Newsletter | March 2022
Latest developments construction,
container and more
Dear reader,
Boy, Ton would have been proud of what his dream has been realized with the construction of the new school in Sailung. It has been 4 years since Ton died on March 20 in the mountains of Nepal. Forever in our hearts.
With this newsletter we want to give a "short" update of the project in Sailung.
• the school
• stacking construction, welders and walls
• donors, sponsor children, cooking stove project
• sea container transport
• medical support post
The school
The children and teachers really enjoy the beautiful new school building. Unfortunately, due to the enormous corona increase in Nepal, the school had to close for more than 4 weeks at the end of December. After that, the school remained closed due to heavy snowfall and impassable fields and paths. But now the children can enjoy school again.
In the meantime, all plans are being made for further furnishing the new spaces:
– School kitchen: the plan is to provide school meals and create a school garden in which the students learn to grow their own vegetables. This is based on the idea of stimulating a healthy diet. Students can be offered at least one healthy meal per day from the school kitchen. The kitchen will be run by a team of moms: Dil Maya Shrestha, Laxmi Shrestha and others to support.
– Computer room / library: this space will be used for the education of the children, but will also have a community function. In Nepal, a comprehensive e-learning curriculum is available for all age levels, including educational materials for educators in both Nepali and English. Consultations are underway with the Dutch foundation Thang for the design of the library function. Dabaki Shrestha leads this section.
– Teacher's residence: teachers sometimes come from far and do not have direct housing in Sailung. By means of a furnished accommodation it will be a bit easier to attract teachers to Sailung.
The construction, the welders and stacking walls
To remind you: with contributions from sponsors and a new contribution from the Wilde Ganzen, we were able to give the green light to enter phase 2 immediately after the completion of the school: the construction of an additional local and sanitary building. The builders who erected the school building could also be hired again for the new assignment.
At the beginning of January, they went back to their village to celebrate their New Year on January 14. They were supposed to come back after 2 weeks, but because of corona and then heavy snowfall in the mountains, they stayed away for almost 6 weeks. On February 10, the builders were present in Sailung again. Fortunately, Krishna and Makar had been able to buy all the necessary materials just before the corona lockdown. This enabled the builders to get to work immediately upon their return. All walls in the school building and the sanitary building have been built in the meantime. Most of the stucco work has already been done. Now to finish and furnish the sanitary building.
The two welders who did a good job before have come back from Kathmandu for a week. They made the stainless steel railings on the school building, welded a number of shoe racks and posts for the school grounds fence.
And then we have to consider all the work that has been done by a group of more than 10 men from the community to put in perimeter walls and on the property. More than 20 trucks with large chunks of stone, obtained from the local forestry, have been incorporated. Real stack of works of art.
Donors, sponsor children, cooking stoves
We have recently received many donations. Many thanks to all who support the project with this!
We can also mention that the Protestant Municipality of Sassenheim will donate the vase collection proceeds from the first quarter of this year to the project. In addition, the 40-day action of the churches Blaricum Eemnes Laren is dominated by “Mother and Child – our care” for follow-up projects.
The number of sponsors for the study grant for children has increased by 3 to 20. That is very good news. Unfortunately, there are still children whose families cannot pay their school fees.
The December cooking stove campaign was very successful. 30 cooking stoves have been ordered and will be delivered in the coming weeks. Below the maker with his first results.
Sea container transport
We have already collected school furniture, teaching materials, (children's) clothing, sewing machines, computers, beamers, medical equipment and other items in the Netherlands to support the school and the community. We are doing this project in collaboration with Nepal Federation Netherlands. In this way it is possible that other foundations can also send items to their projects in Nepal.
It has been decided to ship a 20-foot sea container by boat to Calcutta (India) at the end of March 2022, from where it can be delivered by train to just over the border in Nepal. There the items will have to be transferred to small trucks to be taken to the locations in the mountains. It is an expensive project, but we also see it as a learning project to be able to repeat if successful.
medical post
The school board, community and construction team have indicated that they would be happy to commit themselves to the realization of the Medical Support Center if we can get the sponsorship of the project. At the moment, people sometimes have to walk more than 2 hours to get to the first full-fledged medical post. Sometimes even with the woman on the back.
We also hope for your financial support for this project so that we can give the green light for the start of this new project in mid-2022. The construction drawings have already been made available by VDC. This is based on living spaces for 2 nurses on the top floor and on the ground floor a delivery room, a sick room, toilet room, doctor's office, storage room and technical room.
Financial Statements
The treasurer has prepared the annual reports for 2020 and 2021 in collaboration with the accountant. Both annual reports have been added to the website.
How further
In mid-April 2 members of the foundation will go to Nepal. Krishna and the construction team are doing everything they can to have all construction activities ready and also to start using the kitchen.
During the visit, community and political leaders will be consulted about the design of a three-year plan covering topics such as continuity of education, school self-reliance, regional library function, adult education, medical support center, water supplies and all associated priorities. A busy schedule.
Namasté and if you have any questions after reading this newsletter, you can contact me or one of the other board members personally.
Sincerely on behalf of the board,
Jan Post
jan.post@sailung.nl
