Our Activities in 2014

Including Children with Disability in child friendly local governance: One day interaction program

Child friendly local governance CFLG is a project by UNICEF which is started on 2007. A process of making policy and action plan and include child right, voice of child, child representative in local decision making label for the betterment of the children without any conflict among all kind of children, in local unit of government such as District Development Committee, Metro Politian municipality, municipality and Village Development Committee (VDC) is called child friendly local governance. This program is being implemented through the ministry of local development with the technical support of UNICEF. CFLG project has been implemented in almost all district and VDSs of Nepal. In the context of Humla Child Friendly Local Governance CFLG has been implemented in almost all VDC except Limi and few other surrounding VDC. When we are talking about the children, there are many kinds of children and they all have to be included equally in all the local and district level policies, guidelines, workframe and rules/regulations. Such as children from local cast, children from below poverty line, children from backward community. They all are included in the child friendly local governance but government forgot to address a kind of children which is children with disability. Children with disability are also a part of the community. They also have an important role in society building. That’s why National Federation of Disability Nepal with the help of UNICEF conducting these kind of interaction program through the member organization of National Federation of Disability NFDN in all district. Himalayan Education and Development is one of the member organizations of NFDN in Humla. This program will help to include children with disability in Child Friendly Local Governance CFLG.

The program was started on 12 noon on that day. We started this program with short introduction program. We continued the program by showing a presentation about the introduction of Child Friendly Local Governance. The presentation was prepared and presented by Mr Kunga Sanduk Lama an officer of child welfare committee Humla. The presentation contain mainly the reason for this interaction, result after this introduction, introduction of Child Friendly Local Governance, indicators etc. After this presentation we continued our program with a small simulation event. We divided this small event in to two parts. On the first part of the event we ask half of the guest and participant to close their Ear by their finger and listen and understand what the program presenter says. On the second part of the event we asked rest of the guest to close their both eyes with their hand and see, and then the other asked them what they have seen. This kind of activities makes our guest and participant realize the problem and help them to understand about disability.

After this short simulation program we have presented another presentation. This presentation shows the importance of child friendly local governance for children with disability. This presentation mainly focuses on how we can include and drive child friendly local governance to all level of local mechanism and programs. This presentation was presented by our Special Teacher Mr Nirmal Bista. We have conducted a group work after this short presentation.

We divide the all guest and participant in to four groups and give them each topic of four pillar of Child rights: Child Protection, child Development, Child Participation, child Survival. They all have to prepare 10 point about how we can include children with disability in these four pillar of child right and indicator of child friendly local governance. All guest and participant were participated in this group work excitingly. They presented and share their point to all.

Now we move on to Speech Session. Before this speech session we read out the commitment paper among all and asked all to signed on four corner of the commitment paper. The Chief District officer Mr Krishna Bahadur Katuwal gives a powerful speech with the commitment. He promise to all that in the future right of children with disability will be included in Child friendly Local governance. We ended our program with the speech of Assistant Local Development Officer Mr Nara Prashad Sharma.

Especially we would like thank National Federation of Disability NFDN to give us this wonderful opportunity to conduct this program. At the end wej would like to thank all of our supporters, staff and other who helped us to make this program successful. As a result of one day interaction program, all the political leaders and the stake holders expressed their commitment in proper implementation of inclusive child friendly local governance in Humla district by signing in a 8 point's commitment paper prepared by all participants.

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3 months basic computer skill training the people from marginalized community:

Name of The Successful Candidates

following Candidates were sellected Following are the alternative candidates

Congratulation all of the successful candidates. We expected a lot from you all.

HEAD NEPAL TEAM

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HEAD NEPAL successfully Celebrated 23^rd international Day of Persons with Disabilities

On December 3^rd the International day of Persons with Disabilities uses to be celebrated all over the world with different programs/activities. All the (DPOs) Disabled People's Organization and the both the government and non-government organization working for people with disabilities organize and participated in special program on the day to advocate/sensitize the right, needs and voice of persons with disability. In the context of Nepal annually this program is organize by the National federation of disability Nepal (NFDN) with the collaboration with the Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare in National level in Kathmandu. In other part of the country some creative/innovative programs are organized by theDPOs and the District Women and children Office. In the context of Humla the International Day of Persons with Disabilities this year was jointly organized by Himalayan Education and Development (HEAD NEPAL) and District Women and Children Office Humla with the international theame: “sustainable development, the promise of technology”.. District development Committee Humla, Women and Children Office and Head Nepal financially supported the program and Sahara Group Humla participated in the rally and rest of the programs.

