जेनिशाको फेलोसिप यात्रा

(This article came out of the writing workshop led by our Shisir Khanal dai at Teach for Nepal. This is one of my few attempts at writing in Nepali. Image source: Conscious Impact and Jenisha Shakya)

२०७३ -२०७४ सालमा बनेपादेखि नवलपुरको बाटो जेनिशा शाक्यले धेरैचोटी आगमन गरीन् । सन्दर्भ टिच फर नेपालको फेलोसिप । आफ्नो स्कुल पढ्दा शिक्षकहरुबाट अपेक्षित सपोर्ट नपाउदा भोगेको अनूभव र  ब्याचेलर पढ्दा पाएका उत्कृष्ट शिक्षकहरुको सम्झना संगाल्दै जेनिसा त्यो नवलपुरको चिसो डाडामा पुगिन्। लक्ष्य थियो आत्मसन्तुष्टि: अहिले फर्केर हेर्दा बिशेष दुई कुरामा उनले यो पाएकी छिन्।

सानैदेखि कम बोल्ने स्वभाव कि थिइन् जेनिशा तर फेलोसिपमा यो स्वभावमा निकै सुधार आएको उनले पाइन्। कक्ष्याकोठामा पनि विद्यार्थीलाई अंग्रेजी नडराइकन सिक्न प्रोत्साहन गरिरहिन् । विद्यार्थीहरुमा सिक्ने उत्साह बढाउन सधैं ‘Contextualized learning ’को बाटो अपनाइन। यसरी गाह्रो   भाषा अंग्रेजीलाइ सान्धर्भिक बनाएर सिक्न मदत गरिन्। त्यसो गर्दागर्दै, आफुँमा पनि एउटा अबल शिक्षक फेला पारिन्। आफ्नै शिक्षण अनि टि.एफ.एनका अन्य तालिमका सहयोगले आफ्नो बोल्ने सिप निकै प्रस्फुटन भएको उनि भन्छिन्, "कक्ष्याकोठा छिर्दा लाग्थ्यो I belong here"

यस्तै आफ्नो बोल्ने सिप संगै, जेनिशाले Collaboration र Coaching सिप पनि सिकिन् । फेलोसिपमा भिज्दै जाँदा उनले Conscious Impact संस्थाकी एक स्वयंसेवी एलिसनलाई भेटिन्। दुबैले एउटै लक्ष्य बोकेका रहेछन्: गाउँका युवतीहरुको सबलीकरण र सशक्तिकरण ।  

" कक्ष्याकोठामा छर्लंगै देखिन्थ्यो केटीहरु केटाहरुभन्दा पछि परेका। उत्तर भन्न हात उठाउँदा होस वा छलफलहरुमा भाग लिंदा।"

एलिसन र जेनिशाले त्यो देखेर ‘Girls Group’ सुरु गरे । Girls Groupको हरेक  शुक्रबार भेला हुन्थ्यो अनि युवतीहरुले विभिन्न सिप सिक्थे । छात्राहरुले हस्तकला, कवितालेखन, इत्यादि सिकेर आफ्नो आत्मविश्वास बढाएका छन् । यो देखेर स्कुलको हेड सरले पनि यी तालिमलाई निरन्तरता दिने प्रतिबद्धता ब्यक्त गरेर हौसला दिनुभएको छ।

अहिले दुई  वर्षपछि बनेपा फर्केकी जेनिशा भन्छिन्, " आउँदो दुई महिना Conscious Impact संगै काम गर्छु। सहरभन्दा गाउँमै बस्न रहर लागिरहेको छ ।"

Nutrition and Youth Advocacy Days

My friend Bonita Sharma and I had been thinking about collaboration for a while. It finally worked out on March 11 to 13 for the Action for Nutrition project. Sochai - Youth For Nutrition team came to Melamchi, Sindhupalchok on a three-day trip to train our students in public speaking and information sharing about facets of nutrition and hygiene such as Menstruation, Malnutrition, Dangers of Junk food, etc.

They dedicated about 30 hours towards the project. They individually mentored students to understand the ideas about these topics and then to prepare them for presentation the next day. Students and the mentors/SOCHAI volunteers wowed the whole school and community during their stall presentation. The posters were excellent. The stalls were interactive. The celebration through dance and song at the end of the program ensured participation of a maximum number of students.

