Ms. Goma Dhakal a BBA 1st year student and one of the participants of SBCSP writes:
It was my first experience in SBCSP. The motto of this programme is to gain knowledge about social life of remote community people and to share our knowledge and experience with them.
Day 1
It was Friday 14th October 2011; the day to move to Okhre, Dhankuta from SOS Youth Facility Biratnagar. When we reached Dipak Lower Secondary School Okhre at 1 pm; the teachers and the students were waiting for us. After a small introduction programme; the students were left free to choose us as their wish. I was chosen by a student named Ranjita Rai. She took me to her house and we introduced each other with her family members. The members of the family were grandfather, father, mother, brother and two sisters.
Day 2
I Woke up early in the morning, helped sister to cook food, went for cattle rearing in the afternoon, back to home, cooked food and ate together. We had interesting chat in the evening before sleep. They explained about their life and I did the same.
Day
Today too, I woke up early and went with sister for cutting grass. We came back home and took morning meal. We walked for two hours to reach the school. Heart was beating faster and feeling tired to reach the school. It was the first day in school. We had introduction with students and shared about personal hygiene. As the numbers of students were less so I, Laxmi and Ranjit took combine class in Grade 1, 2 and 3. We taught them about personal hygiene. Then we taught rhymes. Finally, back to home, ate rice, shared feelings with guardians and children at home and slept.
Day 4
Woke up early as usual, helped to cook rice, ate and ready for school. It was not as difficult as it was previous day to reach the school. In that particular day we had Art competition. I and Binod were in class seven. This programme was for class five to eight. After school, we went home, went for searching fire wood, back to home, ate food and slept.
Day 5
Woke up early in the morning, went with grandfather for gardening, back to home, ate rice, ready for school. That day, we had sharing programme on environment cleanliness. This time too I and Binod were in class 3 in the 1st half and in the 2nd half we were in class 6. After school, back to home, went for cutting grass, back to home, ate rice, shared that day’s programme with parents and slept.
Day 6
Woke up early in the morning, went for cattle rearing, back to home, ate food and went to school. On that very day, we had lots of games for students as well as for teachers. At first, we had Bursting Balloon for class 1 to 3. Then, we had Hot Potato for class 4 to 8. After that, we had Musical Chair for all the teachers and at last, we conducted Quiz Competition for class 5 to 8. There were four students in each group (1 student from each class).
Day 7
Woke up early, cooked food, ate food and went school. That day we shared the students about Earthquake. I and Binod shared to class eight. They were not familiar about the safety measure of Earthquake. After school, went home, went to search fire wood, back to home, ate food, talked about earthquake and about its safety measures with the family members and slept.
Day 8
I woke up early in the morning. It was heavily raining. Cooked food as usual and ate. I didn’t go school because of heavy rainfall, stayed at home all the day, cooked food at the evening, talked with the family members and slept.
Day 9
This was the holiday so went Okhre and planned to visit a place named Rajarani but couldn’t because of strike. So, went to a place named Dada Bazar, had fun there, purchased some vegetables and back to home.
Day 10
It was the last day of our programme. I woke up early, cooked food and ate, went to school along with the family members. All the family members were sad because it was my last day in their house. During those 10 days, they loved and cared me as their family member. The parents gave some vegetables to me to take to my family. As I reached school, I found all the teachers and students were seeing unhappy because we were going to be departed from them that day. It was the concluding day so we had organized a concluding programme. All the school family and community people bid farewell to us. The teachers and students offered ‘tika’ and garland to us. They also gave us gift. Many of their eyes were full of tears and same we had. We also distributed the prizes to the winner students of different activities we had organized at school and provided some learning materials and stationeries to the school as the souvenir from SOS Youth Facility Biratnagar. Finally, we moved from there saying good bye to all with the hope of meeting them again in the future.
I got a lesson from this programme that having so many works still students are working hard in their studies. I was surprised to know how they were managing their time. They work at home; walk a long distance to school. We are very lucky to be here in our place. We have got all the facilities so we should work hard accordingly for our bright future.