On Wednesday 3rd of December (17 Mansir 2071), early in the morning at 8 o'clock, a rally was organized let by the assistant Chief District Officer Mr. Bom Bahadur K. C. The Rally was started from the ground of DDC Humla and ended in Lama Shanskrati Manch Humla. In the rally nearly one hundred and twenty people were participated. Most of the government authorities/officers, political leaders, people from local NGOs, media persons and some persons and children with disabilities were presented in the rally. In the rally the main theme of this year “Sustainable Development the promise of technology” has been internalized and we also made other lots of slogans. With our voice and slogan we tried to aware local people. We walked through the Simikot market where we can find most of the people and post our voice to them. That was the time we have to show up, what we are, what we have done before and what we are going to do in the future. Through the slogan we tried to convince and aware people about disability and the fact about disability. This kind of rally is important because we need public support and positive attitude.

We ended our rally in Lama Shanskriti Manch near to HEAD NEPAL’S office with small events and ceremony which was chaired by the Chief District Officer Mr. K. C. and the program was moderated by Mr. Chhitup Lama. On that ceremony we had organized a small simulation type game. We wanted to make feel normal person about the problems of disability. We blind folded the person and give them a white can and now they have to find chocolate which we put in 15 miter distance in one plate. Who find the chocolate in short period of time would be the winner. And the prize was also awesome. The first prize was Magnifying Glass, the second prize was the guidance book of Disability and a DVD with collection of HEAD NEPAL’S video and the third prize was Guidance book of Disability. Lots of people enjoyed this game and the participant was able to realize the difficulties of a totally blind person. We also planned to distribute the white cane for person with disability, but unfortunately no one was there to receive the white cane.

On that same day we had organized Dohori Program about disability In Radio Karnali Awaj at five pm in the evening. The dohori is totally about disability. On that program about eight students from grade 4 to ten of HEAD VISION HOME were participated. The student of HEAD VISION HOME had sung the Dohori for almost half hour. We had ended this Dohori program with small interview of Chhitup Lama Executive Director of HEAD NEPAL and the station manager of Radio Karnali Awaj Nawaraj Mahatara. In the conclusion the 23rd international disability day was very-very successful for us and other organization that helped and supports us for make this possible. On the rally we didn’t have much people but enough for flow our message about disability. In the future we expect more people who are adding their voice with our voice. We also need all kind of support from all kind of persons for better future but we have to build better present first.

The news by Radio Karnali Awaj 94.2

The news by Radio Kailash 103.4

The program which was live performed in radio karnali Awaj 94.2

Here are some photos of that dya

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Meeting between The Children at Head Vision Home and the children of Przedszkola Chatka Puchatka kindergarten

On 21^st of November the children at Head Vision Home had a wonderful meeting with the children in Kindergarten of preschool Przedszkola Chatka Puchatka in Kwidzyn Poland, where they share their experiences to each other like which food do they like most, how do they get to the school by car, by bus orfoot. In this meeting our 22 children got to know how the life style of polish children is and also the pre-school education in Poland. The polish 12 children also got to know the difference between the Developed city and remote village. They share each other regular routine. We have seen the joyfulness in both side of the children. The meeting was conducted in Skype video call and the call coordinate by our executive Director Mr Chhitup Lama from HEAD NEPAL side and Tomasz Kozakeiwis from the kindergarten side. After this on line meeting the children in the kindergarten are going to send some post card for the children at Head Vision Home and the children here collectively wrote a letter to the Polish children.

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The first 4 months monitoring and observation of Head Projects in the fiscal year 2071-2072:

On 19th of Kartik 2071 (05-11-2014), Head Nepal organized the 1st four months monitoring and evaluation program of fiscal year 2071-72 by the top government authorities and officers of Humla such as Mr. Krishna B. Katwal, the Chief District Officer (CDO), Mr. Krishna B. Kunwar, District Senior Police (DSP), Mr. Tham Narayan Sarma, Assistant Local Development Officer, Mr. Barkha, Chabichandra, and Mun, officers from District Education, and Mrs. Bishnu Kumari Acharya and Mr. Kungasandup Lama, officers from Women and Children Office Humla. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday 5th of Nov 2014, we invited all these government officers to the office of head Nepal in Simikot 3 Humla.

