Eine Chance auf Bildung
Durch die Vermittlung von Patenschaften ermöglicht der Manjushri Verein Kindern aus ärmsten Verhältnissen eine Ausbildung. Viele der Schülerinnen und Schüler, die unterstützt werden, stammen aus schwierigen Familienverhältnissen. Sie leben oft getrennt von ihren Eltern. Sei es, weil diese im Ausland arbeiten oder weil sie in abgelegenen Dörfern leben und die Kinder für eine Ausbildung nach Kathmandu schicken.Ohne finanzielle Unterstützung sind die Chancen auf Bildung für viele Kinder in Nepal gering und die Zukunft als Erwachsene ohne Perspektive. Von den 495 Jugendlichen, die an der Manjughoksha Academy eine strenge, aber zukunftsgerichtete Ausbildung geniessen, unterstützt der Manjushri Verein 193 Schülerinnen und Schüler. Die Ausbildung dauert zwölf Jahre (Spielgruppe, Kindergarten und zehn Jahre Grundausbildung). Nach weiteren zwei Jahren an einem College erreichen die Studentinnen und Studenten eine Qualifikation, die ihnen den Übertritt an eine Universität ermöglicht oder die Möglichkeit zu einer praktischen Berufsausbildung bietet.
Viele Patenkinder haben die Grundschuljahre und zum Teil das Studium bereits abgeschlossen. Was ist nun aus ihnen geworden?
Norbu Dhundup schrieb im Frühjahr 2022 zum Abschluss der Patenschaft.
Er ist 23-jährig, trat mit sieben Jahren in die erste Klasse an der Manjughoksha Academy ein, absolvierte danach 10+2 (Weiterbildung zur Matura) und ist jetzt am studieren.
Dear Ursula
Tashi Delek to you and your family. It's me, Norbu Dhundup. How are you? I hope you are fine and I really miss you and Melanie Ma’am. And I really want to thank you because without your help I wouldn’t get the opportunity to study and because of you I got a sponsor who has been supporting me for 13 years, and now I would like to stop my sponsorship because I have been working in Tibet carpet factory where carpets are exported in foreign countries. It’s been about six months working here, and I can manage to pay my tuition fee and other related expenses.
Currently, I am studying bachelor in business studies and this is my last year. Recently our class has resumed, previously it was closed due to Covid and now it’s normal here.
Lastly, I truly appreciate you and thank you for all. I really miss when Melanie and you came from Switzerland to visit our school and students once a year when we were in school. It's a lot of memory. Thank you so much for all.
Norbu Dhundup
Rams Saran hielt anlässlich des 25-jähringen Schuljubiläums eine sehr emotionale Rede:
In a gentle way, you can shake the world: I quote Mahatma Gandhi. Dear stakeholders of Manjushree Verein, thank you for actually living up to the quote. Through your selfless deed of supporting and helping children from underprivileged communities to get quality education, you have touched lives of innumerable. And I am one of those touched souls, forever indebted to your kindness.
Every morning before I leave home to attend classes, I look at myself in the mirror and reflect the person I have become. The reflection sometimes takes me back to my most distant memory – the days when I had to struggle for survival in my rural village where I was born. I have come a long way from those days to be able to write this.
The reflection in the mirror reminds me of my achievement in life and academics. I have earned high school certificates, the first in my family to do so. I work as a journalist at a reputed media, again making me the first member of my family to perform technical job. As someone coming from a poor and underprivileged community of rural Nepal, I know I have been extremely fortunate to make such achievements, which is still a distant dream for most of the people back in my village.
However, none of this would have been possible without love and support from Manjushree Verein.
I was born as the fifth child of my parents. My mother was given off for marriage before the age of 18 as child marriage is widely practiced in the rural settlements. When I ask someone who are the first person they remember in their life, most of them would say it is their father and mother before anyone else. But I have not been fortunate enough to even remember the face of my father, not even a blur memory. My mother says he got into habit of drinking and eventually became alcoholic. This drinking habit resulted in huge conflict and fights between them. They separated when I just still an infant, much before I could even register his face in my memory. My father then disappeared without trace. Not even his own family members know his whereabouts still today.
Following the separation, my mother left the house of in-laws and returned to her parental house where I was raised along with my three siblings. My mother then decided to head to Kathmandu, the country’s capital, in search of opportunity to earn money. We were not given much care in my mother’s parental home. It was difficult to even get proper meals and we suffered from malnutrition as a result.
After heading to Kathmandu, my mother started working as a housemaid. Back in those days, telephones had not reached our village but my mother heard about our plights from some relatives. Deeply upset, she sent my eldest sister to an acquaintance in Bhakapur, nearby the capital city, where she lived and learned the craft of tailoring. My oldest brother was given to the care of an uncle, from whom he learnt the craft of carpentry. However, both of them were deprived of the opportunity for education.
