New teacher’s desk and chair in the Japanese built classrooms in Ghumna.

The school commissioned the boys to make furniture for the staffroom and the new classrooms as part of their training. The quality of the furniture made was very high- as good as anything that can be bought locally.

New shelves in the school staff room. The things that look like mug trees are actually bangle trees which ladies keep their glass bangles on.

Piglet with an identity crisis?

The last traditional, wood lined, well in Ghumna.

Most people now have a hand pump near to the house which saves time and effort, especially for the women as they are the ones who would have to bring water for the whole family. Unlike in many areas of Nepal, the ground water here is drinkable even for westerners!

Mustard oil fields.

Mustard oil has a spicy taste and is used for cooking. It is also used as hair oil, massage oil and for light in oil lamps. In October/November the whole of the valley is splashed with yellow and the flowers scent the air with honey.

Rice fields and haystacks

Rice is the staple food of people in the plains of Nepal. Although the land is flat, the fields are slightly terraced so that water runs from the irrigation channels through each field in turn. This ingenious system means there is no need for mechanical watering machines and the farmer can channel water into whichever field needs it at the time.

The rice harvest is just beginning here. In the background are haystacks. The rice straw is dried and kept for animal fodder and bedding (both human and animal) in the winter.

Traditional dress

The Tharu traditional dress is dying out in Ghumna and the surrounding area due to a combination of low status and high cost. The skirt in itself uses 6 metres of fabric! Sadly, there are also no longer jewellers with the skills to make the traditional jewellery – what these girls are wearing have been passed down through several generations.

Basket-making, a traditional craft of Tharu women, is also becoming less common. Baskets are made from local grass, often coloured in bright shades and decorated with shells from shellfish which are found in the irrigation channels in the rice fields. The grass is so tightly woven that it is very durable. Women carry produce from their fields to market on their heads, walking gracefully even though they are carrying 10-15kg. In the past, new brides took their possessions to their new house in a huge woven basket which would be hung from the rafters to protect it from rats and snakes.

Traditional dress. Like in many traditional societies, wealth is displayed in a woman's jewellery and Tharu women wear lots of intricately worked silver as well as glass bangles and strings of glass beads.

Sunset over the Rapti River.

The new bridge across the River Rapti

Ghumna is located on the north of a large river and until this year contact with the villages to the south, and with India which is also to the south, had been limited due to the difficulty in crossing the river. Dugout canoes were the only way of getting across apart from in the dry season when wading was possible. With this bridge transport has become much easier, although the road on either side is still liable to be swept away in the annual floods.

Local transport.
There is now a ‘motorable road’ from the local market town to Ghumna village (although it would be called a rough track in Europe!) served by land rover-type jeeps which run every hour. With only one jeep an hour, space is limited – when we took the jeep, there were 15 people inside and about another 10 on the roof. Dangerous and not very comfortable, but much better than a one-hour walk!

This 3-wheeler runs along the main road to the market town.

Local scenes: Temple, Dumdumwa village. Tharu people are Hindu. This is the only specifically Tharu temple in the area. It is famous because the clay images of gods which are left there break into pieces on their own!

In October 2006, I visited Ghumna with a friend who sponsors Samjhana. We were invited to meet the parents of the sponsored children and present uniforms to the 7 girls who have just joined the sponsorship scheme and also to give notebooks and pencils to all the girls. Again, the parents were keen to thank everyone for their support.
This uniform ‘distribution ceremony’ is an important way to bring the parents of the sponsored girls into contact with the school. Illiterate people in Nepal tend to view school with awe – they feel that it is something for the privileged and that they have no right to be involved. The SWC tries to make school more accessible by involving the parents at all times; there is a Parent-Teachers association and parents, the SWC and children come together at these ceremonies to celebrate the children’s achievements.

New uniform

Although it is usually mothers who are involved in the school sponsorship scheme, fathers are also welcome. This dad came along to see his daughter receive her new school uniform.

Girls receive new notebooks and pencils twice a year.

Some of the sponsored children making Dashain cards for their sponsors. The SWC is aware that a culture of dependency can very easily develop if people appear to be given money for nothing. Making these cards reminds the children that they also have a responsibility to their sponsors!

Children's day 2006

The school celebrated International Children's Day on August 20 by organising a fun day for all the students

Children's day August 20 2006