Articles from Alumni Newsletter Spring 2001
The Indian Foundation
The Nepalese Foundation
The Thai Foundation
The Tibetan Foundation
The Vietnamese Foundation
POCT scholars
Pestalozzi Centres-
in Budhanilkantha School, Nepal,
in Sri Sita Ram School, Nepal
and in Kasisi, Zambia
Networking the Pestalozzi Family
Letter from a Nigerian alumnus
Aggrey Kwiliko, ex-POCT scholar from Zambia writes about the International Baccalaureate (IB) course he is on
Chilufya Mwamba, Zambian IB student at Pestalozzi Village writes about her experiences in the UK
The Pestalozzi Foundations and their Members
So far the Indian Pestalozzi Students Trust has completed the sponsorship of 15 children and is currently sponsoring 30. Most of them are in Thane near Mumbai, looked after by Manjiri Chunekar. Sabir Vhora looks after one of them and 5 are in Himachal Pradesh, looked after by Yashpal Kapoor. The responsibility for the India Foundation is increasingly going to be taken by the younger generation of alumni, especially since Manjiri is now moving into her own project of setting up and running a home for orphans. The following piece is written by her:
It was my seventh reunion. Since 1993 I have attended every reunion that the ex-Pestalozzi students have organised. It has always been fabulous, something special every time.
Meeting long lost friends, discovering great work done by many of them in their own countries, taking inspiration from each other, confiding darkest secrets, remembering old times, singing late into the night, and returning back after a rejuvenating experience. I wish more ex-pests would join in. They don't know what they are missing.
The Chiangmai reunion was once again a great experience. For me, meeting Pimporn and Wunchai after 30 years was really something. They both are still the same as they were in school. The genuine love and affection showered on Lady Diana Butler after her miraculous recovery and the empathy for Janwipa in her hour of difficulty must have touched the very core of any newcomer's heart. The song, dance and merry making did not spare even the stern headmaster from Nepal.
But all good things have to end. I have drunk my cup full. My new project would start soon and would leave me no time to join the reunion, at least for some years to come. The younger generation of the Indian contingent have promised to be more active and present in large numbers in future reunions. Joanna had asked me to write a small piece on the reunion for the first time. I am also making it a goodbye message to all my friends. I have thoroughly enjoyed being with all of you though for a very short time every year. I wish the greatest of success to the future reunions and I am sure day by day more and more ex-pests will get together and promote our cause.
The Nepalese Foundation
The Pahad (mountain) Association was registered in April 2000, as a non-government organisation (NGO) in Kathmandu. Membership subscription is its main income. Its main objectives are to help deserving children from deprived family backgrounds to obtain an education and to promote the ideals of a Pestalozzi Education, which follows the principles of developing the Head, the Heart and the Hands.
The Foundation will sponsor 4 children - 2 boys and 2 girls - from the beginning of the new academic year in July 2001. Pestalozzi Village graduate Ghanashyam Ranjitkar is now working as the Pestalozzi Overseas Asia Co-ordinator and is a founding member of the Foundation.
After seven years of working in Butwal in Nepal on micro-hydro electricity projects, he moved to Kathmandu in 1999 to join the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) offering his technical expertise and experience in sustainable micro-hydro electricity projects.
In May 2000 he set up a private consulting firm, 'Energy Systems', with two of his friends, to provide services in the field of micro/mini hydropower and renewable energy. He asks anyone who might require his services in the energy-related sector, to get in touch with him.
Congratulations to Umesh Hamal who married Laxmi Pant this February
The Thai Foundation
The Thai Foundation for Further Education has 12 secondary school graduates - five of them have gone on to university and 4 are doing HNDs. The Foundation has 88 students at school level.
The Foundation is planning the Thai Pestalozzi Chiangmai Project. This would involve, in addition to their current work, setting up a Pestalozzi Village in the North of Thailand. This Village would be self-sustaining and would provide skills training for the 50 resident students.
