What is particular about Phugmoche?
Phugmoche is a boarding
school for the children of the Sherpa farmers. It lodges and feeds 70
children. About 35 day scholars from the neighbouring settlements attend
school. Together with the boarders they receive a snack at lunch time.
Altogether there are 105 children who go to school in Phugmoche. Besides
teaching all the subjects of the Nepalese curriculum, Phugmoche School also
preserves the Sherpa traditions based on Buddhist religion which the
ancestors of the Sherpa once brought from eastern Tibet. This includes that
the children learn to speak and write their mother tongue, the Sherpa
language. The national language in the multi-ethnic state of Nepal is Nepali
which is related to northern Indian Hindi.
How did Phugmoche come into being?
From 1990 to 1992
the school was built by Lama Ngawang Jinpa with the financial help of Freunde
Nepals (Friends of Nepal), Munich in Germany. The association supported
Phugmoche until 2004. From the planning phase on the project was cared for
and looked after by Anneliese Dietrich. In August 2004 a group of friends of
Phugmoche's founded the Phugmoche-Nepal Association. In the meantime four
further buildings were added to the two original houses. Beneath the ice
capped peaks of the Himalaya, a small school and development centre has come
into being.
How has Phugmoche developed?
Phugmoche offers
education from class 1 to 8. We help our students to obtain the School
Leaving Certificate after class 10 in another school. Most of the boys and
girls, having left Phugmoche, still need our care. They often come from a
very poor family background and cannot expect any support from their parents.
Many of our children are orphans, some do not even know their fathers or
mothers and had to earn their living as child servants. We give priority to those
children. Almost all parents of our children are illiterate. Until recently
the yak herders used to take their sons and daughters up to the high pastures
as helpers. Today they are among our best students. Boys also have the
opportunity of opting for the religious vocation. For those young men we
offer 23 school places at Phugmoche. The other 47 to 50 places are reserved
for children attending the 'regular school' for general education. Only ten
years ago, girls' education was not regarded as necessary. Today, 50 % of our
students are girls.
Our healthcare
has saved some of
our children's lives. Tsering and Cheji were diagnosed as having tuberculosis
in an advanced stage. They had to undergo an eight months' treatment, now
they are in good health. An overlooked middle ear infection caused the
inflammation of Sonam's scull bone. A 'last minute' operation and a full
year's therapy turned the twelve-year-old boy into a happy and healthy child.
Sonam Dolkar, a fifteen-year-old girl, received an artificial heart valve and
thirteen-year-old Pasang was lucky to be operated in time otherwise his leg
would have had to be amputated. Lhakpa Doma had a high fever. We took her to
Kathmandu were she was diagnosed as suffering from a serious pneumonia. Her
lungs were drained in the Intensive Care Unit. She could be cured and go back
to Phugmoche.
The
Micro Hydro Power Station
was inaugurated in
April 2005. Since 1998 the German technical aid (gtz) and the Danish
development agency (Danida) had helped us to plan building an electrical
power station (35 to 40 KW). Now we mainly cook by electricity thus saving
the natural woodland on the surrounding slopes. We are trying to found
cottage industries in order to counter migration into the city. A paper
manufacturing plant has just taken up its production using machines which are
run by our electricity. The proud owner is a former student of Phugmoche's.
We
finance Phugmoche
by donations. 2000
Rupees monthly (about 20 € or 25 US $) or more are needed to send a child to
school in Phugmoche: that includes teaching, board and lodgings and in some
cases even clothing. The families are not in a position to afford to send
their children to a boarding school. The school needs a minimum of 20,000
Euro yearly. We collect the financial means by sponsorships (20 € per month),
but only additional donations can fill the budget and guarantee the existence
of the school. We have to maintain the buildings (giving new roofs for
instance, painting doors and windows, we have to replace furniture, buy bed
cloths, soap etc.). We need help for modernising toilets, showers and
clarification basins. Books and other teaching materials add to the running
costs.
Would you like to help us?
|
Our contact address is:
|
Phugmoche-Nepal
e.V.
Anneliese
Dietrich
Schweinedeich
21
D-25761 Büsum
Germany
|
|
The
telephone number is:
and
our e-mail address is:
|
0049-4834-2668
dietrich-buesum@t-online.de
|
|
Our bank details are:
account number:
bank code:
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Phugmoche-Nepal
e.V.
150122201
at Sparkasse Westholstein,
BLZ
222 500 20
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The international
bank codes are:
IBAN: DE07 2225 0020 0150 1222 01
BIC: HSHNDEH1IZH
|
