Articles from Alumni Newsletter Autumn 1999
Pestalozzi FoundationsPOCT scholars and capital projects
POCT graduates
Report on Pestalozzi Centre, Zambia
Some views on Reunion 1999
Pestalozzi Village News
POCT Staff News
News from Alumni
THE FOUNDATIONS The Pestalozzi graduates' Foundations, which are supported by the Pestalozzi Overseas Children's Trust, sponsor the following numbers of children for education in their own countries: The India Foundation also looks after the eleven POCT children studying in Maharashtra. They are also helping the school where the POCT children study to set up a Vocational Centre. This offers carpentry, practical engineering and gardening among other skills. The Thai Foundation For Further Education also looks after the 50 POCT scholars studying in schools throughout Thailand. The Tibetan Children's Education Fund was established in June 1998 and plans to expand in 2000. The Vietnamese Foundation was registered in January 1997 and plans to expand by another four children in the near future. The Nepalese Foundation is registering this year and plans to begin sponsoring children in 2000. THE POCT SCHOLARS AND CAPITAL PROJECTS The Pestalozzi Overseas Children's Trust sponsors bright but needy children for education at good schools in their own countries. It also supports some of these schools by funding capital projects and Pestalozzi Skills Centres.
INDIA: There are 16 POCT Indian students NEPAL: There are 66 POCT Nepalese students THAILAND: There are 53 POCT Thai students TIBETANS IN INDIA: There are 50 POCT Tibetan students ZAMBIA: There are 59 POCT Zambian students
ZIMBABWE: There are forty-eight POCT Zimbabwean students
The first POCT scholars to complete their schooling are now graduating. Last year, the first POCT scholar got a place to study the International Baccalaureate at the Pestalozzi Village. This was Kanchan Mahali from Bihar. This year, two POCT scholars from near Pokhara, Nepal will be starting the IB in the autumn. They are Khem Raj Badu and Shiva Thapa. Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!
The Pestalozzi Children's Centre The Pestalozzi Children's Centre has now been open for almost a full year. The girls who first arrived in September 1998 found the Centre very different from the way it is now. At that time, the buildings were all being completed, with everyone working hard to get the roof finished before the onset of the rains. This year, after a lot of hard work from everyone, including the girls, we are much more prepared.
The skills' training workshops have been completed, and are getting furnished at the moment, ready for the arrival of a VSO who will run the programme. But meanwhile, after getting back from school in the afternoons, almost all of the girls who don't have homework, or tasks to do in the gardens, are seen busily knitting or crocheting. As it is the cold season at the moment, favourite items are nice warm school jumpers. Other skills such as batik, sewing, hairdressing, etc., have been introduced, but knitting is still their favourite. Throughout the last six months, the girls have been producing some of their own food. A large field was ploughed using local oxen, and the girls planted maize, groundnuts, sweet potato and beans. This has now been harvested and either eaten or stored. Large wooden mortars called m'bende are used to pound up the maize by hand, into either mealie-meal or samp.