In the beginning, Mr. Chhitup Lama guided the team of government authorities/officers to the site of newly built green-house nearby the office building. Mr. Lama further explained the purpose of the green-house that is to insure the up-season vegetables asnd green-leaves for the children with visual impairment at head Vision Home. The team specially the CDO found the green-house innovative and well made and strongly constructed.

After there, the group proceeded to the office building of Head Nepal. First they observed all the bed rooms of the children at Head vision Home. Later on, the team visited the study/training hall where the student were using computer with the help of screen reader software, some of them never seen before so they are quite surprise with that. After this short observation our student Gaugora Bohora performed a short local Deuda song. This new tone of music makes the officers watch and watch at Gaugora.

After this short musical performance the officers visited the HEAD mini Braille library. In HEAD mini braille library they have found lots of new and innovative things such as tactile drawing, Braille books and tactile map and drawing. We described them the concept of tactile graphic and other materials that we use for the children with visual impairment in teaching and learning.

The short observation ended in our office room and we began the formal program by introducing to each other. And we continue the rest of the scheduled program.

After settling down all the members of the monitoring team, Mr. Chhitup Lama with the assistant of Mr. Reshamraj Rokaya showed them the PowerPoint presentation about HEAD Nepal. This presentation presented how this organization started, what is the mission, vision and objectives of this organization, the work which already has been done and the projects that are going on. The presentation showed the main projects/activities of HEAD Nepal. They also watched the documentary about the Head Mobile Blind School “The activist journey (the hidden light of hope of Humla)”. This presentation exhibited them all the works and activities which we conducted in Humla.

At the very end of the monitoring program, we had warm clothes distribution program. The CDO, DSP and other officers one after another distributed to the children with a set of warm clothes which includes Trouser, Woollen cap, socks and Towel. Actually these clothes were supported by Deb Lewis from Statewide Vision Resource Center in Victoria, Austrilia and Boguslaw Marek (Bob)

It was an opportune and perfect time for these items distribution. We let the government authorities to distribute these clothes to the children. This will add some excitement to the children and Head Vision Home too.

At the end, the monitoring team was very happy to see the progress of Head Nepal and its innovative approach while working with people with disability for the last 3 years. The CDO mentioned that the social enterprise with innovation and great impact can be possible even in the remote corner of Humla that has been demonstrated by Head Nepal as a successful example. Finally they promised for further support in future. They are grateful with our achievement and work flow.

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Completion of Construction of a Green House for the Children with Visual Impairment:

To ensure organic, healthy and enough vegetables and green-leaves for the children with visual impairment residing at Head Vision Home even in winter season and throughout the year, Head Nepal just completed the construction of a green-house with 50 Feet length and 15 feets width. The ISIS/IC Foundation Simikot supported for the construction and Mr. Chhitup Lama, the founder of Head Nepal provided a piece of land near by the center for free for five years. The main purpose of this project is to make sure that the children and the people in the hostel get fresh, healthy and enough vegetables/green-leaves which has social value at the first place. Secondly we believe that the project also has commercial significance that if the greenhouse could grow more vegetables than what is required in the hostel, they will be sold in the local market and it will outstandingly help to generate income for the organization which will be used to manage/develop the home facilities. Moreover the children at the Head Vision Home will be engaged in the process of growing vegetables/working in the greenhouse and they will be trained and developed the knowledge/skill in seeding, watering/irrigating, fertilizing, plantation etc.

We are very grateful to the ISIS/IC Foundation (ADARA Development Nerpal) not only for financial support in constructing the green-house but their constant technical assistants in managing green-house and growing vegetables/greenleaves. A lot of Thanks to the foundation and all members/staffs for their great support on behalf of Head Nepal and the children with visual impairment.

