Himalayan Education Lifeline Programme (HELP)
Tuesday 6 March 2007 by François Bordes
The aim of HELP is to enable young people from poor communities in the Himalayas to improve their employment opportunities through education and in so doing enhance not only their own standard of living, but also that of their extended families and of the wider communities they come from.
The problem
Many Himalayan families are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Living at subsistence level, parents nee the labour of their children, particularly the girls, to help the family feed itself. This means that the cannot afford to release their children to attend school or college
In Nepal, only 68% of all children of school age are enrolled in schools, and among those who ar deprived of school education, 44% are females. It follows that illiteracy rates, among girls in particular are very high. For example, in 1995, 73% of the population of Nepal aged 15 years and over wer illiterate, and in Bhutan the figure was 58%
Even if the child can go to school, the quality of education is often very poor. The schools are s under-resourced that many do not have classrooms or trained teachers, let alone books and paper and pens. Of thos children that do manage, against the odds, to get through their schooling, very few are able to go on to higher education The consequence of this is that many of these children do not get the education they need to achieve their full earning o social potential and so remain trapped in the impoverished existence they are born into
Objectives
HELP realises its aims by enabling responsible and committed people from the developed world to:
sponsor young people with the potential to benefit from a school or college education, but without the means to do so.
make a donation, helping a child or a school lacking the means to acquire the textbooks, equipment or premises required to provide a satisfactory education for the children in their charge.
undertake short-term assignments as volunteer teachers in deprived village schools in support of their teaching programmes.
All donations and sponsorship money, net only of unavoidable bank charges, will go to the child or school you want t support
See also
- » On the Web
- • http://www.help-education.org
- » Take action
- • Sponsor a child
- » Themes
- • Childhood, Education
- » In this section
- • Friends Of Earth International
- • African Conservation Training Association
- • 1000 FRIENDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
- • KAWI