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Udhauli Parva
Udhauli Parva is the festival of the Kirat community. It is an annual festival. It is believed that this day is to celebrate the migration of birds and animals as well as mark the beginning of the winter season. ‘Udhauli’ means going down, in the winter season birds and animals migrate to lower land that’s how the festival got its name. It falls under harvesting season where Kirat community people worship motherland and nature called Bhumi puja.
This festival falls under December. On this occasion men and women wear traditional dress and perform a special dance called Sakela dance or commonly known as Chandi Naach. They perform Sakela dance in a circle and dance in a beat of the dhol, jhyamtas, etc.
Yomari Punhi
Source: https://www.onlinektmnp.com/
Yomari Punhi is another festival especially observed by the Newari community of Nepal. This festival is celebrated for marking the end of the rice harvest. This festival takes place usually in November or December. This year it was celebrated on the 19th of December on the same day as Udhauli Parva. On this particular day, a special sweet dish is made called Yomari. Yomari is made of rice flour and it is made in a fish-like shape with brown cane sugar and molasses filling. It is then steamed and eaten. This is a very special delicacy of Newar people.
<YouMe School, Khotang>
As we gradually settle in with the Covid situation, we share with you the fresh updates of our students regularly attending school. We hope the situation will only get better.
Through this project, we facilitated students with a school bag that could make their daily life convenient and accessible. We are grateful for the support we receive to make this project a success and a reality.
Sports Archive
Recently we made a new addition to our sports equipment, a new table tennis board was bought for the school. We believe table tennis is one of the ideal sport for a school and students. This table tennis is portable and has foldaway tables making storage easy. In the picture, we can see our students enjoying the game indoors.
Nutritional Screening Program
The nutritional screening program was conducted in YouMe School lately. Our certified Nurse, Nisha Rai did a screening of students and teachers.
She took a general examination of body weight history and lifestyle behaviors.
We do the screening program every six months.
This time, the assessment of the basic health status was good overall, according to Nisha Rai. A very few students noticed the issue of being overweight otherwise, we are happy to share we are on balance.
Presentation Contest
As a part of the program, our students participated in the Presentation Contest. We generally do this kind of contest to encourage the students for their direct involvement in learning about nutrition and healthy living related facts and figures. This competition was between students of Sakura House, Rhododendron House, Marigold House, and Sumire House.
Two students in a team from each house participated in the Presentation Contest. Finally beating the other three houses the students from Sakura House, Utsav Basnet, and Deepa Rai claimed the victory. They were rewarded with stationery items for their achievement. Every house’s effort was celebrated and lauded. The competition ended with a very informative outcome.
<YouMe School, Biratnagar>
Playground Diaries
We can see our students enjoying the Merry-go-rounds ride. We might see different versions and designs of the equipment. We have four seats and only four students can accommodate at a time. The steel bearings inside the center post make this thing spin. We can call this a manual merry-go-round. This ride spins by pulling or pushing on its handle. Also, it spins by running around the outside by someone. Our students often enjoy a ride during their lunch break time.
Another play item we have in the school is swing. This swing seat and handle we had customized considering students’ comfort and safety. The seat and handle to hold on can prevent students from falling or injury.
Our students love to play kendama and learn new tricks. Commonly known facts about this ancient Japanese toy focuses on hand-eye coordination and patience. Made of a handle and ball connected to a string, provides endless challenges to juggle the balls in three cups. Having Kendama as a plaything has improved students’ focus, creativity, and patience for excellence. We can see the excitement of landing the juggle.
Friday Event
We had a last Friday event after a very long time. The Covid situation made us reluctant in conducting events lately. We could see the students overpouring happy emotions to compete and play with each other after a long time.
