Ciara (Nepal)

In August 2014, I travelled to the Helambu region of Nepal and volunteered with HELP (Helambu Education and Livelihood Partnership) with support from MondoChallenge Foundation. I taught in Shree Narayan School, Ichok, for four weeks. I would typically teach either English or Maths five lessons a day. Whilst teaching, I lived with a local host family who welcomed me from the start and made sure I fully experienced village life.

The school was one of the biggest in the region, and I had to teach classes of up to 50 students, whose ages ranged from 6 to 14. With such large classes, one of my prioties became ensuring that all the students were invovled and engaged in lessons. In the first few lessons I realised that the chant and repeat method of learning used by many of the teachers was not effective because many of the students were just copying each other and not learning for themselves. I focused on teaching more creative lessons that ensured all the students were taking part and getting actively involved. Watching the students rise to the challenges of these open ended tasks and taking pride in their work was incredibly rewarding!

Living in the village, I saw first-hand the effect of the great work HELP does. The school has teachers provided by the Government, but these only account for four of the nine teachers at the school. The rest are sponsored by HELP, the teachers they fund are vital for the school to function. As a volunteer, I was aware that my presence at the school was only a fraction of the academic year. The full-time teachers are the main force to improve education in the region, and HELP does great work providing them. I tried to help this effort by speaking to teachers at the school, which helped to improve their pronunciation and confidence.

Since returning to Cambridge, I have continued to work with the charity by joining the CU HELP committee as Recruitment Officer in 2014/15 and Vice President in 2015/16. I have been involved in recruiting and interviewing new volunteers, as well as fundraising for HELP itself. Volunteering with HELP and experiencing the great work it does in the region was a truly rewarding experience.