| BREAKING NEWS First SACF Supported Students from Notre Dame School Move On To University! Since 2007 the South Asia Children’s Fund has worked closely with Notre Dame School in Bandipur to provide high-quality secondary schooling for immensely talented students from profoundly disadvantaged families. The goal is to produce a new generation of progressive and open-minded leaders for Nepal, and to engender in young people a passion for serving others. The Notre Dame students, both young men and young women, are chosen for education at the grade eleven and twelve levels from hundreds of candidates across Nepal on the basis of their intellectual skills, demonstrated financial need, and compassion for others. Included among the students are Bhutanese refugees who were selected from a pool of over 2500 applicants by the Catholic charity Caritas, which manages all schools in the camps in Eastern Nepal on behalf of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The South Asia Children’s Fund provides all necessary funding for the students’ tuition, as well as providing accommodation and meals in the town of Bandipur. Our Director of Residential Education Mr. Vijay Karki, assisted by his wife Goma, ensures a safe and stimulating living environment for the students, complete with computers and high-speed internet access. Peter Dalglish supplements their formal education with regular classes to prepare the students for SAT and TOEFL examinations, as well as teaching communication and leadership skills. We are very proud that all 16 of the first group of students sponsored by the South Asia Children’s Fund at Notre Dame Secondary School between 2007 and 2009 achieved First Division Honors on the national examinations held in May 2009. More importantly, all 16 students have taken the next step and have commenced studies at universities in the United States, Australia, India and Nepal. Three of these students are studying to become nurses in Nepal. We congratulate the first students assisted by the South Asia Children’s Fund to graduate from Notre Dame Secondary School on their extraordinary success. The South Asia Children’s Fund is completing the construction of a student residence in Bandipur that will provide a new standard of accommodation for students in the region. The residence, designed by the accomplished Nepali architect Kai Weise and inspired by the traditional Newari buildings in Bandipur, includes 13 spacious double rooms (many with unobstructed views of the Himalayas), an IT room and library, a games room, an outdoor café, a large dining room and solar-powered showers. The South Asia Children’s Fund currently sponsors the education of 14 students attending at Notre Dame Secondary School in Bandipur. Ten students from Chitwan, Tanahun, Dang, Dhading, and Gorka districts now enrolled at Notre Dame School began their studies in August 2009. Two of the students are Bhutanese refugees from the camps in eastern Nepal. The sponsored students’ names and districts of origin are as follows: Grade 11 at Notre Dame Secondary School Sudha Khadka, Dang Durga Lal Chapagain, Jhapa Deepak Dhakal, Besisahar Abishek khatri, Kathmandu Umesh Shrestha, Chitwan Sunny Gurung, Jhapa Sandesh Pokhrel, Dang Nawrag Gurung, Bandipur Abinash Mahato, Chitwan Hemant Acchammi, Damauli Grade 12 at Notre Dame Secondary School Kiran Gurung, Bandipur Kumar Rai, Jhapa Madan Chapagain, Dhading Subash Pokherel, Chitwan Ram Gurung, Gorka Sushil Khanal, Lamjung Ravi Sunchuri, Tanahun |
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| © 2009 South Asia Children's Fund |  |