HVP Nepal-UK New Year 2024 Newsletter

Namaste! And welcome to the HVP Nepal-UK Newsletter for New Year 2024. We hope this finds you still in the festive spirit, having enjoyed a happy and peaceful Christmas with your families and loved ones and looking forward to the New Year.

Volunteers Return!!!

The big news for HVP is that UK volunteers are returning! Summer 2024 will see two groups of volunteers come to Nepal for placements in two of the HVP schools. HVPN-UK trustee and treasurer, Lars Atkin, is organising a group of undergraduate students from the University of Kent to go to Dang in south-west Nepal. During their six-week placement, they will be teaching a mixture of English, Humanities and Social Science to the students of HVP Dang, spending time in the Children’s Peace Home orphanage and supporting programmes aimed at empowering women in the local community. A large part of the funding will come from the Turing Scheme, which is a UK government scheme to fund placements for UK students overseas.

Separately, HVPN-UK trustee, Matthew Hilton-Dennis, is putting together an expedition for 16 students from Merchant Taylors’ School. For two weeks in July, they will be hosted by HVP Central School in Kathmandu, teaching students a mixture of English, Maths and Science. As with the students from Kent University, the MTS students will be given training in the essentials of teaching ahead of going out to Nepal, as well as a grounding in Nepalese language and culture. As anyone who has volunteered at the schools can tell you, it is the immersive and reciprocal nature of the experience that is so powerful on a profoundly human level.

Dr Chintamini Yogi with volunteer students from Merchant Taylors' School in April 2023

There have been no UK volunteers to the HVP schools for four years now and re-establishing that connection has been a priority for HVPN-UK since the end of the pandemic. Volunteers have been an essential part of the HVP identity for 30 years, integral to the health and public standing of the schools in Nepal and to the lifeblood of our charity here in the UK. We are delighted at the prospect of seeing volunteers return to Nepal and build the relationships upon which we can all prosper and grow.

So many of us have stories we can tell of our times spent volunteering in Nepal and of the lasting effect that the children and the people at the three schools have had on our lives. Will Bordell is one such example. An alumnus of Merchant Taylors’ School, Will went out to Nepal in 2014 through the University of Cambridge volunteer scheme and taught at HVP Central School. Now a barrister at Blackstone Chambers in London, Will kindly agreed to write a testimonial of his experience as a way of encouraging current MTS students to take part in the school expedition going out to Nepal in July 2023. With his permission, I share his thoughts with you here, which I know will resonate with many and, just maybe, inspire the next generation of volunteers.

When I went to Nepal in the summer of 2014 after finishing my second year at university, I knew almost nothing more about the country than where to find it on a world map. Living there for six weeks, teaching at HVP Central in Kathmandu, was one of the most formative experiences of my life. I had never taught before, so the first time I was faced with a class of 20 eager-eyed students was daunting, to say the least.

I settled in very quickly, though, and was made to feel at home by some of the kindest people I’ve ever met: Vishnu (the school’s headmaster) and his family, the other members of staff, and the children themselves. Singing and dancing at prayer time every day broke the ice – and pretty soon we were all eating together, laughing together and (of course) staying up late to watch the World Cup!

I had more unforgettable experiences than I can name, and I still remember so many of the students I taught – students who, in reality, taught me much more than I could teach them. HVP does its best to make volunteers feel like they’re at a home away from home, and whilst there are days when the heat and the teaching proves challenging, you’re never far away from a smiling face and the sweetest cup of chai you’ll ever taste. As a volunteering experience, I think teaching at HVP is hard to beat and I’d really recommend it. 

Will Bordell, alumnus of Merchant Taylors' School and University of Cambridge volunteer at Central School, 2014

Updates from Nepal

Dr Chintamini Yogi, founding HVP Principal

Dear friends, Namaste! Hope all of you fine. First of all, please accept my prayers for this festive season; my prayers for all kinds of peace, prosperity and spirituality.

Well friends, let me share a few quick reports from Nepal. Now we have winter season, so all the schools are busy for the second terminal exams. After these, there will be a winter holiday for around two weeks in each of the HVP schools. As things stand, Central School has around 300 students, Dang 350 and Thali 430 students. CPH has around 40 orphan children, and Bhola ji is trying his best to give them holistic care in spite of all kinds of physical and financial challenges. Matribhumi Sewak Sang (MSS) is trying its best to reform all the HVP schools as per need, demand and present situations of Nepal.

