2018 Winter Update
December 2018.
Namaste to our circle of Friends and Supporters!
It has been a wonderful year of growth, joy and challenges for Namaste Children's Fund in 2018. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary as an organization educating girls from the remote Humla region in the Himalayan mountains in Nepal. With 10-12 new students each year joining our current 80 students, our program is vibrant and expanding. Our oldest students are now entering University and Technical Colleges which is an exciting transition. Our management team is engaged in long-range strategic planning and we are committed to supporting each student through their studies including University and Graduate Programs for our most talented and motivated girls.
Congratulations to Pabina, Anupa and Basanti who graduated from Grade 10 in 2018! They all did well and passed their Secondary Education Examination (SEE).
Our students are doing wonderfully well in their studies. We have 4 of our 5 Grade VI students in the top 15 out of 89 students in their High School class. Remarkable results given they have come from remote villages with major challenges of poverty and isolation…kudos to our dedicated teachers and staff, sponsors and volunteers who have supported their education from Day One!
Some of our students at the Pharping Hostel with Phil Crean, NCF Co-Founder.
To make room in our Pharping Hostel we are transitioning older High School age groups to boarding schools in Kathmandu. This frees up space for younger students coming to Kathmandu from our Academy in Simikot in the mountains.
We have 9 kindergartners joining our hostel this year and our most senior student finished high school and has taken her final exam at community nursing in college in Kathmandu. For 2019 our staff and team are providing proper nutrition, health checkups, bi-lingual education in English and Nepali, educating a total of 90 girls in our hostels and schools. These girls are bright and motivated and their education will spur positive physical, social and economic growth in their families and communities, leading to transformational changes for society and future generations.
Simikot Hostel in the Himalayas
There is continuing enthusiasm from the villagers to have their girls attend our school in Simikot. We have established guidelines in choosing new entrants, including only taking one child per family, we target a third from the Dalit/untouchable class and avoid favoritism in our selection process.
Our new kindergarten students in Simikot! NCF continues to provide health checkups for all our students.
Our students at Karnali Academy in Simikot.
We made a significant investment in 2018 to build a strong staircase and foundational wall for our Simikot Hostel in the Himalayas. Damage caused by erosion threatened our school property and we raised funds to create a strong supporting wall. (Not the dividing kind...)
Our students in Nepal THANK YOU for your kindness and support! Cora Edmonds & Phil Crean
Co-Founders, Namaste Children's Fund