parents understand whose children will not be admitted this year. Everyone is hoping to admit their children and for that we need at least double our planned resources and we do not have the resources to do just that. It seems like our 500 forms will be gone in less than a week. I can see some of the parents ready to thrash me in public. I need to polish my conflict resolution and negotiation skills used during purchase of our school land.

A young girl with her brother. She cannot go to school as she has to take care of her brother. The young brother will be sent to school once he is four but the girl has to stay home. We need to change this. 
On the other hand, we are receiving applicants from extremely remote villages within Gorkha district. Just this morning, four parents came from Lapu Village in Northern part of our district that boarders with Tibet. They have to walk for four straight days to reach our village. They want to admit their children and I just cannot say no. I am excited that even in those places they now realize the importance of quality education and what it means to them and to their families.

We hope to provide opportunities to many of children from remotest part of our district and beyond.

Fever, chest infection, and cough and cold have been pulling me down for several days now.

Stay tuned for our Christmas Special Scholarships Campaign.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Epic Thanks

Dear Friends,




HAPPY TWEETSGIVING! what are you grateful for? join us in spreading #EpicThanks across the web & across the world.http://www.EpicThanks.org/

A global celebration of gratitude and giving that honors inspirational changemakers who created hope in our world.

This is a global effort to help our work here in Nepal and Elsewhere. Please support and donate!


And here is my story via http://epicthanks.org/changemakers



My journey to this day began in Arupokhari, a remote western Nepali village, which is more than a day's walk from the district headquarters. My village was at the heart of Nepal's ten years of civil war from 1996 to 2006. When I was five years old, every day I walked barefoot to and from school and then came home to study under the kerosene lamps as part of my daily routine. Even though we didn't have blacktopped roads, electricity, telephones or a proper school, all the children I knew dreamed of becoming doctors or pilots. We knew even then that no one wanted us to settle for anything less. But over time, as we busied ourselves building dreams amidst poverty, hunger and scarcity, we slowly began to realize how unrealistic and impossible those dreams were. After all these years, we do not have a single doctor or a pilot from my hometown.
Still, with all of this, I have never been able to stop dreaming big. From the time I was young, I longed for changes in Nepal. My audacity to think like this came in part because at the age of nine I had one very important dream come true. I was selected to study in a prestigious British-style school in Kathmandu, Nepal. That was when I saw buses and electricity for the first time; and first started to learn English. That is where I first learned that sometimes in one moment, your life can change forever.
I am a wildly optimistic person willing to sacrifice for my country so that future generations do not have to suffer the same way. I believe that changing a country has to start with educating the young generation and that is where I am investing my energy. With the Sarswati Foundation that I founded in the summer of 2009, I am now working on building the first peace school in Nepal so that the children whose lives were blighted by the war get an opportunity to overcome unfounded prejudice and discrimination and realize the possibilities of creating an informed and tolerant society for future generations. I want all of the children in my village to get the best possible education so that they can achieve their dreams of becoming not only doctors or pilots but anything else they desire to be.
After years of poverty, struggle and despair, I became the first person in generations of my family to graduate from college. My mom passed away when I was nine years old. Her life has been a light and inspiration to me and without her motivation and upbringing, my journey to this day would have been impossible.
Dear Friends, we need countless stories to move our world forward. We need schools that teach our students to action; we need education that not only teaches us to be good citizens but also go out and make a difference. We need idealists; we need dreamers, thinkers and leaders. My education has made me look beyond and contribute towards the greater good of the society. As President Obama once said, "every generation we have an obligation to work on behalf of the next generation."
Some may have called me naive for daring to dream at all, if they had seen the place where I started from. But if we stop dreaming and if we stop believing in ourselves, we are never going to create a world that is fair and just for everyone. If we are not willing to sacrifice, who will? How long can we wait? Please support my peace school project to educate and enable thousands of war affected Nepalese children to dream big and achieve their dreams.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sarswati Peace School Website Is Up and Running

After months of hard work, our Sarswati Peace School website is up and running. I request you to provide us with constructive feedbacks. Tilak, my friend and web designer is working on uploading the peace school logo which is absent at the moment. We have tons of other information to upload but hope to complete the work ASAP. 


We are one more step closer to fulfilling my long awaited dream of starting this school. 


We will soon upload stories of some of our soon-to-be Sarswati students. 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Keeping Promises: What We Need?

People often ask me if they can help me with our peace school project. They love to hear my story and get inspired and promise to support me in every possible way. But as time goes by and I start contacting those people only to hear, "Oh..I would love to help but not this time.." and the story continues. Over time, I realized that there are very few people who actually keep their promises. It just breaks my heart. 

So, if you really want to support then please do not hesitate to contact me at subhash580@gmail.com

Here is the list of some of the things we need for our Peace School.