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Four of the Children At Head Vision Home Participated in the Speech Competition in Radio Karnali Aawaj's Studio:

On the occasion of national children day 2071 on 27th of September 2014, four children from Head Vision Home, Gorasingh, Laxmi, Gahugora and Sures participated in the speech competition held in the studio of Radio Karnali Aawaj among the children with disability in Humla district. The competition was jointly organized by the District Children Welfare Board, The Himalayan Innovative Society, Good Neighbors Humla and Radio Karnali Aawaj. The entire program was lively broadcasted through the radio. The topic of the speech was "बालबालिकाको कुरा सुनौँ, बाल दुर्ब्यवहारको अन्त्य गरौँ" "Listen to the Children and Stop Child Abuse" which is the national slogan of the children day 2071. Gorasingh, Laxmi and Sures gave their own opinion on the given title and all of them did very well. In the mean time Gahugora and Gorasingh performed self-composed local songs. All together 6 children with disability were participated in the program. Among them, two were deaf from Sahara Group and tthree with visual impairment. The main objective of the program was to demonstrate the capacity/ability of the children with disability among the general public. And these children have also proved that they can do much better than even regular children if they get proper chance and opportunity. At the end of the program, all the children participated were given some stationaries and cash as prize for their presentation which was ment to encourage and motivate them. IF you would like to listen to the speeches given by these children, Listen to the full speech program.

Listen the recorded Program of Speech Contest

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Ten Days Workshop on Tactile Graphics, Diagrams And English Lesson By Boguslaw Marek Ph.D

The HEAD Vision Home always wants that our children should be good and active at all kinds of activities. To achieve that goal we are very happy to introduce our children with Prof. Boguslaw Marek Ph.D. for the second time in Simikot Humla from 2nd to 11th of August 2014 to conduct workshop in tactile graphics, diagrams and math for blind students. He is a good man with increasable knowledge, with amazing potential and innovative minded as well. More important thing is that he wants to share and teach his knowledge with our teacher and students in such rural area like Humla. He was in Head Nepal in February 2014 for 5 days workshop with teachers and the students with visual impairment. For these ten days he had a series of classes/lesson for the teachers and students in "Tactile Graphic, diagrams, math" for blind and partially sighted students which is not only new in Nepal, but it is also a unique thing in other parts of the world.

At this moment if we say we with the help of the Prof. Boguslaw Marek (Bob) we tought our students how to draw, you may be surprised when you heard this, but yes they can draw as you do. You draw what you see but they draw what they touch by their fingers. And it is important for their education system. This lesson also helps the students to improve their skills at math and English language.

At this moment if we say we with the help of the Prof. Boguslaw Marek (Bob) we tought our students how to draw, you may be surprised when you heard this, but yes they can draw as you do. You draw what you see but they draw what they touch by their fingers. And it is important for their education system. This lesson also helps the students to improve their skills at math and English language.

At this moment if we say we with the help of the Prof. Boguslaw Marek (Bob) we tought our students how to draw, you may be surprised when you heard this, but yes they can draw as you do. You draw what you see but they draw what they touch by their fingers. And it is important for their education system. This lesson also helps the students to improve their skills at math and English language.

During the ten days training we started from scratch to some fine arts. It may not look to you a fine art but in tactile graphic it is a fine art. In start He starts with line and end with the map of tray. That means the student start with line and end with the map of tray. To know what happened in the rest days of the workshop,

Read more about Tacttile Graphic

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Head Projects have been monitored and Head Braille Library has been inaugurated:

On the special occasion of monitoring day of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) project on 4th of July 2014 organized by Women and Children Office Humla, Head Nepal organized an inaugural ceremony of the newly set up Braille Library in Head Vision Home Simikot with the special participation of all the government officers let by the Chief District Officer (CDO), Mr. Sankar Hari Acharya. Actually the team of government officers with more than 20 members including media personnels visited Head Nepal to monitor the activities/programs conducted by the organization. The members of the team were the Chief District Officer (CDO), Mr. Sankar Hari Acharya, The Local Development Officer (LDO), Mr. Shiva Prasad Rijal, The District Police Officer (DSP), Mr. Megh Bahadur Khatri, the District Education Officer (DEO), Mr. Kul Bahadur Phadera and a numbers of other officers from different government offices in Humla. With the arrival of the team the executive director of the organization Mr. Chhitup Lama let them to observe the building including all the rooms of the hostel and office. After visiting the office and hostel premises, Mr. Lama explained the programs/activities that are being conducted by the organization since its establishment. All the members of the monitoring team had a chance to watch a short promotional video about Head Nepal and the project, the Head Vision Home produced by Mr. Tomasz from Kanthari-plus in Poland.