Congratulations to the following Thai Foundation Pestalozzi Village graduates
The Tibetan Foundation
The Pestalozzi Tibetan Children's Foundation continues to sponsor 4 children - 2 Tibetans and 2 Indians. The work of the Foundation is carried out by Phuntsok Tashi, who, being very busy with the Technical Centre for Tibetans at Dehra Dun, India, intends to keep the number of children sponsored small until the POCT graduates of the Tibetan's Children's Village and the Tibetan IB graduates of the Pestalozzi Village are able to help him run the Foundation.
The following is an extract from the letter sent by Phuntsok to the Reunion 2000, and describes the progress of the Technical Centre that he has been responsible for building and running:
I am delighted to let you know that the progress of the Training Centre Project is coming along extremely well. With the construction work at last coming to an end, it was time for the training to begin. And begin we did on 1st August 2000 with a small formal dedication ceremony. Altogether 134 trainees have enrolled into 19 different courses, ranging from metal and woodcraft courses to computer application to motor mechanics to the hotel trades. In keeping with our overall aim of promoting employment in the Tibetan refugee community, all the courses are very much practical with a duration of 2 years leading to certificate or diploma qualifications. The most popular of the courses were found to be the hotel and service trades like bakery and restaurant services, hotel reception, as well as secretarial and computing courses. While those requiring more sweat (like metal work, building construction etc.) were naturally not as popular. On top of their practical skills the students are also required to take general courses in Tibetan, English and Applied Maths. They are encouraged to take up sports and other recreational pursuits. Special stress was laid on the enrolment of girls and we are pleased that they make up nearly half of the total population. The students live in purpose-built Youth Houses with their own cooking facilities and are expected to manage their own affairs as far as possible.
It is almost exactly 6 years since this project first started and I must say I am glad that the physical part of the work is coming to an end. It has been hard work and we are happy with the outcome. We pray that the next stage of the work - that of consolidating the training programme - will be as successful. Whatever small contribution I have made personally in the development of this important project for the youth of my community, is all due to Pestalozzi and for this I shall always be eternally grateful.
The Vietnamese Foundation
The Vietnamese Pestalozzi Foundation, based in England, continues to sponsor 4 children in Vietnam.
Thong Van Pham, a Pestalozzi Village graduate and the Treasurer of the Foundation has written the following account of his life experience:
'I was a member of the Vietnamese group that arrived at Pestalozzi village in the summer of 1971, having spent the first ten years of my life in war torn Vietnam.
Upon arriving at Pestalozzi, I remember being greeted by many people. At first I thought they were Vietnamese because of their appearance, dark hair etc. Although I was shy, I did feel at ease with them, until they started to talk in this strange language which I did not understand and, over the next few days I began to realise this strange language was 'English'.
Whilst at Claverham Community College I had the saddest news of my life, South Vietnam that I had always known and where my family still lived had lost the war. It was then I realised I might never be able to return to Vietnam, as I was supposed to after my education.
After my education, knowing that I would not be returning to Vietnam and having had no news from my family for seven years, I was determined that I would visit Vietnam again to be with my family. But there was one small problem - 'money' and a new passport.
The passport was the easy part, being classified as stateless, I was granted British citizenship in 1984 and embarked upon my working life.
Vietnam during this time was still in turmoil; her border was closed to most countries and visitors alike. My desire to see my family grew stronger until 1992 when my chance finally arrived. I visited Vietnam for the first time since 1971. It was a very emotional moment seeing my mother with a plaque with my name at the airport; also there were my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews all welcoming me home. I stayed in Vietnam for four weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Since then I have made the trip every two years.
In 1997, a few members of the Vietnamese group started the Vietnamese Pestalozzi Foundation with the help of the Pestalozzi Overseas Trust. We are at present sponsoring four students in Vietnam. Having just returned from Vietnam, I have pleasure in reporting that all the students are studying very well and one has done especially well - he has gained a transfer into one of the best schools in Ho Chi Minh City.
Thanks, all for now. All the best and regards to all Ex-Pests.'
The Pestalozzi Overseas Children's Trust
Pestalozzi Overseas Scholars
POCT continues to sponsor students in India (including Tibetans in India), Nepal, Thailand and Zambia.
India: 4 at different colleges in Bihar and 13 at Gurukul near Pune in Maharashtra. The Indian Foundation looks after the students at Gurukul.
