Community Trek – Season for 2016 Successful

Here is the number of trekkers from September to December 2016 as reported by Chitra Pun, Field Advisor. 565 trekkers from the USA, UK, German, Canada, Australia, Austria, India, Japan, Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Holland, Finland, and Korea participated in varied treks offered by the Nepal Community Trek. The treks take visitors off the beaten tracks of overcrowded tourist and mountaineering trails and into the heart of the Nepali people. Visit rural villages, gaze on the Annapurna mountain range and experience home cottage industries such as papermaking first hand. Experience a home stay or snuggle up in a cozy mountain lodge. Enjoy...

Pun-Pals

Jeannine from The School Inside describes their latest project with the teachers from Nangi at Himanchal Higher Education School. “It’s an old idea that still has much meaning: pen pals. Although I and other volunteer English teachers take maximum advantage of the internet to teach English to people all over the world (via Skype), the one thing the internet can’t change is time zones. One of the biggest challenges we face in serving more students is finding teachers who aren’t in bed when the students are free for lessons! That’s when we got the idea of e-mail writing lessons. Right...

Teaching in Nangi Using Skype

Republished with permission from The School Inside website: http://www.interesteng.org ONE week I prepared a lesson based around the theme of food.  Of course, I used a lot of things from my kitchen. I held an egg up, for example, and asked the kids what it was. Immediately they shouted out, “It’s an egg!” I praised them and we talked about eggs, where they come from and, yes, they have chickens in Nangi. I asked if they liked eggs and they enthusiastically told me “Yes, I do!” Then the Skype connection cut off.  So I waited patiently for them to call me back. When...

National Innovation Center Nepal – Concept Note from Dr. Mahabir Pun

Need and Opportunity One of the main reasons why Nepal is economically a least developed country is because there is not much happening for economic development. Nepal imports over 90% of products for different purposes and exports less than 10% products to earn foreign currencies resulting in the huge trade deficit. Therefore a major economic overhaul is required to make Nepal a developed country in the 21st century. For that to happen, Nepal must give the highest priority to science, technology creation, and innovation in order to ensure a sustainable base for her much-needed growth engines. Considerable attention is needed to...

Dr. Mahabir Pun’s Annual Report

Happy New Year from Nepal! Dear Supporters: I would like to update you on of the progress of the projects I did with the Myagdi district community members and supporters. 1. With donations from around the world and HEF; HEF helped rebuild four classrooms in Shree Kanyadevi Lower Secondary School in Pokhari village of Gorkha district that was completely damaged by the earthquake at the cost of about $32,000. 2. Two new classrooms were added to Himanchal High School with funds from the U.S., the Nepal government and contributions from the communities. 3. A new two bedroom solar heated building...

Ajay’s Visit to Nangi

Ajay has been fundraising for HEF through a golf tournament over the last few years. He recently visited Nangi and shared this email with the BOD: “Greetings to you all the way from Nepal. I’m in Kathmandu at the moment and will be flying back to the US in few days. Wanted to share with you the amazing experience I had while visiting Nangi village and the school last week.  It was so wonderful to have received such a warm welcome by the entire school on my arrival there. The day started with an assembly gathering of all the students...

A Teacher’s Thoughts on Long Distance Learning

Toya is a teacher at Himanchal School for Higher Education. He supervises the School Inside English learning classes givien long distance by native English speakers all over the world and connected via Skype to students and adults in Nangi. (The last post was written by one of those teachers and described her experience.) Toya said: “I think The long distance teaching is very fruitful and useful to students and teachers. Students and teachers are very interested to take lessons. They eagerly await their turn. They really enjoy the lessons. The teachers are really qualified,dynamic ,energetic and friendly. They have been teaching...