JanJyoti Nepal School Sponsorship: March 2006

Renu, Grade

On Renu's right are 2 big sacks of rice, the staple food in Nepal. Most of the sponsored families are sharecroppers and so receive only a part of the crops they grow.

Ramita, Grade 5.

Even in brick built houses such as this one, glass windows are a luxury. The wooden bars on the window keep out thieves and large animals (tigers used to be common in this area) and the wooden shutters are closed at night.

Ram Kumari, Grade 1

Raj Kumari going to school.

The house behind her, although still made of wattle and daub, has a tiled roof - one step up from thatch. The animals tethered next to it are water buffalo - they are kept, like cows, to produce milk and to plough the fields.

Rachana at home.

On the right of the photo is a small, mud, rice storage pot. While the majority of the harvest is stored in large (6ft tall) containers, a smaller one is usually kept in the kitchen for easy access.

Rabita at home.

In winter, families who don't have wooden beds sleep on the floor. They spread straw on the ground and cover it with woven grass mats like the one Rabita is sitting on. In the day time, the straw is swept over to one side to make room for daily life.

Puja Kumari.

Phul Kumari studying.

Narayani studying.

Mamata studying.

Chandrika studying in the doorway of her home.

In the background is a container for storing rice. These are made by the women of the family from locally available mud and rice husks. They are rat and mouse proof but, as they are made from natural materials, they are breathable and so the rice doesn't get mouldy, even in the monsoon time.

Asmita and her parents.

Aruna at home

Anjuma at home. The table was made by during a skills training workshop for mothers of sponsored girls; under it are traditional handwoven baskets.

Anita studying at home

Anita, her mother and her brother outside the house.

The plant growing on the roof is a pumpkin which will be harvested and stored for use when other vegetables are not available.

Ajita at home.
Wooden beds with woven grass mattresses are used for sleeping but also as seats and for studying during the day.

Sapana at home.

In winter, daily life moves outdoors to make the most of the sun. Sapana is sitting on a 'charpoi', a bed made from a wooden frame with a woven rope base. These beds are popular in summer as they allow air to circulate around the sleepers - in winter they provide a portable seat.

Last year, a local NGO (non-governmental organisation) launched a goat rearing initiative. Sapana's family was provided with a breeding pair of goats and given advice on how to care for them. The first two kids produced were returned to the NGO for distribution to another family; after that all the offspring belong to Sapana's family. This type of project is very useful in a village like Ghumna as it provides livestock to families with no money to invest; a fully grown goat can sell for £20-£30.

Narayani and her mother.

On the roof of the house on the right you can see cow dung being dried. It will later be used for fuel. Dung fires are very smoky which causes serious eye and breathing problems for women but the only other alternative is wood which needs to be brought from the forest - carried by the women, of course.

Aruna and her mother.
The first thing that women do in the morning is to sweep the yard around the house. The surface is simply packed-down mud and so it gets dusty during the day and at night the animals are tethered there so every morning it needs to be cleaned. The brooms are made from a strong grass which grows locally and in the background you can see a feed trough made from a hollowed out tree.

Life outside school.

Amrita does her homework while her grandmother prepares vegetables for the evening meal. They are sitting outside the house on a handwoven grass mat - without electric light or heating inside the house much of the daily work is done outside.

Saraswati Puja (see below)

Flowers, fruit and incense offerings to Saraswati - the school should get good results this year!

In the scrum for blessings!

After the prayers are completed, the teachers give blessings to the students (and to each other).

Some of the sponsored girls at the Saraswati Puja festival. The red mark on their forehead is a blessing from the goddess Saraswati - it's made from a mixture of rice, vermilion powder and water.

Saraswati Puja

Saraswati is the goddess of education and on her festival day, all school children pray for success in their exams. They offer flowers, fruit and, if they can afford it, 1 or 2 rupees (about 1p). Here they are throwing flowers onto the shrine.

Mothers and daughters.

As well as promoting girls' education, the Social Welfare Committee (SWC) is looking into ways of helping their mothers raise their standard of living so that they can become independent. A number of women have now had training in bamboo craft - bamboo grows locally and can be made into furniture, especially chairs, and also decorations. The women can then sell their work in the market and the SWC is currently looking into setting up a shop in the nearby market town of Lamahi.

These ladies arranged a meeting with me when I was last in the village. They were fascinated to know why you would want to sponsor their children and how you found out about the girls. They also wanted to know all about what we wear and what we eat, how the education system works in the West - and if it is true that it's night in Europe when it's day in Nepal! They had obviously thought a lot about their daughters' sponsors and they were very keen to thank everyone for their support. They were also very keen to stress that if they had been educated themselves, they would now be able to help their own daughters. They obviously felt quite strongly that they had missed out by not going to school; they speak a local language rather than Nepali, and so cannot even understand if their children read their schoolwork aloud.