Nepal's Image: One District – One Library (A National Initiative)

One District – One Library (A National Initiative)

Nepal Mother Foundation (NMF) is partnering with Nepcare Australia for implementing a library project aiming to provide educational infrastructure to the government and community schools of every district.

Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) left an overwhelming number of children physically and psychologically scarred and deprived them of their basic rights to learn. With the establishment of library children affected by the violence of civil war, reclaim their passion and joy, experience the power of learning, and lead peaceful and fulfilling lives. Our integrated approach of immersing students in the best of the fine arts and traditional community values can serve as a model for war-affected communities. Most of the children and their families in the village have never seen computers in their life or have had access to a public library and they are looking for creative ways to learn!

One District – One Library is the ambitious and innovative project of NMF which aims to provide the quality education to the children who don’t have any access to educational materials other than their course books. There is huge gap between the educational quality of Government and Private School, which has always been the discourage factor of government school going children to come with new idea, innovation and discovery. 222,070 students fail in School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination this year. 64% of government school going students failed their School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination. Two-third of the Nepalese children goes to government schools but they don’t finish their school due lack for proper infrastructure. To make the every student able to think, discovery and explorer we are working in building library in every district of Nepal.

The project includes:

· Establishing a Peace Library one Government/Community School in every district.

· Providing reading and sports materials accompanied by computers. The project is expected to benefit about students, teacher and community people.

The project will:

· Create awareness of students and local community members on the need of a library;

· Assist and train local community members to properly use and maintain the library;

· Assemble, preserve, and circulate, as budget and resources permit, books and other resources necessary to maintain and develop the library's services;

· Provide a place where inquiring minds may investigate legitimate information, varying viewpoints, and original ideas, inspiring a new intellectual community of free and open minds; and

· Help students and community members engage in self-administered education.

TILL NOW AND WHAT NEXT?

Two libraries has been already built in Aarubari, Gorkha District as Sarswati Peace Library with more than 5 computers, projector and 2000 books and Ambeshwori Peace Library in Pulbari V.D.C Dang District with one computer and 2000 books. In coming month we are building libraries in Gulmi, Morang and Pachthar District.

In future the project aims to facilitate both book and computer education and e-library facilities in schools and rural centres. For computers education and e- library we will be working based on an innovative model that uses a single networked server to run multiple computer stations, the NMF e-library can be deployed at one-fourth the cost of a traditional computer lab. The computers run on a Linux platform that is secure, stable and require low-maintenance. Moreover, the use of open source software makes future upgrades free of cost.

SUSTAINABILITY:

Every year more than 100-200 libraries are build in Nepal but till the year end only 7-8 of them will be running. Taking this risk into mind, we have come up with a sustainable idea so that student and community can get optimum benefit from it. We charge the student Rs. 5-10 as a library fee so that a librarian can be appointed to look after it on salary. We also provide training to the librarian from our own expertise or send him/her to nearby big college and university library by co-ordinating with them. We also form the library committee consist of teacher, parents and student who will be accountable for the sustainability of it. Furthermore, NMF library department will also conduct follow-up timely.

REQUEST FOR SUPPORT

We hope to educate both students and the greater community in literacy. To do so, the

Nepal Mother Foundation (NMF) proposes the development of a library consisting of at least

2,000 children books, 2-3 or more desktop or laptop computers. We have collected some of the books and now looking for your support for further books, computers and financial support to implement the project.

HOW TO SUPPORT OUR CAUSE

Organize a book - computer drive and fundraising campaign. Share our project with members of your work community and ask your co-workers or employees to bring 1 books or computers that they no longer use. Contact us when the books/equipment needs to be picked up. Donate books/computer equipment. If you have books or computer equipments that you would like to donate them immediately, please contact Sagar Gyawali for pick-up (+977 9851177774).

CONCLUSION

Nepal Mother Foundation (NMF) also wants to ensure that the students are equipped with the inspiring books and latest technologies. Moreover, hundreds of community leaders, teachers, and youth in the region are keen on learning more and training classes at the school. This will not only sustain the project, but also elevate the level of understanding among the people on issues ranging from social to political and agriculture etc. The project will bring tremendous changes in the village. Please help us to make it happen!

For more information, Contact Info:

Sagar Gyawali

Mobile: +977 9851177774

Email: sagar@nepalmotherfoundation.org

"Without libraries, what do we have? We have no past and no future" - Ray Bradbury