This mealie-meal is used to cook the traditional staple dish of nshima. A delicious, hot, filling dish (a little like mashed potatoes) that accompanies almost all meals in Zambia. It is eaten with the fingers alongside dishes of vegetables, fish or beans. Samp is mostly eaten for breakfast, hot and nutty with a little sugar and pounded groundnuts. Other types of food the girls find out in the bush, different tribes have different local specialities, which include caterpillars, mushrooms, inswa (flying ants) and roasted mice! They also love nothing better than to go fishing in the nearby lake, with anything they catch ending up in the cooking pot. The Centre has now taken on another member of staff, Esther M'Buzi. Esther has two roles, one as housemother and one as supplementary teacher, giving girls at the Centre extra English lessons to help them catch up with any schooling that they have missed. This is a big task, as many of the girls have received fairly poor education up to now. Under the hard-working hands of Mr. Tembo, the Centre's gardener, the grounds have flourished. And with the help of the girls, the gardens have produced all types of vegetables. Many fruit trees have been planted, and we are looking forward to the day when we will have a regular supply of fruit to eat. The first chickens to arrive have proved to be a mixed blessing. They are a hardy type of bush chicken, grown to produce eggs, but they like nothing better than to get into the gardens, and polish off anything they can find, before they are chased out again. The girls are learning the arts of self-sufficiency and hard work. All the cleaning and washing of clothes is done by the girls themselves as is much of the cooking and food preparation. This alone is a big job when catering for forty-six, with everything cooked on an open wood fire, as it would be back in their own villages. During August, the school is closed for a full month, when all the girls will go back to their family homes. Some will have to travel for two days to get back, but the excitement of seeing their families again more than makes up for the hardship of the journey. While they are away, the next selections will take place, targeting other rural areas from around Zambia. Mrs. Eva Kinyabo, the Matron/Manager at the Centre, will use her considerable experience to select a further fourteen deserving girls, who fulfil the criteria for entry at the Pestalozzi Children's Centre. This will bring up the numbers to sixty girls resident at the Centre by September, only one year after it was opened, a tremendous feat. A final twenty girls will be selected to arrive in January 2000, to start the Millennium off with the full complement of eighty underprivileged girls from the rural areas, who will benefit from this unique Centre for Children here in Zambia. back to top The 1999 Reunion The 1999 Asian Reunion was held during the last week of May in the Pestalozzi Children's Village. Fifteen alumni from overseas came for the week, bringing their families with them. Many more alumni resident in Britain joined them during the course of the week. The alumni met both POCT and PCVT staff and the students currently studying here.
What came out most clearly from the very successful week of meetings as well as of social engagements, was the great friendliness and enthusiasm of the alumni. This is particularly apparent in how much voluntary time and energy the overseas alumni put into the work that they do for the Pestalozzi Foundations in their own countries. Many congratulations to them on the success of their work! Val Winslade, the Pestalozzi Children's Village Trust Secretary, writes as follows about the Reunion '99: What a lovely surprise it is to meet people in person whom you have only known as a name on a list or whom you have not seen for many years. This was the feeling of several Pestalozzi staff members who have been with the Trust for a long time. The Reunion in May brought back to the village past students for whom it had been their home so long ago. It was an emotional 'homecoming' for many of them. There was the Village itself to explore once again; there were old friends to meet who had to be recognised through the surface changes of maturity and grey hairs; there were staff members to greet once again; and there were lots and lots of new people to get to know. During the course of the week's activities it was so good for us who are based in Sedlescombe to hear from the past students themselves some of the highs and lows of their lives since leaving the Village. We are always being asked by supporters about what happens to the students once they have left here and it is often very difficult to have accurate or up to date information. It was also wonderful for us to get to know them as people and as friends. It makes our jobs so much more worthwhile to have on-going personal contact with our past students and we all enjoyed your visit enormously. Please don't leave it too long before you visit us again. The Reunion 1999 at the Pestalozzi Children's Village - by Janwipa Chongnoncee Our "Village" 'For this was the place where we grew up together. No matter what nationalities, what cultures, what countries we came from, there were no barriers between us, no barriers for the word "friendship". The Village is a unique place, which brings all countries together to live, and to love each other, bringing together whole world in Unity, as a sharing world. We shared the cultures, the knowledge, the food and even the languages. 