Bags of Hope: Each bag, full of notebooks, comes with hope and opportunities
Ajit Bhatta | Social Lab
Located about 100 km northeast of Kathmandu, “Jugal” is known as Karnali of Sindhupalchowk. After learning about this, our team became a bit curious and decided to plan a visit to this place. As it is often said, “Not everyone has equal access to opportunities and resources.” Even today, in many parts of our society, children are deprived of their basic educational needs. Education is a means of transforming life, but this means is not equally available to all.
“Bags of Hope” is a community-driven campaign under the “School Support Program” being run in collaboration with Social Lab, Samsara, and MADEC Australia.
The main message of the campaign is “Supporting where it matters.” To justify this motto, we chose to go“Jugal,” which is so close to Kathmandu yet a bit remote. In that context, some of our office colleagues decided to go to Jugal.
We have always understood Karnali Province in the context of Nepal as a geographically remote, culturally unique, and economically disadvantaged region. But when we found out that Jugal, located in Sindhupalchowk and so close to Kathmandu, also fits that description, our team became a bit curious.Jugal, rich in natural beauty, also seemed quite difficult in terms of geographical accessibility.
After a 6-hour journey, we arrived in Jugal, and a sense of joy filled our hearts. The view of the Himalayan foothills and the lush green hills raised a question in our minds: “Although we are far from nature, why is it that the basic educational materials needed in today’s age are not equally available in these rural areas where children grow up surrounded by nature?”
Finding some answers to this question became one of the main objectives of our campaign.
“Shree Bolde Basic School,” with more than 250 students, is located in the Jugal rural municipality. The children of Bolde had clothes to wear for school, but they didn’t have bags to carry notebooks or pens. Moreover, seeing that they only had one copy for all subjects or
sometimes no copy at all, we decided to start distributing bags filled with notebooks and stationery under the campaign, with the slogan “Each bag, full of notebooks, comes with hope and opportunities.” These supplies address the immediate educational needs of the children, and at the same time, they also help promote their self-esteem.
We have designed “Bags of Hope” as a sustainable model, involving not only schools but also parents and local governments. This ensures that the relief is sustainable and included in the local government’s annual budget and plans, and training is provided on the importance of this initiative.
No responses yet