Who do we work with and what needs do we address?
Our primary aim is to improve access to, and quality of, education for children from some of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in Nepal. State education in Nepal is severely underfunded, violence in schools in endemic, government teachers are under qualified and underpaid with limited resources to meet infrastructure needs, running costs, water and sanitation and essential education materials. The children who attend government schools in Nepal are from the poorest and most vulnerable families in the community, often discriminated against for attending a state school, and therefore more often than not, don't go to school at all. We work to challenge this prejudice.
How we do that:
However successful in the short term, we found focusing on educational projects and sponsorship as isolated initiatives often did not bring about the deep structural changes needed in many of these schools.
So we listened and learned, (just as we hope our students do!) We developed a more consultative, holistic, creative approach called ‘Act on Education’. This uses innovative methods to engage children, teachers, parents and local authorities in identifying problems and coming up with creative solutions - we all become problem solvers. We then work closely with local civil society organisations and local government to make schools the heart of the community, and develop and implement a variety of locally devised, relevant, and therefore impactful projects (so far: school commute bike project, nutritious school lunches, English teaching, teacher training, local government lobbying and educational policy development with District Education Officials). We are proud that Freedom to Learn is now bringing about lasting and sustainable change for just under 5000 children and their families.
Why Does it Matter?
The access to and quality of education directly impacts the achievement of the all important Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) set by the UN to be accomplished by 2030. To state the obvious - Education matters because generates equality, improving the life chances of children who otherwise would continue to live in extreme poverty, quality eduction is a vital factor in creating economic and social wellbeing in communities and society as a whole, and is a Human Right under international law.
Our programmes address issues including gender discrimination, entrepreneurial experience, micro-finance management, encouraging good health and sanitation practices, high literacy ability, integration between caste and caste discrimination. Together these empower a community to break out of stifling oppression and the cycle of poverty, bringing about positive change in their communities and in their wider society in Nepal.
What exactly do we do?
We work with a network of numerous local and reputable educational NGOs which work together to identify the myriad of complex problems and collaborate to develop participative and holistic approaches to solving these problems. Currently we facilitate 7 innovative programmes:
We focus on 5 schools, 3 in the district of Kavre, and 2 in Gorkhana near Kathmandu. We work directly with over 2,600 students every week, and with more than 5000 on various projects annually in the wider community. We work mainly with the Municipality Govt of Panauti and are involved in the current development of the 2021 Education Policy.
Evidence from Monitoring and Evaluation from the last 2 years shows the work we have done in each school is having a significant impact. For example in the schools where we work:
