Nepal Educational Support Trust (NEST)
Introduction
Nepal Educational Support Trust ( NEST) is a non government organization which was founded by Mr. Purna Kumar Shrestha in 2000, with the main aim of providing education opportunities for disadvantaged children.
NEST is a right based organization which believes that education for all is a human right and it is a precondition for development.
NEST is governed by an executive committee of nine members who are committed to social justice and are not paid for their contribution. There are twelve general members who also work as volunteers in the NEST activities.
Guiding principles of NEST
Education is a human right
Education must help combat poverty
Education for girls, disabled and Dalits must be given high priority
Every single human being has a right to education in accordance with his or her needs and interests, abilities and aptitudes.
Education must be relevant and every child should get quality education
Main Objectives of NEST
* contribute towards the overall development of the nation.
* provide and support the education of poor and disabled children through the provision of grants, scholarship, and sponsorship which aim at boosting their enrolment, retention, and performance in schools.
* raise awareness of education for girls and provide them with an opportunity to have education by running formal and non-formal classes.
* run different community based public awareness programmes - mainly on the issues related to environment, health and sanitation, and population.
* develop and promote the use of teaching materials in classrooms produced from low- cost locally available resources.
* run skill training and other income generating programmes for unemployed youths, women and poor families.
* hold meetings, workshops and seminars for teachers, local youths, children and women groups.
* involve in research in the field of education and social development and publish the findings.
* run educational programmes in partnership with other national and international organisations, by establishing mutual relationship.
§ set up a model of community based schools and offer on the job training for teachers.
§ enhance brotherhood among other international organisations and organise exchange programmes
§ promote a voluntary programme to support local schools and social organisations
Play for Peace School Sports Project
Background
NEST Child Clubs were formed in the process of implementing NEST Children's mobile library programme with the financial support from ICFON , the Netherlands in five schools in Makawanpur district three years ago. Then, the main objective of forming child clubs was merely to help run the libraries effectively. During the last three years, NEST Child clubs have organised different activities in the schools and help to raise awareness on environment, gender equality. NEST Child clubs have provided children an opportunity to realise their potentialities by organising different extra curricular activities in the schools and organising inter-school competitions.
There are six NEST child clubs, five are school based clubs whereas one is based in the community. At the school level, Dibya Jyoti Lower Secondary School, Prajwal Shiksha Sadan English School ( a public educational trust), Sarada Primary School, Bansha Gopal Higher Secondary School and Janpriya Secondary School have NEST child clubs and Prativa NEST Child Club is based in Hetauda downtown.
Five months ago, NEST did an intensive evaluation of the clubs and their roles by interviewing the head teachers, club members , students and teachers of the schools to find out what programmes would be most effective in terms of their impact on student's intellectual and academic development. The research also made an attempt to find out some programmes which would help poor and disadvantaged students and their families.
Rationale of the Play for Peace Project:
In Nepal, school education is only focused on textbooks and education is exam oriented . The schools do not recognize the importance of physical education and sports, although these subjects are included in the school curriculum. Lack of resources, sports and physical education are taught theoretically and students hardly ever have chance to play the sports which they study in the text books.
The notion that physical education more than just the physical self is not a new one. Many research results have showed that physical education has positive outcomes in terms of personal and social development.
Physical education and sports have an important role to play in constructing our society for the future. We need educators who have boarder knowledge base and a real commitment to producing thoughtful, rational citizens for the new century.
Because of the insurgency in the country, the students have fear and go to the school with traumatic experience and violence. As the physical education and sports can play a vital role in creating peaceful environment and trust among the pupils and finally people learn to live in harmony , in the community.
The problem has been identified that the importance of sports in peace and development has been ignored, therefore, this project has the following objectives.
Objectives of Play for Peace :
to raise awareness of the importance of sports and physical education in school curriculum
to help pupils of selected schools recognise their potential and prepare them to be responsible citizen of the country
to provide teacher training in delivering physical education and give importance that such training should incorporate gender appropriate pedagogical practices.
to bring about increased opportunities and positive change for women and girls as well disadvantaged boys at all levels of involvement in sport and physical education
to give opportunities to girls and boys from Dalit and disadvantage in sports
to help develop trust and harmony among children and learn to be mentally, physically healthy
to establish a link between Dutch schools and Nepali schools.
to support the schools with sports materials
Project Site
Play for peace project was implemented in the following schools :
1. Dibya Jyoti Lower Secondary School, Chuchekhola,Hatiya-1
2. Prajwal Shiksha Sadan English Lower Secondary School, Hetauda-6
3. Banshagopal H.Secondary School, Hetuada-6
4. Sarada Primary School, Newreni, Hetauda-7
5. Janpriya Secondary School, Hatiya, Chisapani
6. Balgariti Lower Secondary School, Hetauda- 6
Sarada Primary School is the only primary school and students are quite young so that this school has not been included in volley ball and badminton sports. The school has been provided with sports materials which are suitable according to the age of students. Similarly , Play for peace project has supported a special school in Hetauda with sports materials and organized a sport day for children with different abilities. Schools are located in Hetauda Municipality and Hatiya VDC of Makawanpur district.
Outcomes/ Result
The following are outcomes of the project :
A basket ball court was be built at the Prajwal School.
Students received training on basket ball, volley ball , table tennis and badmintons
A girls' volley ball contest was be organised.