The monitoring team found that the works being done by Head Nepal is highly appreciated the projects are well managed. The children in the home are found very clean enough and happy. The special computer training for students with visual impairment and sewing and cutting training conducted by the Head Skill Development Center are admired by the team. They suggested Head Nepal to expand the project to support even more persons with disabilities in coming days.

In the mean time, Head Nepal had an opportunity to organize a small ceremony to inaugurate the newly set up Braille Library. The CDO Mr. Sankar Hari Acharya inaugurated the Head Mini Braille Library by taking off the curtain covered on the book shale. He further had a short speech in regards to the Braille Library in particular and about the activities of Head Nepal. Mr. Acharya regarded the Head Braille Library as the first and only one Braille Library in the Himalayan and western part of Nepal. He expressed his heart felt gratitude towards Head Nepal and the management team of the organization for taking this initiative of setting up the library and the works done by the organization specially the empowerment and inclusion of the most deprived community of Humli society, the persons with disabilities. The CDO also expressed his commitment to be supportive for Head Nepal.

After while Mr. Kool Bahadur Phadera, The District Education Officer had a few words about the establishment of the Head Braille Library and the support of DEO in running the Head Vision Home, a hostel for blind and partially sighted students in Humla. Mr. Phadera highlighted that DEO is supporting the children with visual impairment in Head Vision Home and he further requested all the line agencies to work together for the development and betterment of the Humli persons with disability.

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Establishment of The Head Mini Braille Library in Simikot Humla:

Humla lies in the north-western corner of Nepal. The services and facilities for the persons with disability in the district are very limited. In this circumstance Head Nepal is the pioneering organization working for the persons with disabilities. Through the special education support, Head Nepal established The Head Mini Braille Library in Head Vision Home in Simikot in July 2014. It is the first and only one Braille library not only in Humla district but in Karnali as well and probably in the entire western part of Nepal. The library is principally meant to be for the students with visual impairment studying in Head Vision Home but in the same time all interested blind people who have easy access to Simikot can get benefited out of this library. There are all together 750 Braille books with different disciplines in Nepali and English languages which include class subject related books, magazines, novels, short stories, children books, grammar and composition, tactile books etc.

The books are not produced in Humla and supported them by different organizations such as the department of Education supported class books for grade one to ten, Nepal Association of the Welfare of the Blind supported with novel, stories, grammar and composition books. Similarly, Vidya Brikshya India and USA supported with Magazines and short story books and The Hungry Fingers Poland supported with tactile books and materials. In this way, The ISIS Children Foundation Humla supported the transportation cost of most of the books from Nepal to Simikot by air. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the organizations that directly and indirectly supported in setting up the library and if you would like to send us any of interesting and knowledgeable Braille books for our blind students, we welcome them with high appreciation and respect!

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Report on the Workshop Entitled: Disability, the Condition of Persons with Disability, the Policies, Provisions, Guide-lines, Plan Made Available for such people and enforcement and implementation of the policies and provisions in Local and National Level

Date of Event: May 29, 2014

Background:

As Head Nepal has been working in Humla since 2011 in the field of people with disability, especially in empowerment, skill development, vocational training, education, awareness raising/sensitization, for persons with disabilities through series of activities and programs, on Thursday 29th of May 2014 Head Nepal in collaboration with District Women and Children Office Humla organized a day intensive workshop on what is disability? How disability is viewed in society? the condition of persons with disabilities in Humla/Nepal, the policies and provisions that are made available for such people and status of enforcement and implementation of those policies in local and national level. The participants of the workshop were mainly the local government bodies, like District Development Office (DDC), Village Development Committee (VDC), line-agencies, and airline companies, representatives from NGOs INGOs etc. In the workshop the responsible authorities/, officials from District Administration Office, District Police Office, and District Lawyer Office were also present. At 1 PM started workshop was ended up at 5 PM. 5 facilitators facilitated in different 5 major areas. In between each of the presentation, there was time for the participants to have interaction among themselves to have their commitment about the given subject matter.

