Education materials to Kalikot, Jumla students

By Prem Raj Simkhada ,Kalikot, Jan. 3: Children studying in remote community schools of Jumla and Kalikot have received much-needed educational assistance.

A total of 3,376 children in community schools in Kalikot and Jumla received school bags worth Rs. 3,200 per child, along with school uniforms, pens, notebooks, geometry boxes, pencils, drawing and science copies for the year.

Among them, 1,830 children, including orphans, impoverished children, Dalits, children with disabilities, and those at risk of child marriage, received support in Narharinath, Sannitriveni Rural Municipality, and Raskot Municipality of Kalikot. Each child received educational materials worth Rs. 3,200.

Similarly, 1,271 children from Hima, Sinja, and Kanakasundari Rural Municipalities of Jumla, and 275 children with disabilities from both districts, also received these educational materials.

This assistance is being distributed through the Promoting Equal Access to Education Project, run by the Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDAC) Nepal, with support from Plan International Nepal.

Diksha Bhat, Project Coordinator of Plan International Nepal, stated that educational assistance worth Rs. 11 million has been provided to children from grades 6 to 10 who are not attending school regularly due to a lack of educational materials, disabilities, or school dropouts.

Coordinator Bhat added that the support aims to ensure school continuity, particularly in Jumla and Kalikot, which are among the most affected areas in the project’s work, where many children do not attend school due to insufficient educational materials.

Plan International Nepal has been working for a decade in Kalikot and Jumla on education, child protection, health and nutrition, climate change, livelihoods, child rights, and disaster management, through five local partner organisations.

Educational materials were distributed to children selected by the schools in coordination with the youth, education, and sports branches of the relevant local authorities.

Students were chosen based on 21 criteria, including being orphaned, disabled, poor, at risk of child marriage, unable to attend school regularly, or having dropped out due to financial hardship.

Gobinda Bahadur Shahi, Executive Director of KIRDAC Nepal, said that when assistance is provided based on clear criteria, there is no dispute, and the beneficiaries feel relieved.

He added that in Raskot Municipality of Kalikot, 536 children including 95 with disabilities (60 per cent girls and 40 per cent boys) received assistance. In Narharinath, 671 children, including 99 with disabilities, and in Sannitriveni, 623 children, including 16 with disabilities, received educational support.

Similarly, in the Sinja region of Jumla, 379 children, including 47 with disabilities, from Kanakasundari Rural Municipality; 407 children, including 60 with disabilities, from Sinja; and 485 children, including 25 with disabilities, from Hima Rural Municipality received educational assistance, according to facilitator Deepak Shahi.