Tibetans in India: 50 at the Tibetan Children's Village, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh.
Nepal: 36 at Budhanilkantha School, Kathmandu, 6 at different colleges in Kathmandu and 24 at Shri Sita Ram School in the far west of Nepal.
Thailand: 22 of the 88 students supported by the Thai Foundation are funded by POCT.
Zambia: 64 girls at the Pestalozzi Centre, Kasisi, and 10 at the Kasisi Girls Secondary School, both near Lusaka.
The Pestalozzi Centres
a) Budhanilkantha School, Kathmandu, Nepal
Crops
Compost Project
Bee keeping
Hydro-power
Pestalozzi Vocational Workshops
Based on a report by Ghanashyam Ranjitkar
b) Shri Sita Ram School, Far West Nepal
A small scale project has been underway at the school since 1997, as a result of which
Ropeway and electricity for the village
c) Kasisi, Near Lusaka, Zambia
My Life at the Pestalozzi Children's Centre, Kasisi
I have done many things in my life - nursing, teaching, farming, travelling and even working for two years in England.
Though I had lived most of my life in Lusaka, I had never known Kasisi, which is only 30kms from town, until I found myself travelling there to be a Matron and Housemother at the new purpose-built Pestalozzi Children's Centre. It wasn't difficult for me to pack my bags and leave my home, my daughter and my husband because I was used to working and travelling away from home.
I began work at the Centre on the 5th September 1998. By the end of my first week, 35 children had arrived. All of them looked lost and unsure of what to expect, which is how I felt as well.
The building work was still going on around us. Cooking was done on an open fire out in the open without cover, water came from one standpipe, there were no floors or windows, no gate or security, and my flat wasn't completed so I had to keep changing rooms. But as the girls all came from rural villages they were experienced in dealing with these things and we soon all pitched in to community life.
In the two years the number of girls increased from 35 to 64. A Housemother has joined us called Agness Tembo. Stephanie Greenwood, a VSO from England has joined us as Skills Training Programme Manager. The building work is finally completed and the girls are all happily settled and enjoying community life.
My daily routine is from 4.30am to 9.00pm which are the waking hours of the girls most of whom begin school at 6.30am. Upon waking I have to ensure the girls get up and see to their morning tasks, organising the workers. The Housemother has to report to me anything I may not be aware of such as illness, complaints or disobedience. The cook must let me know what is needed in the way of food, cleaning materials and sundries, and once or twice per week I must drive the 30 kms. into town to buy supplies.
For me, though the responsibilities of Matron/Manager are many, this place has become home sweet home. I have become skilled at what in Europe and America is called 'multi-tasking' - buying food and supplies, organising staff, what to cook, obtaining firewood for cooking, uniforms and clothing for the girls, health and welfare, monitoring water and watering the gardens, book-keeping, attending to visitors and enquiries, teaching domestic responsibilities and skills to the girls as well as keeping discipline and order.
Evelyn Kinyabo - Matron/Manager
Pestalozzi Children's Centre, Kasisi - Skills Training
I arrived here from England at the Pestalozzi Children's Centre in Zambia on the 29th June as a volunteer with the organisation VSO in the role of Skills Training Programme Manager. I love my job, love the location, and have become very fond both of the wonderful Matron, Eva Kinyabo, and all the girls. Whereas in England I was mother to two daughters, here I have become mother to 64!
My first priority was to get to know the girls (and their names!) and to learn about where they came from - their families and their villages. After I arrived I began working with the girls in small groups and conducted 8 separate 'Getting to Know Each Other' sessions, which the girls enjoyed, and they became much more relaxed with me.
What I learned from the first Workshop, teaching the medicinal, insecticidal and culinary uses of garlic, followed by a practical session in the garden, was the importance of backing up any practical skills with classroom work, as well as the importance of creating an awareness of the personal benefits to them and their families. Which ties in rather nicely with what I understand the Pestalozzi philosophy to be about - head, heart and hands.
