Convincing their peers to stay in Nepal rather than end up in slavery in Qatar

Nepal was ranked 5th on the recent Global Slavery Index. With over 45% of 16-24 year old Nepalis going overseas to work and many of these ending up in exploitative conditions, there is a serious problem to be addressed.

We asked class 10 at our model school, Riviera International Academy, to write a letter to a friend who was planning to go to Qatar for work (one of the most dangerous and risky countries in terms of slavery). It is their peers who are going, their rural cousins. It is the educated ones who can help prevent this by become job creators, by speaking out, by encouraging their peers to stay.

What we loved about their letters was their pride in being Nepali, their belief in their country. Patriotism like this is a wonderful strength - I really hope these young people continue to harness it for the future of their country.

Enjoy reading some of their letters below.

Happy Diwali - The Festival of Lights

Tihar, also known as Diwali, is my favourite festival. It is an opportunity to celebrate different animals, join with our communities to clean up and decorate to invite Laxmi, Goddess of Wealth into our homes, and to celebrate our Brothers and Sisters.

Sabitri Thapa, one of our class 11 students, shares more details about celebrating Tihar in Nepal.

Tihar

By Sabitri Thapa

Tihar is one of the main festivals of Hindus. It falls during the month of November. It is the festival of light. We can see various kinds of attractive lights all over the communities in Tihar. The environment looks so glamorous during Tihar.

 

It is celebrated for five days:

1. The first day is Crow Tihar. A person worships the crow and gives them special foods, putting tika on their forehead and garland around their neck. No matter how people hate crows, they worship them.
2. The next day is Dog Tihar. There are people who get irritated when hearing the name of dog but in Tihar everyone worships them. They worship the dog and give them foods to eat.
3. The third day is the day of goddess Laxmi. In this day people worships cow thinking them the next face of goddess Laxmi. People show their kindness to cows and give them foods to eat. In this day people play Bhaili. It’s one of the traditions that have been followed by our ancestors. So people still follows the tradition. People, especially girls wear different kinds of cultural dress and they roam all around the neighbors singing and dancing to get money. People do these things at night. We can see the number of groups in towns playing Bhaili. They sing and dance and earn money.
4. The next day is the day of ox. People worship them like they worship cows and dogs. This is also the day for boys like girls they play Deusi in this day. Some boys wear cultural dress as well. They also dance, sing and earn the money. This is the second last day of Tihar.
5. Finally the last day comes, bhaitika. All sisters put tika to their brothers and they give them presents as well. Brothers in return give money to their sisters. This is the end of Tihar festival.

This festival has both advantages and disadvantages as well. It’s a good thing to celebrate this festival on one hand as people at least respect the animals. They earn money and it is the only festival where people find more happiness as they play deusi bhailo to earn money on their own. People feel loved by their sisters and brothers on the day of bhaitika. They can spend as much time as they want with each other. It ties the relation of brothers and sisters.

Talking about the disadvantages, there are many. People get drunk crossing the limit as they are free to drink. They play fire crackers which may be the bad result for kids. Especially, teenagers, they throw the fire crackers wherever they want to and many people get injured. This is the evil habit of the wild teenager.

Tihar is one of the great festivals of Hindus. It should be celebrated but in a good way. It obviously needs to be preserved as well. 

Mark sheets - why do they rule our lives?

The class 12 board exam results were released this week in Nepal. Only 38% of students passed. The pass mark for each subject is 32%. For those students who failed, they are questioning what happened? What went wrong? What next?

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. The system is clearly broken.

Mitrataa had 14 students sitting for these exams. Only 5 passed. That puts us right on the average. Of the 9 who failed, 5 failed more than 1 subject. Of those who passed, we had 1 distinction (over 70%), 2 first division (60-69%) and 2 third division (between 40-49%).

We are extremely proud of the students who passed, especially the 2 girls from the village areas. Congratulations!  

One of our class 12 girls, Deepa Tripathi, shared her thoughts on the importance of that terrifying piece of paper - the mark sheet.


