What We Do - Project work
Disability
Children and young people with any form of physical or mental handicap can be severely marginalised within Nepal – in the community, sometimes within the home and particularly within the education system.
We support the educational development of deaf and disabled children through a range of initiatives.
School for Deaf Children, Bhairahawa
EBT has been working with the School for Deaf Children in Bhairahawa since 2000. In that time the attendance has grown from 89 pupils to the present 195.
Our support has extended from revenue (scholarships) and capital support (classrooms, boarders’ accommodation, kitchen/dining block, play facilities and a school bus) to a new initiative offering graduates the opportunity to learn a range of vocational skills.
In 2000, children’s education stopped at class 3 level, with those pupils who wished to progress beyond this level having to transfer to a school for deaf children in Kathmandu. This option was beyond the means of most parents.
Over the past nine years the Bhairahawa school has added on classes up to Class 10, allowing children to sit the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination which equates to GCSE level in the UK.
We are now working with The Zoe Carss Education Trust to build two further classrooms in time for SLC graduates to begin studying in Classes 11 and 12 – meaning they will be able to sit exams comparable to the UK’s A-Level system.
Butwal Disabled Day Centre
This centre provides stimulating learning opportunities to physically handicapped children in the Butwal area (around 20 miles from Bhairahawa). In addition to formal education, it prepares older children for adult life by helping them to develop their own sustainable income generation ideas.
Our funding has enabled the centre to develop an outreach programme whereby skilled tutors visit children who are physically unable to travel in each day.