Starting of the Workshop:

The program was held in the Chair-person-ship of Mrs. Bishnu Kumari Acharya, the Women Development Officer Humla and the Chief guest was the Assistant Chief District Officer, Mr. Bam Bahadur K. C. and Mr. Lokraj Shahi Moderated the entire workshop. About 40 participants from different organizations attended the program. The workshop was begun with a short introductory program among all the participants present. Mr. Chhitup Lama, the executive director of Head Nepal welcomes all the people with a short welcome speech. He further highlighted on the objective of the workshop which is to make all the policy implementers aware of rights and special provisions made available for persons with disability and to implement those policies properly with the high spirit of disabled friendliness. Mr. Lama hoped that the program will be highly important to draw the attention of general public in regards to create a disabled friendly socio-cultural environment and it also equally contributes to establish a disabled friendly budget allocation and interventions program in local and national level. With the expectation of active participation and constructive interaction among the participants during the workshop, He concluded his short statements.

The First Part:

As the first presentation, Mr. Surya Prasad Paudel who himself is hearing impaired from Sahara Group Humla, had chance to present about the definition of disability, types of disability, the process of obtaining the disability card and its variation and the legislative provisions, policies made for persons with disability in Nepal. Before directly having the presentation, Mr. Paudel provided a meta card to each of the participants and let them to write "What is disability? and how disability is viewed in the society? and any of services that is provided to persons with disability so far" in personal basis and the organization where they belong to. After collecting the opinion of the participants within 5 minutes of time, Mr. Paudel took up rest of the session based on the same subject matter as given above and made clear about them. He firstly defined disability and its types according to Nepal Government. Accordingly Mr. Paudel further explained the relationship between seriousness of disability and disability identity card which both of them have four types. The process of obtaining the card and the mechanism which is formed to provide identity card were also made clear during the presentation. The participants had chance to have their opinion and experience about the issue. Some of the participants suggested the VDC secretary, District Health Office and Women and Children Office to improve the system of distributing disability identity card so that the services are not misused and real beneficiaries get the real services. In the next part of the same presentation, Mr. Paudel presented the legal/legislative policies and provisions that are available for persons with disability in Nepal. Some of the important points which he discussed in the session are:

अपाङ्गता भएका व्यक्तिहरुका लागि नेपाल सरकारले गरेका नितिगत ब्यवस्थाहरुः

• अपांग संरक्षन तथा कल्याण ऐन 2039
• अपांग संरक्षण तथा कल्याण नियमावली 2051
• अपांगता सम्वन्धि राष्ट्रिय कार्य योजना 2063
• अपांगता भएका ब्यक्तिहरुका लागि आन्तरिक हवाई यातायातमा दिईने छुट तथा सौलियत कार्य विधि 2063
• अपांगता परिचय पत्र वितरण निर्देशिका 2065
• सि. बि. आर. कार्यक्रम संचालन निर्देशिका २०६५
• अपांगता भएका ब्यक्तिहरुका लागि पहुँच युक्त भौतिक संरचना तथा संचार सेवा निर्देशिका 2069
• अपांग जिल्ला समन्वय समिति गठन तथा कार्यसञ्चालन कार्यविधि, २०७०

The Second Part:

In the second part of the workshop, Mrs. Tara G. C. (Phadera), physically challenged by birth woman government teacher by profession under-took the session and she presented the special provision made available by government of Nepal for persons with disability in domestic flight that says in each of scheduled flight by all public and private airlines, a seat should be compulsorily reserved for a person with disability at 50% discount cost of normal price. Mrs. Phadera further requested to the airline representatives for proper implementation of this policy since Humla is not yet connected with road network and only accessible by air and the flight fare is highly expensive. In the mean time, representative from Tara Airlines informed that Tara Air has been providing quota/reserved seat and allocated discount/concession to the passenger with disability while flying from/to Simikot. Other airlines operating in Simikot also expressed their commitment to follow the system according to the guide-lines and direction that are provided by the government of Nepal and accepted by all airlines companies as well.

Mr. Bam Bahadur K. C. the Chief District Officer, the Chief Guest of the workshop, in the mean time, expressed his essential words about the subject matter discussed. He said that disability should not viewed as problem/barrier rather it can be taken as challenges of the society that can be solved by providing opportunities to the disabled people themselves and changing the mind-set of the community members towards persons with disability. He further said there are thousands of success stories of disabled people. Bringing the reference of Jhamak Ghimire a disabled novel writer, Mr. K. C. clarified that this only the matter of opportunity which can transform disability into possibility/ability

Despite of the fact that power supply was interrupted during the whole day, Head Nepal organized a solar power system. Even though the first two facilitators presented their presentation by PowerPoint, because of low battery power rest of the facilitators were compelled to present their performance only based on laptop computer with its backup power.

