These are the four children that were selected in Nepal to attend school for the first time in their lives. Two girls, Sertiy & Vumika and two boys, Santos and Santosh, received school uniforms, books and their first year of education, thanks to a club International Service project initiated by our then member, Josh Fergeus, in 2015.
According to recent reports, the Nepal Living Standards Survey 2010-2011 (NLSS- III) has found out that Nepal has an adult literacy rate of 56.6% with a huge variation between men and women. While male literacy rate is 71.6%, it is only 44.5% for women. This shows that there is still a belief among Nepalese people that girls are limited to go to schools.
“If you teach a man, you teach an individual but if you teach a woman, you teach the whole family,” goes a saying. If women are educated they will share their knowledge with everyone. They teach their children and manage their homes more effectively. They may even be able to help to run a family business.
In Nepal there is a shortage of funds for learning tools such as extra classrooms, libraries, scientific equipment, laboratories, field work and research. Many schools do not even have a toilet for students. Nepal spends 16 percent of the national budget on education. Nepal’s share of higher education in the education budget was 6% in 2004, which was one of the lowest in the world.
