Festive Gifts for school children

New stationery, festive gifts, and checking on the progress of sponsored children have been the most recent focal points for the team at the My Small Help office in Nepal. Two youngsters living near the tourist hotspot Thamel were bought new winter clothes, sponsored pupils at Sanjiwani Boarding (English medium school) School were given toys and stationery by their UK sponsor, and around 150 pupils at Shree Balprakash Secondary School were issued with new school jotters, pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners.

Watching the faces of the children at Shree Balprakash Secondary School (Kalanti Buumidanda VDC - 1, Kavre), aged between 5 and 12, when they received their new stationery was a privilege. Who would have guessed that six school jotters and some pencils could create such joy? As Pramila (My Small Help Accountant) and I (Jo Young, MSH volunteer) toured from class to class any onlooker would be forgiven for believing that we were celebrities. We were pursued by youngsters eager to maximise the time that they could see or hear us. As we visited each classroom a small entourage peeped through the bars (to allow ventilation, not imprisonment) on the windows, popped their heads round doors and a couple of the more mischievous ones managed to assume a position in the class before being spotted by the teacher.

The classrooms at this remote village school (45 kilometres outside Kathmandu valley) are a far cry from what we would like to imagine as an educational hub; spartan is too generous a description, whilst bare, empty, basic, and soul-less only go a tiny way towards painting a vivid picture. For many of the rooms the concrete walls are the blackboards, the stone floor becomes a table and a chair. The only thing giving these rooms any warmth or feeling at all is the teacher, the smiling faces of the children, and the donations that enable My Small Help to make a difference. The playground is ground, not a toy or goalpost in sight.

In the colder months, such as now, many classes are taught outside because the winter sun is the main source of heat. Stationery, it would seem, is also a source of heat because it planted a little seed of warmth and delight in the hearts of these children, and that heat radiates far more than any state of the art heating system. Thank you to all of the My Small Help sponsors who have made this contribution possible. Anyone who wishes to donate can click onto www.justgiving.com/childreninnepal or access the sponsorship page on the My Small Help website by clicking here; your compassion and kindness cross more than rugged terrain. Is there something you’d like to know more about in the lives of the children that My Small Help supports? If so please write a comment below and we’ll do our best to grant your festive wish…