'We did not appreciate it as much at the time; we were too cold and miserable, too lonely and homesick. It was only after we had left the "Village" that we felt so attached to it, as if it was our second home. This was such a happy moment for us to visit our home again during this Reunion in May 1999. It brought back so many old fond memories and reminiscences. We spent one whole free afternoon walking around the Village and tried to cover every area, even the vast fields and hills behind the Manor House and down to Sedlescombe Village. All the boys, especially, remembered things they had built and made. As we strolled around the Village it made us feel that we were still little kids like we used to be 10, 20, 30 years ago (according to generations). The Village looks exactly the same as it was; the surroundings, the environment, the hills, the trees and all the greens are still there, except for some new building of the new Houses and the very old, worn out Houses in which we used to live. The only different atmosphere is that there are no longer children running around or busy working at their activities as there used to be. The village seems very quiet compared to our time. 'Of course, we realise everything must change as the world is changing all the time. Nothing can stand still forever, all the rules and ways of living must change according to the world evolving around us, but all that we hope for is to have the village remaining with us as long as possible. We hope the Village will be there waiting for us to go back and visit time and time again and to take our children and grandchildren to see the place where we had grown up. It is the only place, for us, where the world can live together as one. Our final hope, - we hope the "Village" will not disappear from our lives.' The Pestalozzi International Development Education Centre 'The Centre works towards creating a more just and peaceful world. It raises awareness in children and adults in the UK and overseas of the value of both similarities and differences in cultures around the world. Its programmes enhance understanding through a cross-cultural approach. Development solutions are sought which value the contribution of every nation, community and culture to the global development process.' What the Centre Does 'Since the Pestalozzi International Development Education Centre (PIDEC) opened in September 1997 it has held a range of workshops and courses for schoolchildren, teachers and the general public both in the Village and outside. Activities have covered cultural exchange and the promotion of international understanding, sustainable development and environmental issues.'In all our activities we draw upon and develop the knowledge and skills of the Pestalozzi students from six Southern countries and Pestalozzi staff. Through engaging in these activities with us, children, teachers and members of the general public are able to benefit from a wide range of knowledge and skills.' (Article taken from the Centre's Newsletter) The Students The Pestalozzi Children's Village Trust now sponsors young people aged 16+ to come to England to take the 2-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Course. During their time here they live at the Village in Sedlescombe and study at Hastings College of Arts and Technology. VILLAGE NEWS
The first group of 20 IB students has just completed the two-year course with a successful outcome. Another ten students have completed half their course and will be joined in September by 20 more new students - keeping the total of IB students at 30. Students taking the IB Diploma Course are from India, Nepal, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tibetan communities in India. They have all been offered conditional places at universities in a variety of countries and are presently trying to secure their places. The number of IB students will be increased to 60 in future years now that the students who were here from the age of ten are no longer resident in the Village. It is the aim of the Trust to educate as many girls as possible as they are often denied further education. So far their aim has been achieved. Those students who have lived at the Village and attended several local schools and colleges since the age of ten upwards, have all now completed their final years at school and are busy applying for their places at University. This group numbers about 40 and includes Thai students.
A group of IB students who returned to Nepal having completed their two-year IB course already have plans to set up a millenium project, providing school and medical facilities in a remote village in Nepal. They are hoping that volunteers from this country will want to join them for the three to six week period. Hastings College and Bexhill College are organising a group to join the project. The Indian students who have returned to Auroville in South India after 2 years, are now involved with teaching and putting into practice the skills they learnt whilst at the Village. As part of the IB course involves community and practical work, it is an ideal preparation for the students. They have worked as teachers' assistants in East Sussex primary schools and have proved to be very capable and confident teachers. Although they will follow a variety of careers, they intend to play an active part in improving the lives of their communities.