Read more about the workshop

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Celebration of Nepali New Year 2071 in Head Vision Home in Simikot Humla:

First of all, we entire Head Nepal family including all children with visual impairment wish all the friends, well wishers and supporters very wonderful and happy new year 2071! In the Nepali calendar we are already in the year 2071. Every year on the 14th of April and according to Nepali calendar the 1st of Baishakh is the New Year for all Nepalese people. On this day, all the organizations, institutes and schools remain closed. The way of celebration of the New Year differs one part from another in entire country. However, each family tries their best to enjoy as much as possible and try to make themselves as comfort as possible depending on their economical status.

The Head Nepal Family too celebrated New Year 2071 and third anniversary of Head Nepal together in Head Vision Home in Simikot. Specially for Head Nepal 14th of April or 1st of Baishakh is more important because generally we celebrate Head Nepal’s anniversary in the same day though Head Nepal was registered on the 30th, last day of Chaitra, (the last day of the year too). All the staffs, the children and the neighbors were present in the center of Head Vision Home in Simikot. The house mother, Gahugori Bhandari and the elder students were busy even from Sunday, 30th of Chaitra the in the preparation of the new year and anniversary day. The elder students, Chhaya, Sunayangyanjom, and Gahugora made rice ready for cooking Local food called Selroti, made by bitten rice, sugar, with Oil. The house mother cooked Selroti for all people present there. The other items prepared are chicken, Memos, pancake, tea, coffee Dal Bhat and vegetables etc. On the one hand the children were singing and mostly dancing all the day with high volume music played in the seminar hall which can be heard all over the building/premises. On the other hand, they had frequent chance to eat and drink different items. People attended the new year celebration program shared best wishes to each other by putting Tika (a red mark) on the forehead.

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Three Months Tailoring Training for 14 people including 4 people with Disability:

The HEAD Skill Development Center, a project by Head Nepal together with Cottage Industry Development Committee Humla has started three months tailoring (dress making/fashion design) training from 4th of April 2014 in Simikot. As the target group of this training are the most marginalized and vulnerable group of Humli community such as women, Dalit, Ethnic group and people with disability, altogether there are 14 trainees selected and among them 4 are people with disability. Among the total trainees, 12 trainees are women. Only two men have been selected and both of them are with disability. Most of them are from the ethnic and Dalit community and they belong to the lower class family throughout Humla district. On Friday 4th of April, the first day of the training, all 14 selected trainees, the trainer Mr. Dhan Singh Damai, the representative from Cottage Industry Development Committee, Mr. Rakesh Kumar Shaha, and Mr. Chhitup and Lokraj from Head Nepal were present in inaugural session at Head Nepal Office in Simikot. The training was inaugurated informally. The session began with individual introduction one after another followed by some words of encouragement and motivation from Mr. Chhitup, Rakesh and Dan Singh for the trainees. After while the trainees were divided into two groups, 7 trainees in each group. The first group starts their class at 10 AM and ends at 1 PM. Likewise, the second group begins their session at 1 and ends at 4 PM. Later on the trainor set up two of sewing machines by assembling all parts together and he taught the trainees to do the same. All 7 machines were made ready.

Following are the list of the trainees:

1. Sukaraj Pariyar, Dandaphaya 1 Humla
2. Kali Rawat, Simikot 6 Humla
3. Gahugori Bhandari, Thehe 6 Humla
4. Ramala Shahi, Dandaphaya 6 Humla
5. Lalita Pariyar, Syanda 4 Humla
6. Jasu Rokaya, Simikot 4 Humla
7. Pargya Rawal, (Rawat), Simikot 5 Humla
8. Gita Rokaya, Simikot 4 Humla
9. Naurati Rokaya, Simikot 2 Humla
10. Aushi Bohara, Simikot 4 Humla
11. Laxmi Devi Shahi, Simikot 9 Humla
12. Kali Damai, Raya 5 Humla
13. Bharati Shahi, Dandaphaya 5 Humla
14. Binita B. K., Rodikot 3 Humla

