As many of our supporters know, we have been attempting to build a school in the small village of “Bunkulung”, on the India/Nepal border for 3 + years now. We have raised the funds through our Schools 4 Schools partners (schools in Simcoe, Bluewater and Peel Counties), and most recently through our amazing new partner, the “Centauri Arts Group” in Toronto.
In January 2006, a farmer donated the land for the school in the small village. The village has a run-down government school for grades 1-5, but no kindergarten and no middle/high school. Thus, most kids finish their education at grade 5, as the 2 hour hike up the mountain to the high school is too grueling, and most cannot afford the fees.
We’ve had the land cleared for a middle school and water has been brought to the site, but political bureaucracy has been holding up the construction of the building proper. For anyone who has read the exceptional book by Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea, they will completely understand that this is a normal situation!
However, while we wait to build the school, we’ve accomplished many great things in the village. Thanks to the financial aid of our supporters, volunteers, Indian teachers, and ET Committee based in the nearby town of Mirik, we’ve hired teachers and have opened a kindergarten, a library and also run English classes in the existing government school. So, despite the many frustrating bureaucratic set backs, we are determined that the children of this village are going to get a school. Every day we get closer, and are confident that our team returning to Bungkulung this Christmas is going to get results.
Bunkulung Kindergarten
The Details:
The primary cause of our delay is based on obtaining the necessary paperwork from the Indian Government. This is due in part to foreign legal processes and political turmoil over a campaign to a ”Free Gorkaland” (free the Nepali people in the region from Indian governance). A series of documents have been “in process” for nearly 3 years. Also, the wait for permission from the Indian government to bring large amounts of money into the country (through what is called their Foreign Contributions Registry Act), is long. We are in the process now of working on various solutions including working with the Indian Consulate in Toronto and seeking out other NGO’s that might assist us.
Below is a letter from two Canadian teachers, Mandy and Steve Bridson, who took a year off teaching in Ontario and went to the area with their 10 year old daughter. Their mission was too build the school. They left the country disappointed, by no fault of their own, about the inability to construct the school. However, they were able to start many amazing initiatives such as the Student Sponsorship Program, Schools 4 Schools, and the above mentioned projects in Bunkulung.
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June 01, 2008
Dear Sponsors,
Having just returned from our trip overseas, I’d like to update you on our “Bungkulung School Build Project”. We left the Mirik/Bungkulung area at the end of March with many happy stories and triumphs to tell about, as well as many trials and tribulations to briefly share.
Elephant Thoughts has been sponsoring six schools in the Mirik region for 10+ years, but the Bungkalung project is our first attempt at building a school from scratch. What a learning experience!
We went last summer with the intention of building the school structure immediately and starting classes in January 2008. We were warmly received by the local community and municipal government into Bungkulung and all parties are excited about the prospect of our school being built and programs implemented. When we arrived, the monsoon season was in full swing and continued on in an unprecedented, long bout of torrential rain that hindered the digging of foundations and the building of the structure. Unexpected political issues, bureaucracy, legalities and differences in business approaches kept us on our toes and we were often frustrated. In fact, as we came to learn, India is one of the most difficult places for a foreign NGO to work because of this.
Trying to obtain all the legal documentation and permissions proved to be very difficult as everyone, from the local to state government, had agreed to the school build in principal, but just as one set of legal paperwork was being completed, another requirement would surprisingly pop-up and we would be told we could not build until the conditions were fulfilled. Adding to the annoyance was the difficulty with escalating political unrest. The people of the Mirik/Bungkulung area are of Nepali descent and the local district is run by a Nepali (Gorkha) council. However, tired of being “low on the totem pole” and answering to the State of West Bengal, half the ruling party split from the other and decided it wanted to try for independence from India. This resulted in fighting between the main parties and smaller independent parties as each took turns calling “strikes”, or days when government offices, banks, schools and local shops were not allowed to open and all motor transportation was stopped. Those sympathetic and enthusiastic about the cause spent the day protesting or parading through town and the rest of the people stayed home and daily life and chores continued as usual. For us, trying to get work done, especially work requiring the input of government officials and lawyers, was an impossibility and a grand test of patience. Because the jeeps that usually took us up and down the mountain from Mirik to Bungkulung were not allowed to run, we had to hike down two hours and back up three to accomplish work at the site.
And so, after eight months in Bungkulung we had succeeded designing the school with the help of an architect, clearing the land and digging the foundation, getting water to the site and having the site blessed in a special ceremony conducted by a Buddhist monk (necessary apparently, for ensured success of the project). We did not get as far on the physical building as we had hoped, but did meet with some successes and support from many government officials including the Minister of Education for the new ruling party (sworn in at the beginning of March). The official documentation is well on its way, and what we were not able to accomplish ourselves has been left in the capable hands of our “Mirik Elephant Thoughts Committee” made up of local school principals and community dignitaries. When we left, the political situation had stabilized and we hope it continues as such.
Not all was as frustrating though, and we achieved some great things in the community in preparation for our school. We were able to assist and sponsor 40 of the neediest families in the surrounding villages by sending their children to school, where they would not have otherwise been able to receive an education. In providing support for these families we witnessed the new-found “hope for the future” transform chronically ill parents into well, productive heads of family and unemployed or alcohol dependant fathers find new inspiration to provide for their families!
We hired 3 new teachers and opened a new nursery-school/kindergarten in a rented house behind the existing government school. We also opened a new library with a teacher-librarian and started an after-school/weekend reading and writing program based in the library. We trained our teachers not only to teach kindergarten, but to run extra English classes as well in the government school, increasing the children’s skill in language and work ethic and serving as role models for the government teachers. We are hoping in this way the children are more prepared for our Elephant Thoughts Middle School when they complete grade five and come to our grade six program (anticipated opening February 2009). We also helped our teachers start an “After-School-English-Conversation” program to add to their exposure to English education and create a fun learning environment for the kids. We built walls in the government school to cut down on the noise and chaos created by 100 kids in the long, open space, with the help of local principals and men. We were also happy to be able to support several local families in the village who were suffering from profound poverty, including a 96 year old grandmother who had been left to raise her three grandchildren alone. The students and community held a ceremony for us, to thank us for the work we had done and the work to come. The children were adorable in their traditional clothing as they sang and danced for us!
We’d like to thank our Canadian sponsors and schools involved in the Schools4Schools project. Please be assured that your assistance is appreciated and your hard-earned money being saved and used wisely. We only wish that you yourself could go to India and witness first-hand, the joy and hope you’ve helped us bring to the Bungkulung community – it is truly inspiring!
Yours Truly,
Mandy & Steve Bridson
Global Education Directors
January 15th, 2010
The Bungkulung School Build project is continuing to move ahead as we deal with a few challenges along the road. Ownership of the land has been an ongoing problem, as it is not custom to give tribal land to non-tribal people. The people of Bungkulung belong to the Limbu tribe and we met with their association shortly after arriving to try and address this problem. There seems to be no doubt that the association supports the education of it’s people in Bungkulung and we’ve assured them that we don’t want to take land away, our only goal is to help educate their children. We’ve suggested that leasing the land may solve this issue and are now waiting for information from the Limbu association as to whether this is a possibility or not.
On occasion there have been a few local community members that have been able to raise some doubt as to whether we should be building a school. This is not our school and we need to remind the people that they will be managing the school and ensuring it’s day to day success, and for this we need the whole community to support our continuation of this project. We’ve asked the community to establish a committee to start overseeing it’s progress. It’s a positive step, in less than a week they’ve formed their committee and called the first meeting, which will take place tomorrow.
