Newsletter September 2013
Greetings to our many supporters around the UK and the rest of the world.
Sangita and Gandir
It is unusual for girls to prosper in Nepal, and even more unusual for girls of low caste to achieve education beyond the age of 16. Now two of our Fishtail Fund students are aspiring to gain high-quality qualifications, leading to a good quality job prospects and a life of opportunity.
Gandia Thapa Magar has been a high achiever ever since we supported her at the age of 14. Her family are very poor and her brother was obliged to leave school early through economic circumstances. Now she is hoping to enter engineering college to gain a degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering. Her four-year degree course will cost at least £1500 a year.
Sangita Devkota aspires to a vocational route, and aged 16 has obtained a place at Nursing College. Her three-year course will cost £700 which with basic living expenses will rise to £1000 a year.
We have of course approached their original sponsors for support and we know they will be generous. However if you’d like to offer some supplementary funding, do please let us know on info@fishtailfund.com. You can read more of their story on Our Students.
An opportunity
Our Fishtail Fund Trustees in Nepal are all members of the Rotary Club of Pokhara Fishtail. Another club member is called Douglas Maclagan. He’s a Scotsman who lives and works in Pokhara and does a huge amount for disadvantaged children.
Now Douglas has reached the Top Ten in the Guardian newspaper’s Achievement competition. Please visit the following link and vote for Douglas Maclagan. The deadline for voting is September 16th midnight GMT (UK time).
“One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world….”
Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has addressed the United Nations as part of her campaign to ensure free compulsory education for every child. She marked her 16th birthday by delivering the speech on Friday at the UN headquarters in New York.
Taliban gunmen shot Malala on her school bus last October following her campaign for girls’ rights.
Malala – who is considered a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize – said she was fighting for the rights of women because “they are the ones who will change the evil world”.
“I am here to speak up for the right of education of every child,” she said. “Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.”
This sentiment matches that of the Fishtail Fund – and echoes our efforts to allow Gandira Thapa Magar to become an engineer.
£200 to spare?
If you are over 65 and live in the UK, the Government will be giving you £200 this November. Some people feel they don’t really need this extra cash and give it to a good cause. What better good cause than The Fishtail Fund? In 2009 the Fund was actually started by a Rotarian donating the grant.
£200 will cover the costs of a 17-year-old student for a full two years!
Of course, if you are writing your will….
US Embass: Volunteer Warning Travel Advisory
If you know of any young people planning to volunteer in Nepal, please warn them to be careful.
A few years ago the U.S. Embassy began to notice a shift in how child traffickers make their money. In addition to extorting money from families, the traffickers also make a profit out of fake orphanages by luring international volunteers and well-meaning charities. These good-hearted volunteers and charity workers become attached to the destitute children, of course, and send donations to help them. What they don’t know is that these children are victims of trafficking, that they have parents and that they are kept in destitution purposefully to extract more donations from volunteers and charities. And, that the majority of those donations go directly into the pocket of the trafficker.
An organization’s bona fides can be confirmed by contacting the Nepali Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), attention Namuna Bhusal (tel. 977-9851139474 or e-mail namuna@ccwb.gov.np)