| NEWS Kathmandu University Students Visit Rolpa On May 2008 a group of students from the Faculty of Media Studies at Kathmandu University visited the remote mid-western district of Rolpa with the aim of learning more about the impact of the eleven-year insurgency on local children. The 13 students walked for 14 days throughout the district, coping with cold and wet conditions, and interviewed many children and their families. They were sobered by the extent of the damage to school infrastructure, as well as the signs of distress in many of the children who had lost family members during the conflict. School supplies were almost non existent. The Kathmandu University students were inspired by the initiative taken by local Rolpa youth groups to reach children with basic education through learning centers that have established, independent of government. According to Prabin Gautam of the South Asia Children’s Fund, who accompanied the group, “Young people we met were not willing to wait any longer for the government to recommence schooling. The local youth have taken action, teaching and mentoring hundreds of girls and boys.” Kathmandu University students have set up Dill Memorial Library in Thabang, Rolpa, and will soon establish a computer center, relying on a small generator for electricity, with the funds they raised organizing a youth festival at their campus in Kathmandu. All supplies have to be carried in from Sulichaur, at least two days by foot. |
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| © 2009 South Asia Children's Fund |  |