...
Overall, the experience was everything I thought it would be. I enjoyed a ‘two-centre’ student placement in Nepal – starting with office work in the capital and then teaching in a remote mountain village. For the first week, I worked for the charity HELP (Helambu Education and Livelihood Partnership) in their Kathmandu office. HELP delivers many of the programmes on the ground in Nepal for which Mondo Foundation provides funding. During that time I wrote a report on the recent completion...
It was fantastic to spend a month teaching at a school in the village of Bhotang in November 2018, with Jan, a fellow volunteer. It was a challenging but rewarding and heartwarming experience, in which I met such generosity from everyone I encountered. Bhotang is a remote but beautiful village, surrounded by mountains, about 6 hours’ drive on bumpy roads from Kathmandu. We stayed with Meera, the sister of the school’s Chairman. We were very lucky to have Meera looking after...
Our volunteering experience was both thought-provoking and humbling for us. Like so many other volunteers’ experience, when we left Nepal we felt that although we might have thought we were going out to train teachers, and teach in Nepal, we found it had been the children, and Nepali people who had taught us SO much more! For us, as a retired teacher (Liz) and a retired engineer (Rob), volunteering in...
I absolutely loved my experience in India and would advise anyone considering volunteering to do so. It all started when Mondo Trustee, Hirsh, came to visit the school where I worked to discuss how the funds we had raised were helping Pioneer Preparatory School in Sindebong Busty, Kalimpong. This was one of our house charities and I was immediately drawn to the possibility of being able to visit the school and see the work that Mondo Foundation do. Fast forward...
In September 2019, I spent 3 weeks volunteering at Lotus Academy, an hour from Kalimpong. I lived at the school with the Principal and his family. Lotus is a Primary School, located on the hillside with Nursery children up to Year 7. Sundar, the Headmaster, is an inspirational man with a passion for children’s learning. I am a Primary school teacher and the teachers at Lotus were interested to hear how we taught in the UK, so it was a...
I have been a volunteer with Mondo many times in the Kalimpong area of India, on my own, with my friend and fellow teacher Jenny, with my husband Andrew and with my sister Lorna. We have taught at Alpha Primary School and also done teacher training with Nico. The last trip was in 2019 when my sister and I did a week’s teacher training with all the Mondo schools and it was a wonderful experience to share our knowledge and...
My volunteering experience was spent at Shree Devi Bhotang Secondary School, in the village of Bhotang, where I taught English ranging from Grades 1 to 10. When I first arrived, the children were quite hesitant to speak English and hid behind their mothers’ skirts when I approached them. However, this shyness did not last long! Within a few days of my arrival, all the children would run out of their homes shouting “Namaste Miss!” as I walked to school with some...
As Head Teacher of a school in Hampshire, I was looking forward to seeing how my experiences in India would compare with my home school. During my Easter and Summer breaks, I have had the privilege of really getting to know the schools within whom Mondo partners in the Himalayan region of India. Arriving at Bagdogra in the humid, blasting heat, it was so lovely to be met by Sudhir. He looked after us from the start and made sure we...
What can I say about my time in Munsong teaching at Lovebuds Nursery School except that it has been an absolute pleasure to volunteer there as an English language teacher. The village, evoking a veritable Shangri-La hidden away in the hillside an hours drive by shared taxi outside the bustling little town of Kalimpong is one of the prettiest I visited of those dotted around this side of town, surrounded by stunning views of lush green forest and quinine plantations,...