NCEF is pleased to announce the selection of 4 new post-SLC students (a nation-wide examination for 10th grade graduation).

Meera, a new post-SLC student in Patan was initially identified by Uttam, an NCEF volunteer, while he was visiting Nepal for work. Uttam is an economist evaluating the effectiveness of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Initiatiative in Nepal.

With recommendations from Apsara, our Nepalgunj area coordinator, NCEF is sponsoring three new post-SLC students (Maya, Prabha and Sangeeta) in Nepalgunj. The new allocations bring the total number of sponsored students to 22 in Nepalgunj. Apsara has been doing an excellent job and we are convinced that she will continue to manage the program efficiently despite the surge of students.

Click here for an updated listing of the selection results.

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Shanta is the daughter of a typical farming family in rural Kavre. When she started school, she did not hope to study beyond 8th grade. Shanta, despite many odds, now pursues a Bachelor's degree in Education and hopes to be an inspiration to many students from her village.  The journey started four years ago. We found a volunteer in Kavre who was going to help us expand our assistance program to Kavre. We allow our local volunteers to use methods that they believe will be most effective in identifying students who would most benefit from our assistance program in their respective areas. Maheshwor became our first area coordinator in Kavre. When he started working with NCEF, he worked in Banepa, and decided to brave a two hours trek to Raviopi looking for students who might drop out of school due to lack of money.

Maheshwor first met Shanta amongst a big group of students in Gangadevi high school. Talking with the teachers, Maheshwor found out that her family might not fund her education in the future due to family dynamics. The teachers were sad that even though she was such a good student with great potential, she would most likely have to drop out of school and resign herself to a life without education and with unrealized potential.

Odds are stacked up against a daughter in a village like Shanta's. The parents view their daughters as someone who will leave the family house when she gets married and as a result, focus their attention and resources on their sons' upbringing. This reality in conjunction with her situation at home was such that it would be difficult for Shanta to continue her education without external intervention. These were the thoughts that compelled Maheshwor to fill up the application for Shanta and make a strong recommendation that NCEF fund Shanta's education.  Little did Maheshwor know that Shanta would be on track to teach high school some day! That story, we hope to write in a few years.

Given Maheshwor’s recommendation, NCEF selected Shanta as a recipient of financial assistance. The following year, it was not a surprise that she was one of the few students from her village to pass SLC. NCEF funded students until the students completed their 10th grade, so in 10th grade Shanta again faced the possibility of not being able to continue her education to realize her dreams.

Moved and inspired by Shanta and many other students like Shanta, NCEF expanded its financial assistance program to fund students until 12th grade. Furthermore, as long as the student meets the academic requirement (must pass the courses and move to the next grade) and financial requirements (no significant increase in family income), funding was guaranteed until the 12th grade. Having passed the SLC exam and no change in family income levels, Shanta qualified for funding from NCEF for the next two years.

With NCEF support, Shanta promptly enrolled in Proficiency Certificate Level (11th and 12th grade equivalent) at Chaitanya Multiple Campus in Banepa. Although she had to walk an hour each way to school every day, she knew those walks through the dirt trails in summer heat, in rain, and colder winter months were the only way she could realize her goal of becoming a teacher and inspiring others. Carefully balancing housework and schoolwork, she managed to devote some time to her studies. She completed her Intermediate in Education (12th grade equivalent) in 2007. This is impressive considering a tiny fraction (estimated at less than 2 percent) of the female population has completed 12th grade in Nepal. Despite her accomplishment, the lack of funds made it seem almost impossible for to continue her education.  This was the case until Bo M Karlsson Foundation stepped in.

Sonnia Karlsson, the founder of Bo M Karlsonn Foundation was searching online for organizations that ran financial assistance program for education in Nepal. Bo M Karlsonn Foundation wanted to establish working relationships with organizations whose objective is to empower the women of Nepal through education. Sonnia Karlsson wrote to NCEF introducing the Bo M Karlsson Foundation and urged us to explore ways to work together. We thought this was a wonderful opportunity for some of our students who had completed 12th grade to receive funding for further education and filed an application on behalf of Shanta Sapkota.

The Bo M Karlsson Foundation, recognizing Shanta's potential and passion, recently announced that she was selected as one of the recipients of the Bo M Karlsson Foundation scholarship in 2008. The fund will be used to fund her education towards a Bachelor's degree in Education. We would like to congratulate Shanta on her outstanding achievement thus far and wish her our best as she moves ever closer to her vision of being an educator in her village.