(Thanks to Pam Thomas of the Village for this article) POCT STAFF NEWS The Pestalozzi US Children's Charity Inc. The US Charity Directors are Elizabeth Beim, Sir Richard Butler and Johnny Stokes. ALUMNI NEWS Pichet Leekiettianan sent in the Thai alumni news Ghanashyam Ranjitkar sent in the Nepalese alumni news Yashpal Kapoor from India writes as follows - 'I returned to India immediately after graduation and got a job immediately upon arrival. Since then, I have changed two jobs. In all these jobs I have done application engineering in one form or the other. More recently I have been doing quite a bit of business development and technology related projects. About eight months ago I ventured into entrepreneurship by starting the first Punjabi language satellite TV channel. It has been quite a struggle so far but success seems to be round the corner. On the whole it has been an interesting experience along with a lot of hard work. 'So after seven years since returning to India, have I regretted returning? Today the answer is No! But there have been times in the past when I have. India is a tough place to start one's career; and life on the whole is not as comfortable as in England. But, the Indian lifestyle has made me much tougher than I was when I graduated. One learns to be on one's toes almost all the time, as opposed to the lifestyle in England where at least the basic needs are met without much effort. So I am glad to have had such experiences in my younger years than to be faced with them may be when I am slightly older. The other plus point of returning to India is that you are not too far from your family and the society that you were born into. Anyway take care and see you next year in Thailand.' Ghanashyam Ranjitkar from Nepal writes as follows-
'In 1991, he left the Village to return to his home country. He joined Nepal Hydro and Electric in Butwal and was involved with hydropower equipment manufacture and installation. He was working in the power plant capacity of 100 to 1000 kW. In 1993, he joined Developing and Consulting Services also in Butwal as Programme Leader of the Rural Electrification Programme to pursue his interest in the development of micro-hydro electric plants. Micro-plants are classified as plants generating up to 100 kW of electric power. Small streams, which are abundant in Nepal, are suitable for generation at this capacity. This type of generation is also well suited to a country like Nepal, where the villages are very remote and scattered, and where the traditional distribution of the national grid would be very expensive. Micro-hydro has proved to be a very effective method for providing electricity and agro-processing power to all those people in remote areas, who would otherwise still be in the darkness for many years to come. 'Ghanashyam's work included designing electronic devices to improve the reliability of plants and at the same time replacing devices that would need to be imported from abroad. His job has taken him to many remote parts of Nepal from the Far East of the country to the North and the Far West, which gave him a good opportunity to get to know the people of his country well. 'After five years of service in Butwal, he is now in Kathmandu working for the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) offering his technical expertise and experience to make micro-hydro sustainable. Ghanashyam has also taken on the responsibility of POCT co-ordinator in India and Nepal and is organising the setting up of a Nepal Pestalozzi Association to sponsor children's education in Nepal.' Janwipa Chongnonce from Thailand writes as follows - 'After I returned home, I worked as a Staff Nurse in a hospital in my hometown in Chiangmai, North of Thailand, for two years. My first task after returning home was to help support my family; my parents, brothers and sisters. I was able to do this because of the fortunate opportunity that Pestalozzi had provided us with a higher and better education, which we would not have gained otherwise. It led us to reasonable jobs and reasonable pay so that we were in a situation where we could help to support our families. I then moved to Bangkok and worked at the Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital for two years. This is a hospital where all foreigners came for treatment so my English also became the best advantage apart from my Nursing. After that I moved to work for the Regional Medical Centre at the American Embassy. My job here was a Medical Receptionist and Secretary and I was able to take up this job because I obtained my typing and secretarial skills from the 2 years Commerce Course at Claverham. 'I only worked at the American Embassy for 2 years, after that I moved on to work for an American non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). We worked closely with the Ministry of Public Health in developing and transferring health technologies to improve the health of the people of Thailand. We also frequently visited the district and sub-district health stations in the remote villages in all parts of Thailand. The work here contributed directly and tremendously to the country. After 5 years at PATH I had to change job again because as an NGO we had to submit proposals to request for funds from sponsors every year and there were less and less funds to support the projects. This time I changed my field altogether, to work for a Finance Company. The reason I was offered a job here is because in Thailand we work through a contact system. If you know people and they have friends in any company that have jobs available, then they would let you know, but you must be capable of doing the work of course. So I started working with Seamico Securities Company in the investment Advisory Department. After 6 years at Seamico I was offered a job at Krungthai Thanakit Finance and Securities Co. in the Foreign Institution Department. I have been working here for over three years now and it is still my present job. Even though career wise I was not able to contribute so much to the country, it was at the same time that I changed into the Finance field that our Foundation was established, where I could contribute by helping through the Foundation's work. The Thai Foundation also carries the same principles and objectives as Pestalozzi in providing a better and further education for the poor and intelligent children in Thailand. 