In 1996, five local youth volunteers in
Chapagaun, a village in the outskirt of Kathmandu Valley came
together to establish a community owned co-operative school. The
youth and local community had been touched and inspired by a visit
of Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, Founder of Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Ariyaratne had, as in countless Sri
Lankan villages, challenged the locals to take initiative in
addressing local problems. He had even invited five local youth to
visit Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka to receive training in community
development, early childhood education and economic enterprise
development.
Jyotidaya School as a Model:
The Jyotidaya Co-Operative School was established as a middle
path between the extremes of expensive private schools and low
quality public schools. The school, managed under the community
co-op, is unique to Nepal.
The school began with local volunteers and 81 children. In the
first year, the school provided services to children between
nursery (pre-primary) and 2nd grade. Today, Jyotidaya serves 301
students to 10th grade (the highest level of education provided
by the Nepalese Standard School system). Currently, 166 boys and
135 girls are enrolled in the school.
Jyotidaya serves some of the most under
privileged population in Chapagaun and surrounding villages.
More than 40 orphans and children from economically
disadvantaged families receive free education despite severe
disparities in resource attainment.
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Profiles |
Ruchi Maharjan
Ruchi
Maharjan, a ten year old is a brilliant student. She attends
fourth grade at Jyotidaya. When she was five, she lost her
father. He was a schoolteacher and passed away after a long
struggle with kidney disease. The money spent on his treatment
made the family of ten impoverished. Furthermore, Ruchi's mother
requires constant medical care. Finding money is difficult to
sustain the family let alone educating a girl child. Yet, Ruchi
goes to school. Thanks to Jyotidaya. She receives full
scholarship through the school, which allows her to continue her
education. Over forty children, like Ruchi, receive full
scholarship at the school.
You can help. $10 a month or $120 a year can support a child
with education.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please
send a check or money order to: Nepal Program, Sarvodaya USA,
122 State Street, Madison, WI 53703 or
donate online to Nepal program. |
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It takes about $10 a month to
support education of a child. Your contributions will help most
deserving children at Jyotidaya. For more information please
contact us or
donate online.
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In addition, 22 local youth have found
employment in the school as full or part-time teachers. Despite
low salary level, such opportunities have helped these village
youth to pursue higher education, especially university degrees.
The school believes that every child
has the right to a quality education, as well as a belief that
“the human development should be based on balance between
materialistic development and spiritual development.” To this
end, the school integrates regular meditation classes along with
traditional curriculum.
Towards achieving the mission of
facilitating the application of Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement’s
integrated development model, Sarvodaya USA is supporting
Jyotidaya School as one of its program in Nepal. One of the
first programs, Sarvodaya USA would be supporting outside of the
US and Sri Lanka. This year Sarvodaya USA expects to provide
scholarship to over 40 children |
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