Stories like Shanta's inspire us to devote everything within our means to enable students from the most unfavorable backgrounds realize their dreams. They are our dreams.

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NCEF decided to start the New Area program some 2 years ago. The idea was to pilot the program in a new area, and upon successful completion of the program during the pilot “evaluation” period, the new area would formally be made an NCEF partner region, a “full” area.  To launch a new area, the proposed area coordinator of the new area is charged to fill out an application to be submitted to the NCEF.  If approved, we select 1 to 2 students in the new area, and fund them for the evaluation period.

Thus far we have approved 6 new areas; Saramthali (in Kavre), Bharatpur (in Chitwan), Shyang/Chimang (in Mustang), Bengashivapur (in Dhanusa), Gamauli (in Dailekh) and Maneswara (in Sindhupalchowk). These areas were selected as NCEF pilot areas because the proposed area coordinators were able to answer all of the questions on the NCEF application soundly, and these coordinators agreed to implement the program according to NCEF guidelines.  After these pilot areas were approved, our experience has been varied. Some potential area coordinators never replied.  However, unresponsiveness has not been the norm.  From Mustang in the west to Sindupalchowk in the east, volunteers have been very energetic. Students got selected, coordinators were identified, and funds were disbursed. 

We were very excited to see new area applications trickle in.  The applications sometimes were from parts of the country that do not even have a motorable road and almost anyone would qualify as an NCEF student. However, we soon realized that there were great challenges in working in remote areas of Nepal. From the second month of operation with pilot areas, communication was regularly disrupted. When we tried to contact individuals by phone, the CDMA phone used by the coordinators in Nepal would often be out of service. When the new area volunteers would send forms or reports by postal mail, they would often get lost on its way (upcoming article). And when we sought clarification from coordinators, there was often miscommunication, and the coordinators often felt that NCEF did not trust them. Due to communication difficulties, we lost contact with the coordinators in Gamauli, Saramthali (one of the areas in Kavre) and Chitwan completely.  These process challenges continued throughout the year and we were unable to assist needy students in new areas with NCEF scholarships. Many adjustments with respect to communication systems needed to be made after careful consideration of what systems broke down.

After a challenging experience, we began considering another kind of change -- changing the way in which new areas were approved. What if we approve areas in which we can identify a point person who belongs to the local area and regularly travels to Kathmandu for his/her personal reasons?  Having access to a volunteer that moves between the new area and Kathmandu can address many problems we have been facing with respect to communication. NCEF can be in constant touch with the coordinator, who in turn will be in touch with the actual community in the district. Having a mobile contact person that can travel between the local area and Kathmandu can be more effective than a person that is restricted to the local area.

With this new idea in mind, we have started approving only areas that have a mobile point person. We received excellent applications from Dolakha, Kavrepalanchowk and Bharatpur. We approved all three regions.  Unfortunately, the proposed coordinators in  Kavrepalanchowk and Chitwan suddenly stopped communicating with us. However, the volunteers in Dolakha have been doing a great job. The coordinator, Tenzing Lama, who is a teacher and social worker by profession, visits his area every few weeks. He organized a function to call several important members of the society to distribute the scholarship to the students. We have very limited experience with him, but so far, he seems very promising. He has submitted another proposal to start a new area in yet another remote district of Sankhuwasabha in eastern Nepal.

Of late we have been receiving proposals from the outskirts of Kathmandu valley.  The proposed coordinators hold masters degree in various disciplines and travels to Kathmandu for work. We are still thinking about the correct mechanism to lead these new areas.

We must expand NCEF so that children all over Nepal are eligible for scholarships, and stand by our commitment to be the Nepalese Children Education Fund as opposed to a fund for a small subset of Nepalese children.  However, determining the correct system to expand and incorporate new areas has been extremely challenging.  The organization has yet to identify the best way to “graduate” a new area so that more areas are “full fledged” areas. Your thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome.

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Our new volunteer, Hari, in his new role as the Program Director has already begun communicating with area coordinators in Kavre, Nepalgunj and Palpa and is scheduled to meet with other area cordinators. Hari will act as a resource person to all the areas in Nepal to facilitate the communication between the areas where field work is done and the organization for report filing, budget disbursement, and student application filing.

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