Each school received sports items so the students will have sport materials to play.
8 table tennis courts were built.
A special sport contest for physically challenged students was organised.
Girls have actively participated in sports.
PE teachers got training to coach sports which are included in the curriculum.
Children have learnt to live in harmony, expect cultural diversity and help to maintain gender equality in the school.
Two workshops on peace were organised to help children think about the importance of peace in the society, thus help to raise awareness about the peace and contribute to the peace building process.
40 students who are child clubs' board members have been trained as Seed of Peace who will use Theatre for Peace.
Target Group and no. of beneficiaries
Target Group: Students of the 7 selected schools
No. of beneficiaries: 4000 students , 300 local children and youths and 10 PE teachers.
2.7 . Project Implementation Process
2.7.1 Need Analysis
NEST carried out a need analysis to identify what sports students were interested in A meeting of NEST child clubs' members was organised and o the meeting suggested a number of sports which they wanted to play in the schools. A list of sports was prepared by the students. The meeting decided to include volley ball, badminton, table tennis, skipping and other games in the Play for Peace sport project. Following the meeting with child club members, the schools were consulted by sending a questionnaire seek their opinion on the students' choice of sports .
2.7.1 Approval of the Project from Social Welfare Council (SWC)
NEST submitted the project proposal to the SWC for approval of donation of ICFON and got the project approved on 22nd December 2005.
2.7.3 Formation of Sport Sub-Committee
The meeting of NEST executive committee held on 21st January 2006 , formed a sport sub-committee to implement the project efficiently. The committee was headed by Mr. Rajesh Shrestha , an executive member of NEST.
Mr. Rajesh Shrestha Coordinator
Mr. Ravindra Shrestha Member
Ms. Laxmi Shrestha Member
Advisors
Mr. Purna Kumar Shrestha , Founder
Mr. Ganesh Kumar Shrestha, Executive Director
Mr. Sanjay Kumar Sigdel , General Secretary
The committee was given authority to collect quotations of the sport materials and construct table tennis courts in five schools and a basket ball court in Prajwal School.
2.7.4 Planning meeting with ICFON volunteers
Sandra Rutten and Loes Melonbroeks who are ICFON volunteers who had raised the entire fund for the project in the Netherlands. They were doing their internship in a school in Pokhara. According to their plan, they would spend two weeks in April in Hetauda and would conduct workshops for students and teachers .
On 30th December 2005, NEST revised the schedule of the training and made a new plan of actions. The meeting discussed various things regarding the project.
2.7.5 Planning meeting with stakeholders
NEST organized a joint meeting with concerning stakeholders and governmental line agencies at NEST head office in Hetauda on 8th Jan 2006 . District Education Officer, Administrative Officer of Hetauda Municipality , head teachers from partner schools and NEST members were present in the meeting.
Representative of District Administration Office ,District Development Committee and District Women Development Office and Association of Disabled Makawanpur had also been invited to the meeting but they could not attend the meeting . In the meeting NEST disseminated all the approval documents of SWC to make the project transparent and requested all participants for their full co-operation in the implementation of the project .Representatives of the schools appreciated NEST's contribution to their schools and highlighted the impact of NEST programmes such as child clubs ,book loan and goat loan programmes , school dress and school bag programs ,school library program . ( see annex - 1 for list of participants of the meeting)
2.7.6 Planning meeting with Head teachers
NEST organized a joint meeting with Head teachers of partner schools on 31st January 2006 and discussed the following points :
ü The date for One Week Long Training for Physical Education Teachers was proposed : March 9th , 2006.
ü It was informed that the Annual examination of all schools would start from 16th March 2006 for 10 days so training for student's suitable to organize after the date.
ü It was suggested to organise the Volleyball Tournament for Lower secondary level students .
ü NEST would coordinate the construction of the Table tennis courts
At the end of the meeting, an agreement between the school and NEST was singed by the head teachers and the Executive Director of NEST. ( see annex : 2)
2.7.7 Call for quotations of sports materials and selection of a contractor
NEST published a notice calling local suppliers to submit quotations for sport materials . Among three quotes, the lowest quotations was from Pratik Stationery of Hetauda , therefore, sport materials were purchased from it.
Similarly, NEST contracted Mr. Pradesh Rai, a local contractor to build table tennis boards in five schools and a basket ball court in Prajwal School.
3. Outcomes / results of the project
The project have had the following outcomes so far:
1. A basket ball court was built in Prajwal School. This is the first and only one basketball court in this community .
2. Girls from Prajwal, Banshagopal, Janpriya, Baljagriti, and Dibyajyoti school were coached in volleyball.
3. A lower secondary level girls' volley ball contest held.
4. Students of seven schools have sport facilities.
5. A special sport contest for physically challenged students was organised. 45 children participated in the sport day.
6. 17 PE teachers from seventeen local schools have been trained to coach different sports .
7. 29 NEST child club members and 6 teachers have had training on peace building and learnt skills to resolve conflicts in sports.
who sponsored Play for Peace Sport project through ICFON, the Netherlands came to visit the partner schools in Hetauda with her family and friends after two years. 
who sponsored Play for Peace Sport project through ICFON, the Netherlands came to visit the partner schools in Hetauda with her family and friends after two years. 
Girls of Prajwal School ready to play volleyball !
