A group of youths has recently completed building Libraries and Computer Labs in various schools in the western part of Nepal.
A team of youths from the organization, ONE Youth, had conducted the Library and Computer Lab Building works and stationery and cloth distribution programmes at various schools in Arghakhanchi, Kapilvastu and Rupandehi districts.
As part of the programme, the group left for Arghakhanchi, a place about 11 hours’ drive from Kathmandu. From the base Bhedamare they hiked for about 2 hours to reach Rikot Lower Secondary School in Rikot, Simpani. In the process, the locals there helped them carry all the resources from Bhedamare to the School where they built a well-stuffed library 500+ books and also a computer lab with 3 computers. They also donated 90 students in the school with the stationery materials and clothes.
The other day, they walked for about 2 hours to reach the Buddha Lower Secondary School located in Kirtipur, Simalpani in the same district. In the school, they built a Computer lab and library along with conducting the stationery and cloth distribution programme facilitating more than 70 students.
Similarly, the next day, they moved to the Suryodaya Primary School in Chapargaun, Kapilvastu where they conducted computer lab and a library building programme along with distributing stationery materials to more than 30 students.
Meanwhile, by travelling to Bhaisahi in Rupandehi district the next day, they built a computer lab, library and distributed stationery materials to the primary level students there in the Baisahi Secondary School.
In conducting these projects, they had collected books and other stationery materials from more than 200 volunteers at various schools and colleges in town, whereas the purchase of computers and other travel expenses as part of the programme were covered by the fees from the team building trainings they had conducted at various private schools in Kathmandu, proving self-sustainability.
Explaining about the method of selecting the needy schools for the project, Jasper Neupane from the organization shares, “We select the schools based upon our volunteers available in the region and the availability of computer teachers in the area. For this, we pre-visit the school, talk to the computer teachers and make ourselves sure that the resources will be exploited to the fullest. Then only will we conduct the programmes in the schools. And, after the projects are completed at the schools, we select volunteers in the region who can visit the school at least once in 6 months to ensure that our resources are being used properly.†He further adds, “We have also seen cases of schools discarding computers as trash just because a multiplug is not working. So, to make sure that does not happen, we gather the villagers before the donation and teach them the aspects of computer education.â€
In this way, with building of a total of 6 computer labs, 7 libraries, 8 motivational seminars, 9 team building workshops, 5 Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Drug abuse prevention campaigns, stationery and cloth distributions at 7 schools and dozens of projects like art exhibitions in 10 districts, the organization recently concluded its one year of operations on education, health, leadership and motivation.