Hot Potato Game
This is a very fun and entertaining game for kids of all ages. In the event, we had contestants from different classes as we made it free participation. In this game, students pretend that they have a hot potato in their hands and pass it around making sure it passes it off as quickly as possible so they don’t get burnt. A potato in the game we made a ball and pretended it to be a hot potato. In the middle, we could see a student blindfolded with a drum. A blindfolded person beats the drum meanwhile students keep passing the ball when the drum stops the one who lands with the ball gets eliminated. We saw full participation of our students and having a gala time with each other. The winner who stood out in the game was Nishu Sardar from Grade I.
Japanese Bag Distribution at our school
As a part of our major project, the Japanese Bag Distribution, we distributed the bags for the students of our YouMe School too. The students from Grade I to Grade IV were gifted the bags. School bags are an essential part of school life. We are delighted to see the smile on the faces of our students.
<Bag Project>
We completed the distribution of the Japanese Bag in the 89 schools of Halesi Tuwachung Municipality in Khotang. Our belief to make every kid feel equally important actually made this project special and outstanding. When Covid hit worldwide we were in the mid-process of our second bag project. Our ongoing plans were interrupted when the government decided to shut the nation off by imposing the first-ever lockdown in the country. After months of lockdown gradually the government started loosening the restrictions and we resumed the work. Soon after that, we fast-paced the work, and finally bags arrived from Japan to Nepal via air. But unfortunately, the Covid situation got uncontrollable and the second lockdown happened once again.
A comprehensive and well-structured plan was made before heading out to Khotang for the program. We had 2888 bags to bags to deliver to its different destinations safely. We had teams and volunteers working to conduct the program smoothly.
Access to quality education is not only the major concern in most Government schools but proper school bags are too. Like a quality education, a school bag is a necessity for school-going children. We could see students of rural areas students carrying their books in their hands which itself is a very difficult task when you have to walk hours back and forth for school every day.
We value the fact of having an appropriate school bag that can help them carry their belongings, books and stationeries safely. We are optimistic that this bag support program will make striking difference in student’s life helping them manage their daily routine going school. Furthermore, we expect students are encouraged and have improved learning conditions so that they can focus and get better results in school.
Discord Project
On the 29th of November, Monday our first-ever Zoom meeting was held with the students of the Higashiyamato school and our YouMe students. Being the first meetup it didn’t look and feel like their first meeting and seeing eachother. They seemed very comfortable with each other.
In the meeting, our Founder Sharad Chandra Rai shared his experience and story of him establishing the organization and schools. His journey from Nepal to Japan. We are sure all the students took inspiration in dreaming big and achieving it. In the meeting we had a powerful and efficient team from the GLI sharing and assisting the meeting. Students talked about their hobbies, dances, music bands.
They even sang and danced. We could see students bonding with each other very strongly. The second meeting is up in the planning.
Tagaki International Speech Contest
When starting with the contest, we were vaguely sure about the possibility of the contest given the Covid crisis then. But we are so happy to share that we made it to the finals. The contest had a very well-structured and unique format. The final program was on the 27th of November, Saturday.
All the students from the respective school, Nepal, Japan, and Mongolia performed in their chosen topics. In between the contest, our students from YouMe School, Khotang performed a group song. Likewise, a group of Mongolian students also showcase a beautiful dance performance.
This virtual competition was a wonderful experience for our students. From April till November we had a great learning journey where we got to know about the Japanese culture and Mongolian culture in the meantime with the taste of their individua characteristics. We had judges from Japan, Nepal and Mongolia.
Our two students from YouMe School, Khotang were able to bag the title of the best speaker by Susana Rai and the best idea award by Sisam Rai. Nevertheless the result, we sensed everyone in the competition was actively involved in this exciting event.
World Festival Project
A part of our effort to introduce our students to various opportunities coming from different countries, we think is appreciating and respecting the countries heritage and culture. In this project we are doing a cultural based program with Nitobe School in Japan and YouMe School, Khotang. The main theme we share is enjoying together.
The first virtual meet-up happened on the 13th of December with our students from Khotang and Nitobe School Japan. They discussed on various topics like festivals, music and dance. We feel this kind of program brings an ability to experience each other’s country’s background, humanity and diversity. The next meet up plan is in progress.