ldcnepal.org

Limbu Literacy and Livelihoods Activities update May 2013

Pushker — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:21:49 +0000

We are delighted to share our progress reports. We are able to serve Limbu communities partnering with government and non-government organizations through literacy in Limbu, multilingual education in primary schools, training to weave Dhaka and Khesh cloth, awareness workshops on indigenous rights and language issues and planting citrus seedlings.

The Limbu project enabled 100 Limbu women to become literate in Limbu and train 15 Limbu women to weave Dhaka and Khesh cloth, which is then sold to provide additional income for the participants. Thirty Limbu families planted 1000 Orange and Lemon seedlings for business purpose with the help of local Agriculture Service Centre. The Limbu Project staff is finalizing a Limbu folk stories and songs book.

Our local partner, Limbu Language Development Association was invited by the District Education Office, Panchthar to run literacy campaign for 829 illiterate participants in Ranigaun Village Development Committee however a lack of funding to ensure the program would be successful prevented them from taking up this offer.

Thank you for your continued support to this project in Nepal. Please continue to check our website, http://www.ldcnepal.org/ for updates on our progress, and share the link with friends and family.

Limbu Literscy Class

Dhaka weaving training

Encouraged by the progress of the Women Groups

Pushker — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:44:17 +0000

We continue to be encouraged by the progress the women groups in the Tharu communities in Dang are making made through your contributions.

Highlights

All seven women led groups with about 250 members are active and working together to continue securing sustainable livelihoods for their families through breeding and selling small farm animals though the “Get-one-give-one” and other income generation programs.

As part of their contribution to celebrating International Mother Language Day in February one of the women groups inaugurated their Community Learning Centre (CLC). They led a community discussion with about 60 participants on the importance of children using their own language and cultural history in the classroom.

Challenges

After the celebration was over they took the staff to one side and pointed out that if the local school began to use there own language as well as Nepali in the local school they would need help from us to provide reading materials suitable for children in Tharu and the teachers would need additional training.

Thank you for your continued support to these Tharu communities in Nepal. Please continue to check our website, http://www.ldcnepal.org/ for updates on our progress, and share the link with friends and family.

Building a Future: Taking care of her goats

Women are sharing thier progress in group meeting

Celebrating International Mother Language Day at New CLC

The Limbu MLE book

Pushker — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:26:48 +0000

The Limbu folk story and song book arrived and we hope the Tharu books will be here soon.

It a trilingual, Limbu, Nepali and English and we will be getting these out to the Limbu schools as soon as possible. Many thanks for to National Geographic Society for the grant.

Limbu MLE Book

Tharu and Limbu books are in press

Pushker — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:20:39 +0000

Our Tharu and Limbu books are in press and will be delivered to our office for distribution early next year. Each book contains 30 local and traditional stories, which were collected from the Tharu and Limbu communities by local project staff. It’s powerful when those who know the stories and have retold them countless times see them written down and understand that there will be no danger of the stories being lost.
Because the Tharu and Limbu world is changing, each story is not only written in the local language, but also in Nepali (the national language) and English. Children will be able to practice their reading skills in three languages using stories from their own villages. This is much better than reading stories from outside their culture. These books will also be used in adult literacy classes. At that point, we expect to hear a lot of discussion over the details of the stories. These books will allow community members of various generations to continue engaging with stories from their own culture, while learning new literacy skills. The acquisition of coveted literacy skills through these stories puts new value on local culture.
Both the Tharu and Limbu communities are excited to see and read their own stories in written form. They are eager to make sure their traditions and stories, which up to now have only been passed on orally, are written down for future generations. It’s this kind of enthusiasm which makes it a pleasure for us to partner with these two communities. Of course none of it would have been possible without your support as well.
Thank you for your continued support to these minority communities in Nepal. Please continue to check our website, http://www.ldcnepal.org/ for updates on our progress, and share the link with friends and family.

Limbu Authors are sharing their literatures

Khopram Editing texts for Press

Transformation we see …

Pushker — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:59:44 +0000

We continue to be encouraged by the transformation we see in the Tharu communities we partner with which have been made possible through your contributions. Thank you.

I would like to share a few points I noted as outstanding from my last visit to these communities.

Highlights
250 Tharu women associated in seven community cooperative groups and committed to improve their economic and social status working together. Among them 60 families received a female goat through the community cooperative groups. Each family that receives a female goat must pass on one of the goats’ offspring to another family in the community.

One community group built their own Learning Centre. These centers provide the local communities with a place to run literacy classes and other activities. During my conversations in the community I learnt they donated the land and each family provided free labour for the construction. We donated tin sheets for the roof and cement.

Here’s what some of the women said that “to provide good education to our children and improve our socio-economic life, first we must be literate in our own language and second language, Second, we need to unite and work together in a group to access internal and external resources.”

Our Tharu partner NGO, Help Society Nepal moved to there own building after the local government donated land in recognition of their contribution to the Tharu community. Owning there own building will reduce overhead costs.

Challenges
Women participants commented that learning to read and write in their own language before becoming literate in the national language was important and hoped that we would continue to provide them with new teaching materials and books for their library.

Other communities are also requesting literacy and livelihood activities. It is difficult for us to say ‘Yes’ without additional financial resources to meet their expectations.

Mother tongue materials for Limbu children

Pushker — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:11:50 +0000

Sharing child song in group

Last week, I returned from visiting the Limbu project in east Nepal. My focus on this trip was to work on Limbu materials for children who speak their mother tongue language in primary school. We ran a workshop for community members who know their oral history. They were delighted that their oral history was finally getting into print in their own language so it would not be lost.