'In my opinion, our countries still require their native people to return home and help with the country's development. We are still the developing countries, not the already developed countries, therefore nobody knows our countries better than ourselves. We may require technological know how and technology transfer from abroad but the specialists and experts only stay temporarily for the mission, eventually they have to leave. There are only the people of our own countries that should stay on and help through the development of the countries.' Phuntsok Tashi from Tibet writes as follows -
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HOMECOMING
'Immediately after finishing university, I decided to return home in 1978, after spending almost 17 years in England. It was a spontaneous decision; I believed, as I still do, that normally people are happiest in their own community. 'Arriving in a rather strange and extremely hot refugee settlement in South India, Hunsur, where my folks lived, was not the most welcoming experience. During my 17 years in England, I had only been back once for a month after O' levels. It was therefore both a cultural and a physical shock, but I knew people could be very adaptable and very soon I was working in the fields. The biggest problem was lack of employment in the settlement and my contribution in the fields was very marginal to say the least. So, once again, I set forth to North India, without much aim or plan, faintly hoping to meet another Pestalozzi returnee with whom I had discussed setting up a farm project. But of course I did not meet him and I ended up in a clerical position in the orphanage, which had now become a flourishing school called TCV, where I was before coming to England. I spent four years there, got married, had a child, reluctantly changed my taste from beer to 'chang' and became firmly settled in my community. My pay was an abysmal 300 rupees a month, and my wife's 400 rupees. With our combined emolument of almost 10 pounds a month, I led a happy and a flourishing family life, even if by the end of the month I did not have money even to buy my few 'beedies'! But I have always been an optimist in the sense that I have believed that so long as you have friends, family and community something will always work out all right and I have never believed that material conditions were the sole criterion for spiritual contentment. 'After exactly four years, I was once again on the move - Mrs. Jetsun Pema the President of TCV asked me to go and help in building an SOS Vocational project in Pokhara, Nepal. After spending days in trying to locate Pokhara on the map, we made what we believe to be our most hazardous journey into wilderness! I spent the next 12 years of happy and active life in Pokhara, helping to build up the SOS project there, consisting of a children's village, a school and a vocational training centre. My material conditions also improved a little, to the extent that I could afford to have two more children! Exactly to the day after 12 years of returning from England, my third son was born. Since we did not have to pay for the schooling of the children and my wife being a teacher, we could afford the luxury of having such a huge family! Pokhara has a large population of Tibetan refugees of nomadic tribes, who have come over from the central Tibetan 'Jangthang' areas as well as the former Tibetan Khampa guerillas, who were disbanded by the Nepalese government and settled there. The SOS projects were started here to rehabilitate and educate their children, many of whom had lost their parents while coming over the barren wilderness. Without any doubt SOS has done an invaluable job in helping the refugee children in this remote valley who, thanks to this organisation, are becoming part of the mainstream Tibetan community. 'The life of an ex-Pestalozzi community worker is nothing if not nomadic! Once again I was on the move, this time back to India where I was asked to help in designing and building an even bigger technical training centre for the Tibetans. Because of the utter lack of people in the technical field in our community, an economist like myself, who can't even repair a bicycle puncture has to take on such a responsibility! But take it on I have, and we are now in the finishing stages of the construction work of this huge project. 'Once again SOS had come to our aid in financing this important project. It is located in the foothills of the Mussoorie Shivalik Hills just outside the educational town of Dehradun. SOS-Vocational Training Centre for Tibetans, commonly known as SOS-VTC, will be a 300 strong residential trades' school, imparting training in over 20 different vocational and professional skills. The courses will range from driving to metal work to computer application, including a number of courses suitable for girls, such as office management, receptionist and beauticians services. These courses have been selected with the aim of employment generation, particularly with the large proportion of non-academic students and new refugee arrivals from Tibet in mind. 