Computers/laptops: 30
Printer and photocopier: 3
Projector- 3
TV- 3
VCD/VCR-3

Library:
Children color books, storybooks, software, CDs and DVDs, Novels, Non-fiction
Wooden and plastic blocks, color pencils, chart papers, color papers, scissors etc.
Human anatomy charts, body parts etc. portraits of national and international personalities, maps (all continents), Admin, political and geographical map of Nepal, district maps etc.

Sports: football-10, handball-10, cricket set-3 etc.

Music: Madal-5, Nepali traditional music set-1, Harmonium-2, Guitar-10, Piano-1, Sarangi-5, Murali- 10, Basuri-10, Dance dresses etc.

Science:
Human body, skull and other parts, animal specimen etc.
Microscope: 5
Magnifying lenses: 30
Test tubes, conical flasks, round bottom flasks and other basics for 1-4th grade.

Furnitures:
Tables, chairs, desks, wardrobes etc.
Whiteboard- 7
Notice Boards- 7

Softwares:
-Academic transcripts
-Keeping record of students
-Keeping record of financial transactions
-Student, faculty and teachers login

Human Resources:
-Headmaster-1
-Academic Teachers- 6
- Sports-1
- Music, Dance and Theatre-1
-Admin: 2
-Computer-1
-Librarian-1
(we are working on getting volunteers for our school but if you want to come and volunteer or if you know someone that might be interested, please spread the word)
Our efforts will help change the lives of children Sangita Nepali, 12 whose family is not even in a position to send her to school. 

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Admissions Open: Ready, Set, Go!

There comes a moment in everyone's life when you realize that the work you have been doing is actually going to change people's lives. That's how I felt today. As I, along with Sabi, was busy editing and re-editing the entrance form for our peace school, it reminded me of the time I sat for the national entrance test conducted by Budhanilkantha School. God knows how I passed that test and here I am today. 

 We designed, edited, printed and packed. The packages will leave for Arupokhari, Gorkha early morning tomorrow. I just cannot explain how excited I am! Our peace school will not only produce doctors, pilots and lawyers but leaders, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and visionary people that will, one day, make all of us proud.
The Entrance form in Nepali

 The Entrance form with the Sasrwati Foundation's official seal of approval
 Testing my translation skills
 Sabi is amazing when it comes to Nepali language. I am pleasantly surprised. 
 The forms are almost ready :)
 Here it is!
 Packed, sealed and stamped
 The packages are ready now. The admissions for the long awaited Sarswati Peace School is open!
People often ask me here in Nepal: why did you return? Why don't you want to stay in US and earn money? Well, I just cannot explain the deep satisfaction and extreme joy when you see the possibility of giving opportunity to the poorest kids that now dreams of becoming doctor or pilot. My village does not have a single doctor or pilot to this day. Still, no one wants to settle for anything less. And now I want those kids to really work towards getting there. I will provide them the opportunities and resources.

 Ready, set, Go! It just excites me. I want to change the lives of hundreds of kids. Are you up for the challenge?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Winner: We won US$6,000 grant from the Clinton Global Initiative University

Our work featured in the Clinton Global Initiative University 
For more info, please visit 
http://www.cgiu.org/commitments/awards/2010/#
Go to the peace and human rights page of the award section. 

It reads:

Sarswati Peace School: Building Hope for Nepalese Children


    Subhash Ghimire commits to building a “Peace School” in Arupokhari, his village in Western Nepal, to help over 250 children (between the ages of four and fifteen) who are affected by the violence of civil war.
    Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) left an overwhelming number of children physically and psychologically scarred, and deprived them of their basic right to learn. Yet the Nepalese government has not started any programs or projects to address post-war problems faced by adolescents. Furthermore, the Nepalese school curricula have never focused on peace or peaceful living in communities.
    Subhash plans to use the CGI U funds to build part of a library, classroom space, and a computer lab. The strategy underlying the Sarswati Peace School is to invest in the future of Nepal through a grassroots, culturally-appropriate peace education effort that not only meets the educational needs of the children in the village, but also radiates outward into their families, and forward into the future, by equipping them for peace in their adult lives. Drawing on the resources of their rich cultural heritage, Sarswati will integrate play, drama, storytelling, gardening, music and dance, arts and crafts, and sports. The school environment will enable each child to develop a non-violent character and practice using techniques embedded in local culture to creatively resolve conflict.
    Thank you President Clinton!
Support our work here in Nepal. 

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Books Arrive

 The first set of books have arrived from the United States. We thank the Asia Foundation and the Millions Book Store for their generous support. We received around 350 books. 
We are still in need of tons of books for children under 15. These books could be in Nepali or in English. If you are interested to help, please contact us at info@sarswatifoundation.org 

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Peace School Construction Update

Dear Friends,
Finally, the construction of our long-awaited Peace School has begun in Arupokhari-1 Gorkha. I will have more pictures and updates as we go along. We have decided to build bamboo classrooms and a concrete building at the moment.

I do not even want to start talking about the struggle I had to go through from selecting the project site to starting the construction.

    The school will be using some of the trees within the school premise. This wood is called Chilaune.