Sharing and editing the Limbu story

An older Limbu gentleman told me, “Limbu communities have many stories that are still not recorded. If we are not able to collect them from the older generation, they might be lost forever.” At the end of the workshop, they requested that we run this workshop each year and that next time we focus on medicinal plants and how traditional healers use them.

On a more somber note, one of the Limbu teachers who is also a custodian of local traditional knowledge, brought up his concern that when his students’ families aren’t speaking Limbu at home, it’s difficult for them to succeed in multilingual schools where Limbu is the language of instruction.

Documenting indigenous knowledge

Pushker — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 06:59:39 +0000

I thought Kathmandu was hot until Pushker, who had just arrived back from the Dang, were we partner with a local Tharu NGO told me it was 40 degrees Celsius. That’s over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The purpose of this visit was meet with 25 members of the Tharu community to edit Tharu stories. The Tharu community would like to ensure they are available to the younger generation. Rohit Chaudhary, Chairperson of School Management Committee said, “Our elder generation is library of our language and culture.

Bhediram is sharing his stories in group

An older gentleman, aged 69 Chhediram Gharkattuwa commented that, “We need to work with traditional community healers to make sure their knowledge of local plants that are used as medicine is not lost.” We are thrilled that Bhediram wants to collect traditional knowledge with other members of the Tharu community and get this into local schools.

In the past traditional knowledge has been passed orally to the next generation. By documenting this the Tharu community can be assured it will not be lost. We look forward to seeing this aspect of Tharu culture in our adult literacy class materials and in the materials we provide to local school that support Tharu children beginning their education in Tharu.

We are grateful for funding from the National Geographic Society to enable us to partner with the Tharu and Limbu communities for this project.

Ending Indentured Tharu Daughter Project Completion Summary Report

Pushker — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:37:01 +0000

We finalized the one-year project completion report to the United Nations Second International Decade Of The World’s Indigenous People. Their funding enabled the following. Thank you, UN!

Highlights
a. 2309 Tharu girls were withdrawn from bonded labor and enrolled in schools. Bonded labor is a form of slavery.
b. Seven village community support groups were established with 250 women. Women lead six of these groups.

Group activities:
• Provide support and accountability to five adult literacy classes for 128 Tharu women
We know that adults who have who have literacy and numeracy skills are less likely to send their daughters into bonded labor
• Sixty families received a baby goat or piglet on the condition that one of offspring would be donated to other families before selling the rest
Poverty is the underlying course of bonded labor
• Established Saving and Credit groups that have to date saved over USD 2,000

What we learned: (These are not new but we wanted to share them with you)
• Work closely with local government offices and schools.
• Create formal and informal networks with local organizations and community-based organizations
• Inform local media of project activities and progress
• Implementing organizations should have a prior credible record of working in partnership with local communities/government offices
• Staff should be local and from the same language group
• Staff should have a mix of men and women on staff
• Maintain links to local government offices & local communities even if we don’t have a current project in order to maintain awareness over bonded labor
• Girls coming out of bonded labor need support and mentoring from girls who were formerly in bonded labor
• The implementing organization should facilitate this by have girls who were in bonded labor as members

New futures for Tharu women in Dang Valley

Pushker — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:52:19 +0000

We know that women who can read and write have more self-confidence and have stronger families. By the end of March, 128 Tharu women had completed the literacy classes in their own language. This is the first step to becoming literate in the national language and a huge step for these women.

In tandem with the literacy program, our project also extended into sustainable livelihoods. We were able to provide sixty Tharu families with a baby goat or piglet to breed and eventually to sell for additional income for their families. Every family has agreed to donate the first offspring to another family in their village. We would love to expand this component of the project.

To work towards financial stability for families, seven villages formed women led finance groups. The 250 women in these groups have made an impact on not only individual families but on each village. We provide training for these women to learn, save and give loans within their group – $2000 to date. This has strengthened an environment where community members work together to make their villages a better place.

One village concluded that they needed their own community centre for their literacy classes, as well as a library and a meeting place accessible to the entire village. A community effort has been organized to clear the land, make mud bricks and build the walls. They are asking for help to buy tin sheets for the roof. Ideally we would like to not only provide the roof, but help them and five other groups buy books for their library.

Your previous support to these Tharu women helped them embrace new ideas, develop new skills and increase their confidence and ability to tackle many hardships. Our next phase consists of the following:
• Purchasing books – $200 per group
• Buying tin sheets for the roof of their self-built community center – $500
• Buying baby goats and piglets – $45 per animal

Your part in the project has made a huge difference for these families and communities. This has provided essential tools for grassroots capacity building initiatives. Thank you.

Please consider passing on this opportunity to build a better future for these Tharu women, their families and communities to others you know.

Schedule Group Meeting, Narayanpur, Dang

Basic Literacy class in Dangaura Tharu Language

We are encouraged

Pushker — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:35:31 +0000

We talked to over 250 Indigenous Knowledge holders from the Tharu and Limbu language communities and recorded over 90 Tharu and Limbu stories and songs. We held meetings with communities and teachers. We listened and learnt. ”I now understand that other languages are also good and we can share with them. These differences are beautiful. ” Said a teacher from a primary school full of Tharu children. Others said, “I learned that education is never neutral and learned about the culture of oppression and how to identify it.
We also learnt that many traditional songs are difficult for adults to fully understand and as a result we are in the process of selecting Tharu and Limbu materials that are suitable for children. We are encouraged by the Tharu community has formed a Multilingual Education Concern Group to lunch Multilingual Education in nine primary schools and need the materials that we are producing.