At the end of July I accompanied the 17 girls who were returning to the Mpika area in northern Zambia on the 9-hour journey by 'Post Bus'. I wanted to experience first-hand what their lives were like in their rural villages. My journey to Mpika was an eye-opener for me. I visited most of the girls' families, hitchhiking and trudging everywhere on foot, and wandered around the markets. I also visited a farm shop and the Mpika Youth Skills Training Centre where young people can learn carpentry and tailoring (and took a photo for the girls of a young female carpenter with her furniture!). What struck me the most was the desperate food and water situation, the lack of vegetable gardens and also the lack of any resources, either physical or financial, to start up enterprises.
I have since been contacting and meeting with people from both NGOs and community groups. I have also been talking with people from craft projects, Village Industries, The Recycling Project and agricultural projects. Many of the teachers at the local school have been taking courses at our local agricultural training centre so they are a potential source of trainers in such skills as bee-keeping and mushroom growing. I have met a woman who runs the Solar Health & Education Project based in Kenya who has agreed to come and teach how to build solar cookers out of milk and juice cartons. And I have met several professional Zambian women who have agreed to come and talk to the girls about their jobs. I am also planning to have a representative from 'Women for Change' talk to the girls about gender equality. And we are planning an annual event around HIV awareness, as this is an ever-increasing problem here. And my list of potential topics and trainers for skills training just keeps on growing.
Realising the importance of food security I have been using the gardens as a classroom, teaching them how to grow a variety of vegetables and improve their diet. I have also done a session with them touching on agro-forestry and we have set up a tree nursery. In each session I include environmental science topics in the classroom work which they can then apply in the garden.
I have set up a 'library' in the office and am teaching the girls about library skills. Two senior girls are acting as monitors, responsible for managing book borrowing. A Zambian librarian will be coming to teach them properly.
Once the office is up and running the girls will have the opportunity to learn office skills and training in how to manage a small business. Many girls have asked to learn how to use the phone and we have had many laughs practising phoning my more amenable friends in Lusaka. I like to work in such a way that I respond to their needs as they crop up, letting their interests guide me.
I have been working very closely with the Matron, constantly seeking her advice and input into what I do. Though up to now, both the Matron and I have been providing the actual teaching of skills, once we have completed the setting up of the workshops, we shall begin the Skills Programme in earnest, employing local trainers.
Stephanie Greenwood - Skills Training Programme Manager
Pestalozzi Children's Centre, Kasisi
My name is Tasila Nyangu. I am a girl of 15 years and have just finished Grade 8. I am from Mwzavi village in the Luangwa district of Zambia. I come from a family of five and I am the first born.
I was selected to come to the Pestalozzi Children's Centre in Kasisi when I was in Grade 6 and have been here now for 2 years. I was very happy when I was selected. When I was at home I never imagined that I would find myself here in Kasisi which is such a nice place. From the first moment I came here I have been very happy because of all the new things I am learning and because of our Guardians who are such nice people and very helpful and are very important to our lives.
Our Centre has 8 dorms and a courtyard in the middle. We have vegetable gardens and a field for our crops. We have many different kinds of beautiful flowers. We have trees which bear many different fruits such as mangoes, bananas, paw-paws and lemons. We usually sweep our place to keep it very clean, and help with the cooking and wash our own clothes.
I have a lot of friends here from many different provinces. My best friend is called Tayana. My favourite sport is netball. I like going to Church, especially on Sunday.
I spend most of my time studying. My favourite subjects are environmental science, English, civics, history and religious education. I have been going to the local Basic School with the other girls, but this year my school report was very good and I had very high marks in my exams. I have been accepted by Kasisi Girls Secondary School, which is a boarding school here in the village and I started one month ago. I have a lot of catching up to do and have been copying notes from other girls to prepare for starting Grade 9.
Here at the Pestalozzi Centre there are many different kinds of things that we do, such as: sewing both by hand and with a machine, knitting, plaiting hair, pounding maize, cooking, weeding and watering the garden. In the garden we have learned how to plant carrots, tomatoes, okra, garlic and onion, and how to make our soil healthy. We are learning about nutrition and the importance of eating many different things. We have started a tree nursery to grow our own firewood. In our fields we grow crops like maize, beans, groundnuts, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
I am very thankful to Pestalozzi which has given me this opportunity to be here. I feel like I have to work extra hard both at school and in skills training. I am very grateful to all the staff here at the Centre who have been caring for me since I came here. I am also grateful to the workers who helped build the Centre. I always thank God for my opportunity and ask Him to help me so that I may finish my education and start helping my family and other people in the way that Pestalozzi is helping me.