In recent days, Bhola ji and I have been attending the Global Yoga Summit (GLS) in Bangalore, a great global gathering. I am now back in Kathmandu, but Bhola ji is continuing at the Summit, participating in a programme of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which is led and organised by the Maharishi International Foundation. We are aiming to introduce gradually the concept of Vedic Wisdom and TM in our HVP schools, so that all teachers and students might become conscious, positive and creative in their thinking for the future. Two senior students from the Children’s Peace Home, Asmita and Ranjita, are attending, along with seven teachers from HVP Dang.

Last month, I visited Thailand, where we had a grand programme with Nepali friends from Myanmar, Bhutan and America. The purpose was to reunite and strengthen the Nepali community on a global level. I visited the Maharishi Centre in Thailand to meet Pratibha Choudhari, an orphan girl of CPH who is studying there on a full scholarship.

In the bigger picture, the good news is that according to the Nepal Tourism Board, nearly 10 lakhs of tourists visited Nepal in 2023. We hope this will lead to a good flow in volunteers to CPH and the HVP schools. The internal situation in Nepal, however, seems to be getting worse day by day, affecting political, social and cultural institutions. We are quite sad!!! Let’s see… - Friends, thank you so much for everything. I feel very happy and lucky for having you all with us together. And yes, missing you all. Please accept my prayers for family, friends and everyone. Let’s pray for Peace, Prosperity, Humanity and Spirituality.

NAMASTE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Email: mail2cmyogi@yahoo.com

Rajkumar Shresta, Principal of HVP Thali

In November, we celebrated our second greatest festival, Tihar/Dipawali, with different programmes like Deusi, Bhailo and dances to protect our unique culture. Our respected guru and frequent visitor to HVP Thali, CM Yogi, chaired the programme and gave a speech on the importance of Tihar. Right now, five teachers from HVP Thali, under the leadership of Academic Co-ordinator, Mr Anil Pokharel, are participating in the Maharishi Dyan, which is being held in Hyderabad, India.

In school, we are preparing for the Third Term Exam, which is going to be held from 3rd January, after which we will have a week-long winter holiday. We currently have 460 students at HVP Thali with 32 staff; there is a growing need for scholarship support as most of the children are from a poor economic background. I would like to acknowledge the valuable support of HVPN-UK, especially during the period of Covid, and also for their financial help in repairing the roof of the school. Thali has sufficient land, but we are still poor in infrastructure, and investment in capital projects, with the help of HVPN-UK, is our priority moving forwards.

We invite friends and volunteers to visit our school and to enjoy the company of our students and teachers.

Dr Bhola Nath Yogi, Principal of HVP Dang and the Children’s Peace Home

This year we have had big changes in HVP Dang. Because of the continuing low number of students at Kindergarten, we have decided to adopt the Montessori teaching method. A specialist teacher will be joining us and part of her job will be to give Montessori training to the other teachers within the school. The whole ground-floor of the school is now dedicated to the Kindergarten and separate from the other classes. Over the course of next year, we plan to paint and re-decorate the school building and create a new sports set up, which will be additional but necessary expenses to add to the already challenging economic situation of the school.

The Children’s Peace Home is as good as ever, with no great changes. We are hoping to send our children for further training and tours to build their inner power. Along with myself, Asmita and Ranjita have been attending the Maharishi Yoga Programme far away in Hyderabad, which has more than 10000 people in attendance.

Donating to the HVP Nepal-UK Scholarship Fund

Sent out to the three schools on a quarterly basis, the HVPN-UK scholarship fund either pays in full or in part the school fees for the children from the lowest income families, who would not otherwise be able to send their children to an HVP school. It is HVPN-UK’s most important way of supporting the schools and its students year in year out.

Many of you already give a monthly donation to the Scholarship Scheme, and for this we are sincerely grateful.

We are appealing to you, our friends and supporters, who may already be thinking of ways in which you would like to help, to consider setting up a monthly Direct Debit and to give a regular sum of money to the HVPN-UK Scholarship Fund. We are suggesting £20 as a monthly donation but would gratefully receive any amount that you feel you are able to give.

If you wish to give on a regular basis towards the fund, you can set up monthly donations on the HVP Nepal-UK JustGiving page - https://www.justgiving.com/hvpuk -making it clear that you wish the donation to go towards the Scholarship Fund. Please don't forget to authorise the 25% Gift aid if applicable.

Thank you. From everyone at HVP Nepal-UK, we wish you a very happy and peaceful New Year.