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Liz (a student mentor/counsellor) and Robert (a retired electronics engineer) tell us about their experiences working and living in a remote village in the Helambu Valley, Nepal. Nothing prepared us for the stunning beauty of the mountains, our daily view on waking up each day in Nakote. In February in Nepal, the skies are clear and blue, so the Langtang mountain range towered up into the sky in the valley ahead, as we set off down the hill to the school every...
Josephine tells us about the highs and lows of her time working as a volunteer at Alpha Nursery School, based in a remote village in the Himalayas Last time I was in the Himalayas I was six and travelling to Everest base camp with my family. 12 years later I found myself back in the mountains, on my own this time, working in a small school in a poor, isolated community. To say I felt out of my comfort zone would...
Welcome to the Spring edition of Mondo’s newsletter. We’ve so much to share with you about the life-changing work we are developing with local partners in Nepal, Tanzania and NE India. A new logo for a new chapter We are delighted to introduce our new logo to accompany the simplification of our name to “Mondo Foundation”. We are still up for the Challenge and this is reflected in our strapline “locally-led responses to global challenges”. The mountain motif hints at our main areas of...
In Part 2 of this update on PIQUE, Hirsh Cashdan tells us more about how the schools have taken to the methodology and what is next for PIQUE. If you missed it, read the first part of his blog on PIQUE here. What we asked of the schools We encouraged the schools to take away the proforma which we had designed and populated together following the workshops (including their agreed aspirations and our advice) and to work through a first...
Trustee, Hirsh Cashdan, tells us about Mondo’s work encouraging and enabling schools to take charge of their own destiny. Background to Mondo Foundation’s Support of Schools Mondo Foundation has been working with a variety of schools in three countries – Nepal, NE India and Tanzania – for almost 15 years. In this time we have funded and, through our local staff in each country, run many programmes aimed at improving the learning experience of the children in the communities where the schools are...
Anna Brian, our Programmes Manger, recently visited schools in NE India and reports on the start of a new school year after a tumultuous 2017. 2017 was a difficult year for our partner schools in Kalimpong, NE India. A general strike called by the Ghorkaland Independence Party resulted in the schools being closed for over 3 months, as well as leaving many parents without pay for the same period. However, when I visited in March this year, the situation seemed much more positive. ...
Earlier this year Mondo’s CEO Stephen Carrick-Davies was invited to join the committee of the recently formed British and Nepal NGO network (BRANNGO). This network, run very much by volunteers, is an informal forum of individuals and UK charities with a shared commitment to working in partnership in Nepal to: Exchanging information; Facilitating dialogue; and Encouraging collaboration. Through these activities, the organisation believes it can promote best practice, avoid duplication and ultimately better serve, work with, and learn from the people of Nepal. As part of the sharing...
Earlier this year, 15 students from Loughborough University spent 10 days working in and around the girls hostel we constructed in Timbu. In helping to prepare the hostel to receive its very first boarders, they put the finishing touches on our long-term project to make it easier for girls to remain in education. The students also managed to see plenty of Nepal, including a whitewater rafting trip and trekking. As part of the project, the group also raised funds to provide...
Sometimes the simple, but important words “Thank You” can get lost in the noise of the season. So, as well as wishing you season’s greetings at this time of the year, we also express our grateful thanks. We’re thankful to all of you who give regularly to Mondo’s work, who have sponsored a volunteer, who have travelled to the countries where we work and supported the amazing staff who with your support are helping to transform the lives of thousands of young people, women...
Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO of Mondo Foundation, asks what would radical education reformers of the past make of education initiatives being developed in some of the poorest regions of the world today. Joseph Lancaster was a public education innovator who knew a thing or two about running a school on a budget. Born in 1778 at a time when education in this country was limited to the privileged few, he set up his first school on the floor of his father’s shop. ...