In our school, younger students come to school with a five or ten rupee note every morning and before assembly, they buy chamcha paun, candy, instant noodles etc. It was a very apt awareness program for our school. The SOCHAI team carried their work impeccably and they very much aligned with the Teach for Nepal values of Excellence, Mutual Respect and Responsibility, Sense of Agency and Sense of Urgency.

Thank you everyone for making this event successful, even more so, for providing an amazing platform for our students to apply their learning and skills. Thank you Lekhnath Sir, IP sir, Tara sir, Bhuminanda sir , Hari Sir, Radha Sir, Devi Sir, Thakur Sir, Anita Miss, Durga Miss, Anil Sir, Mandal sir, Bidur dai and didi and everyone for your constant support and enthusiastic participation in the event. Thank you Tej for shouldering the stress of our SEE preparation while I got busy with the event. We could not have done this without you. Thank you children for showering our guests with love and respect.

A huge shoutout of appreciation to Sochai - Youth For Nutritionvolunteers Kritee Lamichhane Stuti Sharma Sagar Parajuli Bonita Sharma and Neha Malla for your hard work. Thank you so much to funding partners We Inspire Nepal and UNESCO

Picture Credit: SOCHAI

Throwback Post on Applying to US

Four years ago around this time I was applying to colleges or getting rejected by them. After that during my student visa process, I took the hassle given by Nepali government offices into a rant. So this post was written then and I can't help but laugh at this, especially now that I'd like to think of myself as a good governance and civil service enthusiast.

There are some misspellings because this was an informal thing shared in Facebook notes, so apologies. Also it is geared towards people in Nepal, so there's a lot of roman Nepali script here.

Enjoy and learn, also, things might have changed, specially the costs/rates of those forms and signatures!

things i want my children/sisters to learn

_sarkari offices in nepal suck,,,don't expect them to do things on time...not at all
_always spell check,,,they sometimes write: Mr. Miss together before name, they some times put ur  name as wife of your father instead of 'daughter'
_they turn Ms. to Mrs.
_they dont tell u very clearly what stuffs you need, and in every next step to make a document, u will have to run back home to bring the required certificate

_for naata pramanit u need:

•  2 pp-size pics of each natedar, dont forget to spell their names correclty in english. 
•  they also need citizenship certificates of all members, orignial and photocopy  
• Most importantly, they need the proof of your tax payment bill. its called ghar jagga kar nidharan something bill. its not like the regular bills at the departmental store. u go to ur own ward office aka, odaa karyalaya (total to be paid Rs. 200 ho ki Rs. 205)

_ for police report:

•  if u r lucky u need to pay Rs150. if ur not its Rs 200! :P ..
• for that, go to the pasal that fills the form in Chakrapath by the Police HQ. 
• they need  passport and citizensip certificate. u need not take copies coz they'll make those copies. they have the machiine. they make 2 copies of each document.so they make the document for u, u need to check it very thoroughly to avoid above mistakes. 
• then they send u to sign the paper to the wakil. who asks u watcha studying and all n signs it.
•  then u go to the police office compound(chakrapath or ratnapark only). 
• u go to 'report form bujaune' place there. 
• there u show the documents, original certificate n passport too. 
• and then he check ur docu/verifies.
•  then u pay five rupees to the other man and sign his register 
• n he gives u a slip which u r suposed to bring it  the next sunday or friday. whichever comes first to get the proper report
• (dang that's long)...time limit: may be 1 hour

_aru lekhnai jhau lago chya,,,,

_umm for no objection letter

• atti nai lamo cha,,take u upto 3 hours i think . 
•  you have to go to edu ministry, kesar mahal.. 
• tesko lagi documents chai latest transcipt ra citizenship.also photcopies-1 each. 
• 2000 rupees. 
• time :go there before 11:15 AM...
• tei gaera form bharda huncha. 
• form approve bhaera paisa tireko half an hour mabancha re.
•  malai chai load shedding ko karan le one and half hour kurnuparo.

_ugghh lekhna ni jhau lagney!