| joie de vivre |
Posted
on 02-May-02 08:46 AM
Minnesota Advocates is a volunteer-based, non-governmental, non-profit organization dedicated in the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights. The Children’s Rights Program of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights promotes and protects the fundamental rights of children.
The One School at a Time Project seeks to educate retailers and consumers about the harmful effects of child labor and to promote opportunities for child laborers to attend school. The Campaign is sustained by a coalition of individual volunteers, organizations, and concerned others. Minnesota Advocates and a volunteer committee have formed a partnership with the village of Sankhu, Nepal to support the Sankhu-Palubari Community School for children who are at high risk of becoming child laborers.
Why the Sankhu-Palubari Community School in Nepal? As of 1995, the average life expectancy in Nepal was 55 years, adult literacy was 41 percent for males and 14 percent for females, and only 52 percent of children completed a primary school education. These statistics are some of the worst in the world. Dozens of brickyards surround Kathmandu and each day children make and carry thousands of bricks each day. Not only is the work arduous, the children are at significant risk of injury from strain, falling bricks, and respiratory illness from dusts.
Donations can be sent to:
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
310 Fourth Ave. S.
#1000
Minneapolis, MN 55415-1012
Tel: 612-341-3302
For more information on MN Advocates for Human Rights, click here: http://www.mnadvocates.org
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| arnico |
Posted
on 03-May-02 01:38 PM
Hi JDV,
Nice to see you back on kurakani. Thanks for posting the information. Every little support for education in Nepal is great...
I do have a few questions though about the information you included in your motivational presentation.
>Why the Sankhu-Palubari Community School in
>Nepal? As of 1995, the average life
>expectancy in Nepal was 55 years, adult
>literacy was 41 percent for males and 14
>percent for females, and only 52 percent of
>children completed a primary school
>education. These statistics are some of the
>worst in the world.
Your paragraph above describes Nepal in general... do you have any statistics from Sankhu itself, perhaps from the latest census (and if not, can someone in kurakani who has access to it provide it?) It would sound to me that the life expectancy in towns within the Kathmandu Valley are probably significantly higher than the country average...
>Dozens of brickyards
>surround Kathmandu and each day children
>make and carry thousands of bricks each day.
>Not only is the work arduous, the children
>are at significant risk of injury from
>strain, falling bricks, and respiratory
>illness from dusts.
>
I have spent some time wandering around a few brickyards in the valley. It seems that many of the laborers are temporary immigrant workers from Bihar (often with entire families living in temporary shelters). I am not sure what it would take to get these children enrolled in school... does your school in Sankhu make an effort to recruit these children?
Also, if you are particularly concerned about child labor in brick yards, have you considered supporting schools in parts of the valley with particularly large numbers of brickyards? As far as I know (from maps in air pollution reports), the heaviest concentration is southeast of Patan (Godavari and Lubhu roads area), and around Bhaktapur. I actually don't have any data on factories existing near Sankhu, but then again, my data sources are outdated, and I will be field-verifying them over the coming year.
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