Only I and another sister were left in the village with care of my step-grandmother. After I got severely ill, with my body filled with puss, my mother requested one of her relatives to bring me to her in Kathmandu. I was then treated and lived in her master’s home where she continued working as a housemaid. She also spent her monthly salary to send me to a local school. Major portion of her salary would go to paying for my education. After spending on my education, she would have barely any saving from her monthly salary.
If I had continued staying in the village, I would have been deprived of education. I joined school only after arriving in Kathmandu. As I joined school late, I was the oldest student in my class.
At that time, my mother was struggling to pay for my education as school fees increase every year but her salary remained unchanged. That is when my mother learnt about Manjughoksha Academy from a neighbor who knows about our family’s plight. The kind neighbor connected us with Miss Dolma Yangkyi of the school, who found me a sponsor from Manjushree Verein to support my studies.
I started studying in Manjughoksha Academy from grade seven while living in the school’s hostel. The Verein, has been supporting my studies since then, even years after I passed my studies from the school. My sponsor have been kind enough to support my high school and undergraduate studies as well. I would not have been able to continue my studies this far had it not been for her help.
Due to my passion in writing, I joined Republica daily as an intern journalist three years ago. Impressed with my work and learning attitude, the company hired me as their staff reporter after my internship came to an end. This job provides me pocket money and also enables me to contribute to my family expenses.
I am currently in the final year of my undergraduate studies. After a year, I will have college degree, the first member of my family to earn it. I am making progress in my career and academics with a strong learning zeal. Everyone has huge expectations from me and I will not let them down.
Dear Manjushree Verein and sponsors, I am only one of the hundreds of lives that have been changed by your kindness. I grew up with many friends of poor financial background like me back in Manjughoksha Academy. Like me, many of them were able to receive quality education only because of love and support from sponsors like you. It has been life changing opportunity for us, something which we do not take for granted.
Your deeds have taught us many important life lessons. From the way our sponsors selflessly support us, we have learnt to share our unconditional love and kindness to other people. You have planted seeds of love and kindness within us that only keeps growing. This has developed strong urge within us to rise beyond ourselves and help others in need. Indeed, love and kindness are contagious and it spreads when shared. You have created the cycle of love and kindness which will keep going forever.
During the last visit of Manjushree’s President Ursula Meichle in Nepal, she shared me a story of my sponsor Mrs Evelyn. I was told that during Evelyn’s birthday, Evelyn asked her friends and acquaintances that she does not need any birthday gift. Instead, she urged them to make donation for my studies, which would support my further studies – the graduate degree. She said the fund for my graduate studies would be her final gift to me. Her kindness made me speechless and very emotional.
In that moment, I decided to follow Evelyn’s footsteps and share the kindness I have received. After I complete my undergraduate studies, I would like to sponsor an underprivileged child whose family cannot afford to pay for education. As I would not be here without love and support of my sponsor, it would be fair only if I repay the deed by helping someone else.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone from Manjushree Verein on the behalf of all of the sponsor children. Truly, we seek to return the kindness in any way we can. Thank you for being our role model, teaching us the valuable lessons as well as giving us the unconditional love and support. We feel truly blessed.
With love and regards,
Ram Saran Tamang.
Yudon Lama, Abschluss Klasse 10 in der Manjughoksha Academy schrieb im Frühling 2011:
“I am a student of grade 11 currently studying in United Academy. I’ve passed my secondary level from Manjughoksha Academy. Enhancing quality education, encouraging interaction between teachers and students or providing proper environment for career development: Manjughoksha Academy has helped us get through all the obstructions and achieve our goal. It’s objective of providing education opportunities to the children of remote areas of Nepal is an appreciable one and this mission totally depends upon your kind help."
In der Zwischenzeit ist aus Yudon Lama eine erfolgreiche Anwältin geworden. Ihr wurden bereits Represäntationsaufgaben im Ausland übertragen.
Pema Dekyi, Abschluss Manjughoksha Academy schrieb im im Frühling 2009:
“I’m not a city dweller but I’m from a very remote area of Nepal. It would take about seven days to get to my village as there is no vehicle and no proper road. I was accepted at Manjughoksha when I was seven years old. I never went home during holidays but spent them at Manjughoksha as my home was too far. But soon Manjughoksha became my home. I grew up learning facts about life and got the best education. I wanted to become a nurse and got encouragements from my teachers. So now I am studying nursing at Alka Institute of medical sciences. At college I’m very much praised for my behaviour, speaking and writing skills in English. It’s all thanks to Manjughoksha for the way I am accepted and treated at college."
Heute lebt Pema Dekyi als Mutter in ihrem abgelegenen Heimatdorf und arbeitet in der medizinischen Anlaufstelle für die Dorfbewohner.