Shree Deupur Primary School, Singe Village : 3 February 2011

Link to more photos ...
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=277773&id=675116731&l=1d4b8a3fe4

Today Manoj Tamang and I took NAFA members to visit Shree Deupur School and officially open the NAFA funded water tap.
 

We were very warmly welcomed with malas and tika by the students and teachers.  Many people from the community also came along to celebrate the new water tap.  All the children were very excited to see us.

 

There were many speeches by Rod, President of NAFA, and myself and also the school and committee members.

    

After the school welcome and program we were treated to a home made meal of Dal Baht and then walked the 2 1/2 hours back out to Nagarkot.  It was a beautiful day and the views were fantastic on the walk in and out of Singe Village.

 

My Speech...

Namaste & Lasso,

Thank you to everyone for the very warm welcome.  I’m very happy to be visiting your school again with my friend Manoj Tamang and my friends from Australia and NAFA, Nepal Australia Friendship Association.  It's very nice to see all the teachers, students, committee members and community here today.

The water tap and toilet block look "ekdam raamro"!  It was very exciting for me to see the children using the water tap last time I visited and to see it now finished.  Thank you very much for the dedication to NAFA on the water tap.  This makes us very proud.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people concerned for doing the labour on this water tap.  Without this community labour the water tap would not be a reality.

So many thanks to Mr Bahadur Sing Tamang, Mr Sainla Tamang, Mr Uttar Bahadur Tamang, Mr Bhim Bahadur Tamang, Mr Bir Bahadur Tamang, Mr Hari Bahadur Tamang, Mr Nor Bahadur Tamang and all the other villagers who volunteered some time to this project. There would be many hours of labour invested into laying the 1 ½ kms of water pipe but we can see it has been 100% worth the effort for the difference it will make to the children and staff’s daily life at school, not just for drinking water but also for managing the new toilet block.

NAFA is very happy to help your school with the funding for the water tap.  NAFA aims to provide funding to rural and remote schools and villages to help in projects.  This funding is to cover raw materials and skilled labour only and the communities are encouraged to provide volunteer unskilled labour.  This is to give the communities a sense of pride and ownership in the projects so they will be 100% valued by the communities and as a result unite the communities.  NAFA is very keen to help villages who invest time and energy into their own communities.

I hope for a successful association between NAFA and your school in the future ... this is my hope.

Thank you again for welcoming us into your school and we hope to be able to visit again one day soon.