'The first phase of the physical side of the work - i.e. construction and procurement of tools and machinery - is planned to be completed by the end of this year, so that we may start enrolment by the beginning of next year. Initially, there may be some reluctance on the part of our young people to take up this kind of training, bearing in mind the traditional stigmas attached to any kind of trade and manual work. But clearly, we have no options, our young people cannot all become doctors, teachers and clerical workers and we are convinced that guiding them to this line of education is the only viable course left for us. Skill needs in our settlements today, not to mention in future Tibet, have compelled us to start this kind of vocational centre. 'Indeed, because of the lack of qualified Tibetan technical teachers, a large proportion of the faculty in the beginning would be made up of non-Tibetans, either volunteers or on contract basis. Slowly, we hope to have the entire centre managed and taught by Tibetans themselves to encourage our compatriots to take up educational and occupational interests along this line. This will be an enormous source of experience for us. 'We are indeed very fortunate to have a patron like SOS, which has the courage to entrust such work to us. We are determined that this will be a big success for our community. But as I have said, Pestalozzi has brought me up a perpetual optimist and I have no reason to think that this project will be anything other than a big success. My personal advice to you all is be optimistic and love your community. I know when this is done a piece of Pestalozzi shall forever lie here. My prayers and good wishes are with you all.Thank you. Cuong Dang, a Vietnamese living in the UK, writes as follows -
(written by Maurice Murphy, Project Manager)
No matter how the seasons have changed their scenes
No matter how the sky has changed its colour
No matter how the trees have changed their leaves
No matter how many years have gone by
"Pestalozzi Village" will always remain in our hearts and in our minds
Forever........
The Pestalozzi US Children's Charity Inc., was officially formed in 1998 with Section 501(c)(3) registration being granted in may 1998. The charity has been established to enable people in the US to support the work of Pestalozzi and obtain the important tax deductions available to donors in the US.The US charity works in parallel with POCT. It has already been successful in raising funds from donors in the US. In addition to straight donations, considerable funds have been raised by the efforts of Amy Beim's participation in the 1998 Flora London Marathon and then in 1999 by Cesar Estevez, who both flew over from the US to take part in the Marathon.
'I came to Pestalozzi at the age of eleven in 1982, and spent ten of my most wonderful years here. I went to the local school Claverham, and Hastings College for my A levels, before going on to do electronics engineering at Imperial college in London. These were definitely the ten most wonderful years of my life. I had the opportunity to learn so much, and make friends with so many people. Here I got to taste a lifestyle that I couldn't have possibly even dreamt of, had I not come to Pestalozzi. Pestalozzi gave an opportunity to bring out the best in me, not only in academics, but also in extracurricular activities at the schools and in the village. I decided on engineering as a career option, keeping in mind that I would be returning to India and engineering at that time was a good career option; not to mention the fact that maths and physics were my best subjects at school. My three years at Imperial were also very memorable and an experience in itself.
'Ghanashyam arrived in the Village in August 1980 in a group of five students, four boys and one girl, from Nepal. He attended Claverham Community College in Battle and left with six O' levels and an award for craft metalwork in 1985. There were five students from the Village in the same year as him, four Nepalese and one Palestinian. Four of them applied to go to Hastings College of Arts and Technology to study engineering. Ghanashyam chose to study electronics and completed his bachelor degree from the University of Sussex in 1991. He returned to Nepal in the middle of his degree course to gain work experience.
'I came to the village in 1970 and returned home in 1979. I went to Claverham Secondary School for my O' levels and to Bexhill Grammar School for my A' levels. Then I enrolled into Nursing at Hammersmith Hospital and graduated as a State Registered Nurse (SRN) after a three-year training course. I chose nursing because, firstly I guess it was my nature to help people, secondly because my father worked in a hospital where I grew up and saw all the doctors and nurses in their white uniforms so devoted to their work. I was impressed with their sacrificing and dedicated spirits. Thirdly, because I thought nursing could contribute directly to the people, no matter where you are.
'This is a short account of my personal experience of returning home and about our new project, SOS Vocational Training Centre, the first Tibetan Technical School in India being built under the administration of TCV.