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 giving hope to students |
 giving help to teachers |
 giving shelter to a few |
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Our Work Ashraya Nepal aims to give assistance to 'dalit' women and girls in the region of Nepal close to Janakpur. The focus of our work so far has been on a small number of girls who have lost parents and to two schools. 1 We have sponsored individual young people to keep them at school, usually by paying the school for their dinner money (tiffin), their admission fees and their stationery expenses. We have extended this activity in the villages where we are working by giving assistance to another seven lower caste girls in Ramnager. In one extreme case we payed for a boy's hospital treatment, he had contracted dengue fever and was close to death. 2
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4 There is the vital issue of hygiene, education and the fact that poor toilet facilities are a great deterrent to girls attending school. We are seeking ways to improve the facilities in this area for the schools we are supporting.
5 We have been inspired by the work of COSAN and intend to develop programmes to empower lower caste women in the area in which we are working.
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We
have set up a home in Kathmandu to house orphan children or others where
parents are unable to cope. This at first accomodated four but has now
been extended to six girls. Here is a photograph of two recent arrivals,
Sajita and Asmita, both from the Siraha district, east of Dhanusha. All the girls attend the local school and are given
extra tuition at home by two of our volunteers to enable them to catch
with others of their age. We are pleased to report that all have made
excellent progress so far.
The
two schools that we are helping are in the Mahottari district, a junior
school in Dhanusha and a junior secondary school in Ramnager. We have
been helped by a number of schools in the UK, educational materials have
been donated; a school had a 'day' when year 9 students were given the
opportunity to prepare posters and other articles for the Ramnager school.