There is a saying that knowledge cannot be judged with the help of a single certificate. But this saying doesn’t exist in practical life in Nepal. Even if we read for 13 years or more, nobody asks us about what we gained or what knowledge we learned. It is also assumed that we don’t need any extra knowledge. All we need is a mark sheet with high scores in every subject. At present, the mark sheet holds the most important place for our futures.

Talented and brilliant students are not called talented even if they have an ocean of knowledge. They are only considered excellent if they get good percentages in their exams. I wonder how the knowledge of a person can be judged by a single sheet of paper. Every parent’s dream is that their children always get high scores. But nobody cares about their children’s good behaviour or practical experience for life. We have to pass our exams by hook or by crook.

Every student today is compared only according to their mark sheet. And what happens in real life is that we don’t get the marks according to our expectations. We think that the exam today was good but the mark will be opposite. Even the laborious students don’t get the results they expect. And the main reason is often ignorant and corrupt teachers and schools.

Lastly, we shouldn’t care only about our mark sheets. We have to enhance our knowledge practically. And educational institutions should go for technical and practical and ethical knowledge too.

Technical education in Nepal

Puja Chaulagai, one of our class 12 students, explores the benefits of technical education in Nepal. Enjoy!

 

Education which is based on practical knowledge is known as technical education. Since the dawn of heavenly creations, learning something new is a continuous process. One can learn either in formal way or in an informal way. The parents and grandparents share their experience and feelings with their children. Even animals and birds also teach their offspring. All these things are the part of the education. According to Mahatma Gandhi "education is the process that brings out the best in human beings, their body, mind and spirit." Human being needs to be polished with the light of education.

Technical education refers to the process of teaching and learning to impact knowledge rather than theoretical or academic education. It also refers to those education which gives extra knowledge rather than we learn in our school or college. Technical education is very much important factor that may bring drastic change to our life, community and the nation as well.

But in the context of our country Nepal, we don't find such type of education. Because our country is not so developed. We just get the knowledge how to pass the exam, how to get higher marks and how to get higher percentage than other competitive students. That's why due to first academic education people have to search for the job after their livelihood. We just give and take education by bounding in one exam every day. Therefore, technical education is more important.

In today's world many developed countries like USA, Japan, and Britain have gone far away in education than our country due to their advanced education, technical education. They don't learn and teach within just in one room, they go far for their practical for each and every subject matter. That's why their country is far better developed and powerful in the world among other countries. Their parents also don't compel to go to school or college. They have extra ordinary teaching and learning method. They just don't focus on academic courses; they focus on about their aim as well. Many latest inventions also came from developed nation because they are very much forward in every sector as well. They just do their task in technical way, that's the reason for their success.

Educated people can get the academic knowledge but the technically educated people get the academic knowledge as well as practically how to solve the problem that may occur in their every step of life. Technical education may be expensive but it is sustainable. It is most important rather than academic education. In fact technical education gives more positive things, drives away ignorance and illuminates one's personality. A person having academic education may have confusion about their future but the technically educated person has their future in their own hand.

Lastly, a responsible nation or society should provide its people with proper technical education for importing necessary knowledge and skills. Otherwise, development in all directions will be the sky in the lack of technical education. You, the leaders and learned person of our nations, open your ears wide and listen, to provide technical education rather than academic or theoretical education to all. In this there is your well being too. Technical education is now recognized as a basic need and a fundamental right too. Technical education is the greatest and unique wealth. This is neither detachable nor taxable. So, technical education is very important and essential for the today's nation.

Teej - does the festival of women empower or disempower women in Nepal?

We recently celebrated the festival of Teej, a celebration of women in Nepal. Sabitri Pathak, one of our class 10 students, explores the effects of Teej on the empowerment of women.

 

 

TEEJ

Sabitri Pathak

Teej is one of the most popular and highly observed festivals of Hindu women of Nepal. Mostly married women celebrate this festival with great joy. There are both negative and positive effects of Teej on women empowerment.

