Kathmandu, May 09, 2016: Tired of seeing inequalities and injustices in every sector in the society, youths today have started working on their own towards the progress of society. Success of the Library Building and Sports-Materials Distribution Programme last Saturday in a rural village in eastern Nepal clearly indicates this.
About a dozen of youths barely out of their plus two degree gathered together for a social cause. The initiative they started just three months ago, managed to collect books and donate these to build a library in a village school. Youth Hand For Helpline (YHFH)-an organization they established for the cause had been able to collect around 800 books and sports materials.
Though just half-an hour walk towards south from the East-West Highway, Shree Nimna Madhyamik School, located in Malhanama VDC, Saptari District is out of any such facilities that a school should be equipped with as per the Nepal Government’s policy.
Though established in the year 2020 B.S., the school has not been able to upgrade to secondary level yet and is running classes upto grade-8 with students numbering just more than 300. The school is poorly equipped with any of the facilities that a school needs to have, forget about computers and other such technologies. These are still in far sight.
While most of the country enjoys the facilities of water, electricity, education and others, the place that this school is located in, is reeling under crisis of any such facilities. Though located in an easily accessible place, the economic and educational status of the village does not look any better than a rural village in Humla or Jumla from Karnali.
“Seeing the smiles on the faces of students, teachers and guardians on getting books and sports materials, and getting acknowledged for our small contribution, we are further encouraged to work in this direction. We are now determined to continue such operations,†said Prabesh Rai, president of the organization.
“We were skeptic if the local people would support us in conducting this programme and care us to launch the programme, but the presence of students, guardians and teachers in such a large number amazed us. Being welcomed in such a grand way and being acknowledged for our small contribution has proved us wrong,†said Milan Tamang, a member at YHFH. “We wish this initiative take the shape of a nationwide campaign.â€
Samuj Sal Chaudhary, head teacher in the school said that they are glad to get support from an organization of youths that was unknown to the village before. “Probably for the first time in their life, our students have got to know that there are books other than textbooks and that too in color pages. These books would surely help to broaden the boundary of knowledge of our students. And, this year would be special to our students since they have got all extra-reading materials and sports materials that were almost impossible to buy from little fund the school gets from the government,†said he talking in the programme. “This year would be special for the villagers in Malhanama for someone has shown interest towards the education of children here and has provided books and sports-materials.â€
