Posted by on September 21, 2012

Dear Friends,

What a very special year we have had at Tashi Waldorf School! A year of amazing growth and strengthening at Tashi Waldorf School and the beginnings of a Waldorf community in Nepal. This has been so nurturing as the political situation in Nepal continues to be uncertain. We feel very blessed to experience this at a time when a solid foundation is so needed in this country.

We were delighted to host 30 participants at the Anthroposophical Asia Pacific Initiative Group Friends Meeting in Kathmandu from November 1 to 5. This meeting was the first time the group in Nepal were able to meet all together and included One World a Learning Center working in bio-dynamic agriculture, Ecological Services Center working in organic farming, Tashi Waldorf School, and Shanti Sewa School. We would like to express our deepest thanks to all the foreign participants who made the long trip to Kathmandu in spite of all the uncertainty taking place in the world. Represented at the meeting were Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e.V., and Internationale Vereinigung der Waldorfkindergaerten e.V. from Germany, Kurinji Organic Foods from India, the Federation of Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Schools from New Zealand, the Singapore Steiner Interest Group, the Kampung Senang Day Care Centre from Singapore, Camphill Village of Copoke, New York and Antioch University – Centre for Anthroposophy from USA and the Anthroposophical Society of Hawaii. Many new relationships were formed and existing bonds deepened by this experience.

Children of Nepal has been very busy this past six months with several new developments to tell you about

We now have a website! Our website address is www.childrenofnepal.org A big thank you to Gary Jost and Meyrav for this.

We are working to establish relationships with businesses whereby a portion of profit is donated to the school. In return Children of Nepal will bring awareness of these businesses to its worldwide community of friends and supporters. Please contact us in Kathmandu if your business is interested in joining our family. Our first such relationship is with Wandering Spirits www.wanderingspirits.com Wandering Spirits, located in Kathmandu, Nepal, offers adventure travel in the Himalayan region including Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, Bhutan and Northwest India. Wandering Spirits is led by a great supporter of our school, Mr. Ajay Rai. 30% of the profit from each trip is donated to Tashi Waldorf School. We would greatly appreciate your support to the school by trekking with Wandering Spirits. Ajay led his first group of Waldorf teachers from Hawaii on a trek this past fall; we would like to thank Van James, Bonnie Ozaki, Genie Sakaguchi and Cynthia Jordan for supporting Wandering Spirits and Tashi Waldorf School! We hope you all had a very special experience in Nepal.

In the early spring you will be able to purchase Nepalese handicrafts in support of Tashi Waldorf School through the Waldorf Market website www.waldorfmarket.com Waldorf Market is the first on-line marketplace dedicated to supporting the international Waldorf education community. A place where every time you buy something you contribute to supporting the Waldorf School of your choice.

As mentioned in our last newsletter, our Education Coordinator, Halina Rubisz will leave Tashi Waldorf School in April to begin a very much-needed curative school in Kathmandu. We are delighted to announce that Kate Bryant will be joining us in April as Education Coordinator. Kate is from New Zealand and has been a Waldorf teacher in early childhood education for many years. We wish every success to Halina in her new undertaking and warmly welcome Kate to Nepal.

As we now have in Kathmandu a group of 12 Nepalese teachers working in the Waldorf philosophy, we are looking for volunteer Waldorf teachers specializing in Speech, Music and Eurythmy to come to Kathmandu to help with their training whether for a month or longer. Please contact us if you are interested in this possibility.

At Tashi Waldorf School, we are preparing to start a Class Two in May. Hands in Outreach from America have donated half the funds needed to build and equip this new classroom and we thank them very much for this. Another $2,500 USD must still be raised for this construction. We will build the room in March and Lobsang Dolma, our Tibetan Language teacher, will join us as a class teacher. Lobsang has had the experience of assisting in Class One this year and is proving to be a wonderful teacher.

All of the children are growing and blossoming! The children in Class One are learning so quickly that teachers and parents are amazed! The class one curriculum includes main lessons in Nepalese, math, form drawing, and nature studies. The rest of the day includes additional subjects such as painting, movement, handicrafts, physical education, music and singing, and English and Tibetan as second languages. Over the next five weeks the teachers are doing home visits to all of the children and their families. We held class meetings with the parents in September and their feedback was very supportive and encouraging especially as education in general let alone the Waldorf philosophy is new to many of our parents.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our child sponsors for their most generous support each year! We fully recognize the type of commitment this ongoing support requires and are very grateful to each of you for this. 18 of our children are now fully sponsored but we still need another 38 sponsors contributing $25 per month, half of the total monthly cost for each child. With the downturn of the Tibetan carpet, pashmina and tourism industries some of our families are moving either within the Kathmandu valley or back to their villages in search of work. We work very hard to work with our families to see if there is a way we can help so their children can stay at the school. As some of the children have to leave our school and others join we sincerely appreciate your understanding of realities of life of destitute families in Nepal. These families do not have the luxury of choice. We will write to inform you if the child you sponsor has left and ask if you would consider sponsoring another child.

We send our thanks to the Waldorf communities of Pine Hill, New Hampshire, Honolulu, Hawaii and Mt. Barker, South Australia for their most generous donations of clothes, vitamins and art supplies! We were down to our last pair of socks and bottle of vitamins. Thanks to all of you the children can continue to receive the education and social support they need over the coming winter months. We will need more vitamins by the spring so your help with this now would be deeply appreciated.

As we come to the Christmas season and finish this year we would like to send our most heart felt thanks for your most needed support of the children and teachers at Tashi Waldorf School! Without each of you we would not exist. It is truly amazing to think that we started only three years ago with 13 children and 2 teachers and this spring we will be able to reach out to 65 children and 5 teachers! Wishing you and your families a very Happy Christmas and joyful New Year,

With thanks and love, Everyone at Children of Nepal & Tashi Waldorf School