1)           Positive

a)    Refreshment:  Teej can be called as golden opportunity for married women to enjoy. Women on this day gather with their family and colleagues and dance all day long. They forget the pain and hardship they face daily at their husband's house. Women dance with such high spirits on an empty stomach whether sung live by a group of women or backed up by commercial songs on loudspeakers dancing to its tunes seems to keep women under some kinds of charm, busying minds even to remember hunger.

b)    Women Right: Festivals of Teej prioritizes women and encourage women right. Women needs and demands are usually supported and fulfilled in the family on the occasion of Teej. Usually other male members in the family do not interrupt women to celebrate this festival on their own way. Women can act freely on this day.

c)    Awareness: During Teej, women gather together to sing a song about hardships and share their sorrows. Beside this, nowadays women sing different songs on women violence and demand for their rights. They highlight women violence and demand their rights and security. It is a best time to aware all women including uneducated too to be conscious about their rights.

d)    Positive relation with husband: Women take fast for a whole day for the sake of their husband's prosperous and long life. At night, husband feed them with delicious food. This develops good relationship between husband and wife. Husband can ensure the women right and provide all the facilities that they want or should get. Due to these reasons Teej helps in women empowerment.

2)           Negative

a)    Priority to men (husband): though Teej is the main festival of women men are prioritize directly. Women take fast for their husband's long life. On this day, they treat their husband as a god. They are ready to obey their husband's command and never be ready to go against them even if they are unfair. They believe in their paths. But it's actually unfair while women are expected to prove their commitment, there's no effort from the husband's side. This negativity hinders women empowerment.

b)    Health related problem: women take fast for a whole day. They do not even drink a drop of water. Despite of their hunger, they dance with full passion and devotion. They do not care about their health and long term consequences of taking fast. They may face problem of gastric and low blood pressure. Beside, dehydration can even cause dry skin and many health ailments.

c)    Discrimination against widows: Teej is a religious festival. It is blindly believed and practiced that widow women are not allowed to celebrate teej like other women. Widow women are totally isolated and humiliated by the family and society. Such activities threat their sentiment and make them feel weak. This discourages them to take part in community works and hence, cannot be empowered.

d)    Encourage religious orthodoxies: Teej is celebrated according to Hindu myth. Hindu religion states that women should always treat their husband as god. Women should be limited in house hold works only. They should take care of their family members. Celebrating Teej encourages people to be more cultural and religious. They prefer to follow every epic belief. Due to this civilization of woman is very slow.

Thus, Teej is our cultural and religious festival. So the way of celebrating Teej should meet the need of women empowerment in order to preserve festival as well as empower the women in Nepal.      

My Life: My Dreams

Unity in diversity: Gilrs from Wiley Dream Centre                         

My name is Swostika Dangal and I am twelve years old. I am originally from Sindhupalchok district, Deurali-5. Now, I have been living at chapalkarkhana since I was nine years old. I study at grade five at Dhumrabarah secondary school. Actually, now, I do not live with my own family. I am a domestic worker but the people I live with are very good that I never feel like I am domestic worker. When I think about my past, it has a long story.

In my family at village, there are my mother, father, two sisters, younger brother and me. Actually I belong to the lower middle class family. My father is a farmer and my mother is a house wife, she remains busy doing house holds affairs most of the time and when she gets free time she helps father. My sisters and brother read in the local school of my village. My parents worked very hard for our upbringing but due to low income they feel bad when they feel they are unable to fulfill our basic needs and when I find them feeling bad I feel very bad. Sometimes I curse my life thinking why we are not rich. So, I want to do something for my family when I grow up.

I love myself because…

Photo from: http://www.loveworksmethod.com/

Last month, we had asked our Dream Centre girls to brainstorm why they need to love themselves. The objective was to make them feel positive and optimist about themselves. They brainstormed and wrote a paragraph each; and those paragraphs have surprised us with revelation of immense strengths they have for which they deserve love, affection and motivation.  

Want to know what attributes they have to be loved, first by self and by others?