Playground Construction Begins in Nepal

As mentioned previously thank to a very generous donation by the Manley family, we have enough funds to construct a playground for our school in Nepal. 

Our school is located in a little village called Rithepani in western Nepal. If you peer our one of the windows of our school you'll see the Himalayan mountain range. The school was built on one of the few pieces of flat land around the village. 

Nevertheless, there is still ground work to be done before we can formally install the play equipment. The ground needs to be leveled in places, and a lot of rocks and debris needs to be cleared. 

This work is well underway and the kids will soon have a nice safe place to play to excercise their human right to play. 

Article 24 of the Declaration of Human Rights states: 
 

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

"Rest and leisure" are what kids call play! 
 

A New Playground for Nepal and the Right to Play

Children being denied the right to play

Article 24 of the Declaration of Human Rights states that: 

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.


For children, “the right to rest and leisure” means the right to play. The right to explore, to play games, to climb trees, to play hide-and-seek, and so many more childhood activities. 

This right is often ignored in both developing and non-developing countries. 

In places like South Korea, children are often pushed to extremes with several after school classes in subjects like English, music, art, and calligraphy piled on after regular school. This often sees young children spend upwards of 16 hours a day in education. 

In countries like Uganda, the same right is ignored as children spend countless hours milling the fields or smashing bigger rocks into smaller rocks for use in the building industry. 

With this is mind, we’d like to acknowledge and show our eternal gratitude to the Manley Family who made a very generous donation that will go towards a playground at our school in Nepal
Stay tuned for updates as our playground comes together. 

 

Rain Catcher Completed at our School in Uganda

I recently got an email from Mary and Esther - our hard working staff in Uganda - announcing the completion of a water catchment system that sits on top of the new classrooms at our school. 

Yay! 

This will provide yet more clean water to our students. What amazed me about the successful completion on the project is how very little I actually did. Mary and Esther did a wonderful job coordinating this whole project. We have such wonderful staff! 

I drank bottled water during my visits to Buyaya. One particular time I was there during the dry season. The locals went to the nearby well and got some water. I remember peering into it and noticing not only how dirty it looked, but also the little wriggly worms inside. 

So glad the kids at our school will be drinking rain water. 

Our long term plans is to get a deep water well for the village so that everyone can get clean water. The wells go deep into the ground to the underlying aquifer. Deep water wells cost about $US10,000 so it is a little beyond our budget at the moment.

Written by Malcolm Trevena 

 

Take a photo tour of our school in Nepal

Have a look around our school in Nepal with this photo tour!

Clothing Donations Being Handed Out in Nepal

Thanks to some very generous donors, bags full of clothing donations were handed to people of the lower village in Rithepani.

Check out all the pictures below!        

Thanks again to all who donated!                
 

Clothing Donations Heading to Nepal

Malcolm Trevena and Megin Alvarez are returning to Nepal and then unto India to investigate possible locations for new solar-powered schools.

They will be bringing suitcases jammed packed with donated clothes for the residents of Rithepani in Nepal.

Special thanks to everyone who donated.

 

  • The Fletcher Family
  • Laura and Cassidy Brock
  • Valerie Smaller
  • Gloria Ratner
  • Gloria and Ed Alvarez
  • Debra, Bronwyn, Beth, and Bruce
  • Winnie Liu


 

Robyn Sporting her Robyn's Nest T-Shirt

Robyn Ratner got a special gift today: Her very own Robyn's Nest T-Shirt!

Robyn's Nest is the name given to the new classrooms at our solar powered school in Uganda.  The classrooms serve both raises awareness about autism and as a loving memorial to Robyn's grandmother, Eva Miller. 

Thanks to Ben and Jen Ratner for making the shirt.

Thanks also to Bob and Gloria Ratner for their support. 

 

Robyn's Nest Continues to Grow

Our little school in Uganda continues to grow. 

We recently started expansion of the new classrooms named Robyn's Nest, in honor of our good friend Robyn Ratner. Robyn's Nest will both be used as classrooms as well as a vehicle to increase understanding of those who have been diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. 

We are pleased to report that Robyn's Nest is all but completed! 

Check out photos below.