ASKNEPAL

 

 

8th AGM of Alumni Society of Kshamawati

 

The 8th Annual General Meeting of our Society was held on 21st November 2020. In the special situation of health crisis of the country owing to COVID pandemic, the eighth Annual General Meeting has been held on the Zoom medium.

As it was a virtual meeting, our former student and teacher members of society from various geographical location participated in the meeting.In the meeting, the school representatives informed that classes will resume sometime coming week with all the health precautions such as compulsory masks, hand washing with soap water and maintenance of physical distance. This puts to an end to long deprivation of education to the students, 80% of whom are comprised of highly marginalized community of Thami community.

 

On that historic day, they were not only overjoyed by the reunion of old friends and teachers but they also pledged and committed to do their best for the welfare of the school. For this purpose they formed a Society of the alumni, which was later formally registered in the District Administration of Dolakha. The society has regularly held annual general meetings and the executive committee meets every month to discuss the activities of the school and the society. The three annual general meetings of the society so far held had become great platforms for the repeated reunions of old friends of Kshamawati. The events became an occasion to share the weals and woes of the friends. At the same time, the members of the Alumni have actively contributed their precious time and other resources for the welfare of the Kshamawati School.

The school has made remarkable progress due to this active interaction with its accomplished alumni. The teachers got many new ideas and experiences from their interaction with the alumni which in turn has given a positive aura while they perform their sacred duty of imparting education to the students of this underprivileged village inhabited by the highly marginalised ethnic community of Thami people. The school was equipped much better with computers, science instruments and other teaching materials gathered with the assistance of the society. The trees, shrubs and other plants around the school were tagged with scientific names and local Thami names besides the common Nepali names of the plants. This has then become an open laboratory for learning botany as an example. For the past few years, the school has been receiving international visitors every winter who contribute voluntary labour for the various construction works and also make some financial contributions for the school. This international interaction has also helped the teachers and students with an international exposure.

On 12th and 25th April 2015, Nepal experienced a series of disastrous earthquakes. The epicentre of the second earthquake was very close to this school. The disaster struck the school with complete damage of 6 of 7 structures of the complex. This added the responsibility of the alumni in a big way and they rushed into immediate action first for the relief and later for the rebuilding. With the active help of the Alumni, recently a girls hostel building has been completed and the reconstruction of the main building is currently underway. The strong support of the Alumni proved to be a great psychological backup during traumatic period of post earthquake which eliminated all the residences of the each and every students and teachers of the village. It took quite a while for the students and teacher to recover from the traumatic experience of unprecedented loss of property for each and every household without exception. The alumni members who repeatedly visited the school during the time helped the students and teachers to come back to normal life.