This orphanage has recently expanded and there are several ways in which the project can get involved to help.
The main orphanage houses seventeen children aged from two to sixteen years old. A previous Project volunteer is sponsoring nine of the children to attend a local private school where they are all doing incredibly well. We are working with then in the evening doing a homework club to help them with English, maths and science as well as doing life-skills workshops on a Saturday and in holidays.
In addition local street children attend the orphanage during the day for food and some education. These children do not go to school as they have to go around collecting plastic and other recyclable rubbish from the streets to sell and make money for their families. We are planning to work with these children during the day to help them with English and do arts and craft workshops.
In the last week eight boys aged seventeen and eighteen have arrived in Manali from another orphanage in Shimla to receive vocational training. Mrs Sudershana is co-ordinating their education, helping them to find work placements and managing their accommodation. We are going to run English classes for these boys incorporating life skills activities and take them for sporting activities.
Vashist Orphanage, Vashist, Manali
This orphanage was one of the original institutions supported by the Kullu Project and is a wonderful success story thanks to the efforts of the manager Mrs Nervada and the support they receive from locals and international sponsors. They were originally in a very poor position but have developed over the years to become a very well managed, structured and efficient organisation. There are twenty children at the orphanage aged between seven and eighteen all attending either government or private schools.
Outside of school they have a yoga teacher attending the school daily in the morning and a science and maths tutor attends for an hour every evening. The orphanage is now well facilitated with a television, video player, DVD player, computer (no internet), music, some outdoor space, books, games and sports equipment.
Kailash Bodhi, Rangri, Manali
This Private English Medium School is mostly attended by the children of immigrant labourers from Nepal or Tibet as there is no provision for free education for this group. The school has ninety-six children aged between four to thirteen years, five teachers and four additional staff members. The school has some use of the government land on the other side of the highway for sports activities but is not able to run any additional out of school activities. Previous Kullu project volunteers have done mostly arts and games with some English Teaching. This year the school has asked us for arts, games, English grammar, letter exchange, inter school activities, books and any funding to get their new school built (they are struggling greatly financially).
At the beginning of March the Kailash Bodhi School was evicted from their rented accommodation as a hotel chain had bought the land. On the small compensation they received they are currently renting a four bedroom house for 3,400 rupees (₤43) per month. They had just started laying foundations for a new building (again on rented land as Mr Phuntsok is Tibetan and cannot buy land) when a land possession dispute broke out. They are awaiting the conclusions of the case which begins on the 27th March. The cost of the new build is estimated at 800,000 rupees (₤10,127) and will be guaranteed for ten years. The Kullu Project is also trying to sponsor two or three students each year to continue into higher education although this is sometimes met with opposition from the children’s parents as continuing at school leads to a loss of potential income to these poor families.
Himilayan Budhist Cultural School, Rangri, Manali
This boarding school currently has two-hundred and forty students from all around the local valleys but is planning to expand again in the near future moving to a new site next year with facilities for five-hundred children. The school is well supported by its parent institution, a Buddhist group from Delhi, and also received some international financial help. The children have access to television, DVDs (Sunday showings of cultural films and cartoons), cricket and others sports, four computers (no internet at present), a cassette player/ recorder, a CD player and access to the school yard.
The main activities we are hoping to run with them this year are inter-school activities with the neighbouring Kailash Bodhi School.
The Blind School, Kullu
The Blind School in Kullu is associated with the National Association for the Blind and is one of three blind schools in Himachal Pradesh. The school has three teachers working with thirty-five children across seven age groups. There is no space to appropriately split the classes which makes teaching difficult. The only play space available for the children is on the roof, is not very big and inevitably presents safety concerns. The school has many structural gaps in the timetable where the children are present at school but are not doing anything constructive, especially for the children who board at the school.
They currently have one western volunteer helping out as a teacher for the younger children. She has identified poor concentration and lack of response to teachers as issues affecting the children. There is also a need for functional education for the older children to help them prepare for independence once leaving school. A new school is currently under construction outside the town. This will provide for the children at the Blind School and also for other disabled children within the valley. There will also be a program of functional education especially for housebound children and there families. This scheme and the current school would both benefit from extra funding and long-term volunteers.
Sarswati Bal Balika Purnavs Trust (SBBP), Kullu
This relatively new orphanage houses eleven children aged four to fourteen. They live in two rooms with one toilet/bathroom. The orphanage is funded through pledges from the local shop owners in Kullu of 50 or 100 rupees a month but they still have very limited facilities. They all attend local government school in Kullu. Although we are mainly based in Manali this time, we plan to try and go to Kullu once a week in order to run workshops with these children and help get them extra facilities for arts, creative and sports activities.
This orphanage would certainly benefit from long-term funding to provide facilities and long-term volunteers to help the children develop necessary life skills.
Bal Ashram, Kalehli, Kullu
This orphanage houses thirty-two children aged six to eighteen. The children all attend the local government school. The Kullu project previously worked with this orphanage when it was based in the town of Jibhi, but has now moved back to Kullu. Situated right on the side of a busy main road the children have little access to outdoor play areas although they have a limited supply of indoor games and a television. The orphanage is funded by local child welfare societies and receives a small amount of funding from local businesses.
Again we are hoping to run weekly activity sessions with this orphanage when we visit Kullu to help these children gain access to outdoor play and creative activities.
Naya Sawera, Drug and Alcohol Addiction Re-Habilitation Centre, Kullu
This centre is currently working with 38 addicts aged between ten and sixty-five years old. Most patients stay for six to seven months but some inevitably return when they have relapses. Around 90% are non- consenting admissions and are brought by family members. The centre is managed by a very dedicated team who work very hard to help straighten out the addicts under their care. Several are themselves ex-addicts and are very committed to putting the international Narcotics Anonymous re-habilitation program into action.
We hope that we will be able to help this centre either through funding or running team and confidence building activities with the patients.
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