Dan (Nepal)

I visited Nakote village in the Helambu Valley of Nepal in 2012 to volunteer with HELP (Helambu Education and Livelihood Partnership) and MondoChallenge Foundation just after finishing school. The experience was brilliant, hugely eye-opening and totally exhausting!

Although we were only there for a relatively short time, getting involved in teaching was great. By the end of the trip, I had a huge amount of respect for the teachers who work there day in day out because of the tough conditions they have to work in. It was encouraging to find that 13 years of UK education had taught us something, and the classrooms of enthusiastic children were a pleasure to teach. Outside the classroom we had the warmest welcome into the community, the many, many cups of tea provided plenty of opportunities to learn about the local culture, as did the many different village events!

Seeing the work HELP was doing was inspiring. So many of the things we take for granted in the UK, and which are fundamental to schooling, are lacking in Nepal – but HELP was clearly having a huge impact. By its very nature the education system is not something that can be changed overnight, but the combination of the resources being provided by HELP and the steady stream of volunteers, complete with quirky lesson plans, heading out to the valley are hopefully going to kick-start some real change.

Since leaving Nepal, I’ve stayed involved with HELP (like most volunteers seem to!), working as part of the dedicated society in Cambridge to help recruit and prepare students from the university to get involved with the work they do in Nepal. This has been a lot of fun and I hope at some point I’ll also head out to Nepal again!