Tasila Nyangu - Student
Networking the Pestalozzi Family
1 The Reunions
The Reunions held regularly for the Pestalozzi Alumni continue to create an opportunity for reminiscing about old times, and for gaining inspiration and ideas from each other for future projects of the Foundations.
Reunion 2000
The Thai Foundation hosted another great Reunion last October. On leaving after the five-day visit we found that they had taken us to all the sights in the tourist pack of 'sights to see postcards' on sale at the airport, and this in addition to the two days of meetings!
We began in Bangkok, travelling from there to Chiangmai for the meetings via Thailand's ancient capitals of Ayuttaya and Sukothai. While in Chiangmai we were taken to see elephants at work and at rest at Mae Sa Elephant Camp, to a 'Kantoke' dinner where we had a traditional Chiangmai style dinner, while watching a performance on stage which included three elephants. We then had the chance to buy gifts for people at home in Wunchai's shop, which sells goods made out of recycled paper. We also celebrated the end of the Reunion with a party at 'Jiradet's Resort'.
Jiradet had arranged for us to have the meetings and to stay in Chiangmai University's Conference suite. The accommodation was perfect, with delicious food and the meetings were a great success, as usual giving everyone the chance to share information and progress and to make invaluable links.
Many thanks to the Thai Foundation for organising such a productive and enjoyable Reunion.
2 The Summer Camps
POCT has begun holding camps for the scholars with the aim of creating in them a commitment to the Pestalozzi philosophy in an atmosphere of friendship. The camps also help the students form links with each other and with the alumni. They also get acquainted with the Foundations. The Summer Camp held in Kathmandu, Nepal for the Nepalese students in June 2000 turned out to be a huge success. POCT scholars from all over Nepal attended the camp while the Nepalese Pestalozzi Village graduates helped in the preparation for and organisation of the Camp. This camp encouraged and inspired 16 POCT students to become members of the Nepal Foundation.
A Summer Camp will be held for the Tibetan scholars and the Indian scholars of Himachal Pradesh and Bihar in Dehra Dun in the summer of 2001, and for the POCT and Indian Foundation scholars of Maharashtra in April 2001. Some of these scholars will be joining the Foundations as they are due to graduate this year.
3 Websites
POCT would like to help each Foundation, and the IB graduates as a group, to set up their own websites with links to each other as well as to the POCT and PCVT websites. If you wish to make a start, please contact the Pestalozzi Overseas Office in East Sussex (address on back cover) for any material such as photos and background information which you may need to include on your website.
4 The Alumni Newsletter
The Pestalozzi Overseas Office in East Sussex has been producing this newsletter for the last 5 years as a means to enhance networking within the Pestalozzi family. We have a special request to make in this issue. While we are happy to continue our efforts to produce this newsletter twice yearly, we feel that it should be primarily yours. So please do stay in touch with us, let us know what you are up to and contribute articles to this newsletter. We hope to bring out a fatter edition in September 2001, so please send your contributions by the end of August, either to the alumni listed on the back cover or to us directly at the address given there.
News from one of the Nigerian alumni
Waziri Haruna Ahmadu was a member of the Nigerian group of Pestalozzi Village students. He was born in Nigeria in 1960 and came to the Pestalozzi Village in 1973. He studied at Claverham and Bexhill Colleges while at the Village and went on to do an OND in Agricultural Engineering at Ryecotewood College in Oxfordshire.
After leaving England and Pestalozzi in the autumn of 1980, he walked 800km from Malam-Fatori (Borno) to Gurin (Adamawa), both in Nigeria, over a period of 6 weeks with a friend in 1980, after which a book titled The Beach of Morning: A Walk in West Africa, was written by the friend on the walk, Stephen Pern.
Waziri's wife's name is Suwaiba and they have two daughters, Fatima-Zahra who is almost three, and Mariam, who is one and a half.
