NGO- N.E.P.A.L.

Networking
Education for
P
overty
A
lleviation among
L
ocals

 

Networking Education for Poverty Alleviation among Locals (NEPAL) would like to inform you about our current Fund Raising Campaign in the Khumbu Region. We have selected a couple of Institutions for support to upgrade. We are presently attempting to address the needs of the school named Mahendra Jyoti of Chaurikharka VDC#2, Solukhumbu, Nepal. This lower secondary portion of this school was originally founded by Sir Edmund Hillary, is near the town of Lukla, site of the primary airport into the Everest region known as the Khumbu.  Subsequently a secondary school at the same location was founded by Mr. Denis Bertholet of Switzerland, with the help of his friends and the Rotary Club of Lausanne.

At present, the school has classes up to Grade 10, after which students receive a School Leaving Certificate (SLC). If they wish to receive the further two years of instruction required for an Intermediate Certificate they must presently go to a school outside the Khumbu. We would like to provide the Mahendra Jyoti School with the financial resources to add a further two grades of instruction, this would make it the only 10+2 school in the Khumbu. The lack of higher educational opportunity in the Khumbu requires families to bear the increased financial burden of their child's further studies at schools far from their homes. In addition to the increased financial burden cause by this, many students lose there cultural identity studying for long periods of time far from there native villages. While a financially strong family may be able to support their child's higher studies by sending them to schools in other cities, children whose families have less means are forced to abandon their further study. The children who cannot afford to continue their studies are forced to take hard and demanding low paying jobs as porters on the Khumbu trails. Their lack of higher education and meager wages make it very difficult for the less educated locals improve their standard of living, while more educated people from other cities outside the region take the better paying jobs in the Khumbu.

The Khumbu is a land of seasonal opportunity, for those who are able to communicate with the foreigners there are many opportunities in trekking and mountaineering work. The opportunity and pay of these jobs is dependent upon educational background, communication skills, and work performance within trekking or mountaineering groups. Upon gaining a good job in the trekking and mountaineering industry, there are many opportunities to advance, through guiding, and even eventually the possibility running a trekking and mountaineering agency. Thus, trekking and mountaineering jobs are some of the best opportunities for upward mobility of families with less means. However, the opportunity to get one of these valued and well paying jobs, first and foremost requires a good education.

We are seeking the support of our friends, clients, and affiliates; together we hope to help deliver the higher educational opportunities for the poor and needy people of Solukhumbu Village and the Khumbu Region.