A computer room
A grant from UK charity Guy’s Trust allowed us to build a new classroom and equip it with 20 new laptop computers.
Warm clothes and shoes
It becomes very cold on Nepal’s southern plains during December and January but children were attending school in thin uniforms, often barefoot. A Christmas appeal allowed us to provide a one-off issue of woolly pullovers and hats and shoes. There’s a place now and again for ‘hand-outs’ and, on the basis of ‘hand-me-downs’ , the impact of this distribution will be long lasting. We repeat this activity each Christmas at Bhatighadi and other schools.
School rucksacks
Another small – but hugely significant – contribution was our issue of free school rucksacks to the children. These allow them to carry their books safely to and from school during the monsoon season. And there was a double benefit as the rucksacks were made by disabled women in training at our Lily’s Leaves social enterprise partner.
A support teacher
The school was also under-staffed and we addressed that in 2022 by appointing Jina Tamang as a support teacher. Jina is from a traditionally downtrodden ethnic group and this together with her gender makes her a wonderful role model for the girls who attend the school.
There can be a future for talented girls who stick with education!
And then in 2023…..
We were thrilled to receive a phone call from Nigel, a supporter in Ireland who had some time ago written his Will in favour of Pipal Tree. He explained that he was keen to make a meaningful one-off gift, doing so, as he put it, “with a warm hand rather than a cold one”. Nigel and his partner Pepie made a huge donation that allowed us to refurbish classrooms and demolish others to build a new classroom block.
Almost complete!
We have almost reached an end-point with this project, our future support confined to paying Jina’s salary and covering the costs of one-off distributions of clothes, shoes and rucksacks. This maintenance level of funding support can be met through gifts in Wills or by ‘in memoriam’ gifts (for example, donations in lieu of flowers).
In respect of the latter, Philip, who is a keen mosaic hobby artist, is happy to install a commemorative plaque at the school in recognition of a gift. He did so in 2024, after making this robin in memory of his late cousin, Lily Taylor. There are five more columns at the school awaiting such plaques!
To discuss school gift options, just contact Philip directly through this link.