Waziri continued his studies in Nigeria, doing a B.Eng. in Agricultural Engineering at Nigeria's famous Ahmadu Bello University, and has worked in that field since, now working as a Consulting Agricultural Engineer. At the moment though he is back in the UK doing a year long MSc. in Agribusiness Management at Imperial College, Wye in Kent.
Two of the current International Baccalaureate students write about their experience at the Pestalozzi Village
'IB Glimpse'
Aggrey Kwiliko, an ex-POCT student from Zambia, writes:
Nothing has changed since I was here nine years ago. The buildings and the surrounding areas are still the places I remember them to be. However a whole new atmosphere surrounds Pestalozzi with the new International Baccalaureate Diploma course introduced in 1997.
Students arrive at the Pestalozzi Village after completing their ordinary level education in their countries. Though Pestalozzi is now a village for matured and developed students, education is still regarded as the fundamental tool that it was in the past. The International Baccalaureate at Hastings College is a science-orientated course. It's not surprising that most of the students want to pursue careers in medicine or engineering. I'm one of the few exceptions, as I want to go on and study economics.
The diploma course runs for two years at Hastings College of Arts and Technology. Throughout the two years, six subjects are studied, three at standard level and three at higher level. Students choose from English Literature, Spanish, French, Business and Management, History, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Art and Computer Studies.
However, there is what is called Creativity Action Service (CAS). This is participation in different extra-curricular activities and 150 hours over the two years are spent on this. Students have a chance to go into different schools, old people's homes, blind centres and numerous other places. I personally feel this is important as far as developing awareness of the world is concerned.
Another segment of the course is Theory of Knowledge (TOK). A subject I never thought existed. Theory of Knowledge challenges the basis of knowledge; develops students so that they think critically and do not believe things for the sake of believing. Lastly you have an essay to write on what interests you, consisting of 4,000 words to write up, based on your own research.
Pestalozzi Village is a very unique, ideal and secure environment. You learn a lot from different people, their cultures and beliefs and respect them for who they are. So, despite the course being hard, there is nothing as fulfilling as the relationship you have with people you never imagined you would ever meet.
Chilufya Mwambafrom Zambia writes:
In this world we live in, it is very difficult to learn things to the fullest if you do not experience them.
I remember that years back my parents, teachers and friends used to tell me about the different continents of the world and about people with a variety of cultures and traditions. I used to think Africa was the only continent, which had people who had the heart for others because of the stories I had heard and learnt about the slave trade.
This thinking diminished slowly but surely. I soon realised from the white people I saw in my country that they were kind and well behaved and I watched a lot of films about different people of the world but I still had the desire to see and experience more.
My desire was fulfilled when I was sponsored by Pestalozzi Children's Village Trust (PCVT) to go to Hastings College of Art and Technology which is in East Sussex in England. This has been a real experience indeed. I have met a lot of people at college from different countries like Jamaica, China, North Africa and France, just to mention a few. And of course, there are the English themselves, who I personally can say, are kind and very polite. But one thing I am not sure of is if their politeness and kindness is genuine at times, or if it is just that they want to maintain a good name about their 'Great Britain'. That I don't know!
At the college the course is very challenging and needs people who are principled and focussed on their education. The course involves a lot of practical things like CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) projects, which have taught me a lot of things like being active, confident and able to give a hand to people in need, because I was the type of person who always waited for others to do such things. The other most important thing that I have learnt from these experiences is to interact with different types of people and their cultures, by living at Pestalozzi International Children's Village, which encourages the education of 'the Head, the Heart, and the Hands'. It is so amazing how I have come to feel so much at home and have a lot of fun with different kinds of people like Indians, Tibetans, Nepalese, Africans and British. It is so interesting and valuable to live among different cultures, traditions and religious beliefs. In addition to that, you learn a lot of things and become proud and at the same time humbled.
I have learnt not to be prejudiced about people from what I hear, but I try to get to know and understand people by their origin; this has helped me a lot to maintain my happy social and academic life abroad.
Last, but by no means the least, I thank the Pestalozzi staff for always being there when I need them and the people who have continued to fund the organisation despite the well known fact that money is hard to come by nowadays.