The training was continued for 3 months from the 4th of April to Fourth of July 2014. The trainer Mr. Dansingh Damai made sure that the training went on smoothly and all the trainees were regularly attended their class every day. The trainees learned how to set up the machines, using the machine and designing/preparing locally popular dresses/clothes items. During the three months, they learned cutting and sewing of the dresses like Peti-coat, Kurta Suruwal, Bhoto, Cholo, Shirt paints, Daura Suruwal etc. Most of them are confident enough to use the machine and they are very interested to set up a tailoring shop in their community and some even want to run their small business in Simikot. We also encourage the trainees to use the learned skills and in certain point we will follow them up to initiate their small enterprises. As Head Skill Development Center is focused on social economical inclusion and participation of adult people with disability, through this center we committed to provide the four trainees with disability with a sewing machine each in 50% discount rate of the total cost. In the same time, we started to work with the local banks, and other financial agencies to get loan in low interest for these trainees to ease their venture financially.

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Harimaya Upadhyaya, The First Graduate of Head Vision Home Attended the SLC Exam 2070:

Harimaya a low vision girl attended the SLC examination of 2070 which started from the 20th of March 2014 (6th of Chaitra 2070) She has been a student in Head Nepal since 2011. She built up her confident in Braille reading and writing along with the regular study in Balmandir School. Harimaya was assisted by Liya Bohora as writer in exam which still has been practiced all over Nepal. Liya studies in grade 9 in the same school. Harimaya's success story up to grade 10 and her hard work and motivation to attend SLC exam have been magnified in local and national media's.

Harimaya is 18 years old and studies in grade 10 in Balmandir secondary school. She is partially sighted, so she is not able to read what is written at the blackboard even though she sits in the first row. She also has big problems to read the small print of textbooks. Teachers are very helpful, but Harimaya doesn't have many friends due to her partial sight. It is hard for her to study together with her sighted peers. Braille will help her a lot to make her studies more easy and effective. Harimaya had never heard about Braille before, but now she is very happy that she is able to read and write Braille. She already knows the Nepali and English Braille. It is her dream to visit foreign countries in the future. After school Harimaya wants to become a teacher. Harimaya has a sister and two brothers. Her father has already passed away, so her mother is the only one responsible for the education of her four children. The family lives from farming which is not effective in the rocky land of Humla.

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Filming at Head Nepal in February 2014:

As Head Nepal and Mr. Tomasz Kozakiewicz from Kanthari-plus agreed to produce a short promotional video for Head Nepal, Mr. Tomasz arrived at Simikot on 19th of February 2014 after waiting in Surkhet for several days because of the cancelation of the flights due to heavy snowfall in Humla. Tomasz is from Poland and he was a participant in Kanthari in South India. While he was doing his project in Kanthari, he realized that many of the graduates of Kanthari are doing amazing works in different parts of the world. But their ideas and experiences have to be shared among the graduates by producing videos and share them to each others. With this idea of his project, Tomasz also wanted to make a short promotional video on the projects of Head Nepal which can be shared among other graduates of Kanthari and presented to the potential donors. He stayed at Head Nepal for 5 days to capture the activities carried out by the organization. During his stay, Tomasz filmed mainly the educational activities and other facilities/services that are provided to the blind and partially sighted children in Head Vision Home. Coincidently Prof. Boguslaw Marek (Bob) from Poland was conducting a series of workshop for teachers, sighted students and students with visual impairment in Head Nepal during the period. Tomasz also had a chance to film all the activities of the workshop facilitated by Bob. He had taken interview of staffs of Head Nepal, the students with visual impairment and their parents as well. The video will be available on line soon. We hope that the video will be very helpful to spread our vision and mission all over the world! If you would like to know how Tomasz feel about Head Nepal after his stay in Simikot

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A Series of Workshops for Government Teachers, Sighted Students and Students with Visual Impairment:

The Head Skill Development Center collaborating with Hungry Fingers Poland and WWS/Mission East Nepal organized 5 days different workshops entitled “Innovative Resources in Inclusive Education of Learners with Visual Impairment” in Simikot from the 20th to 24th of February 2014. During the workshop, different three target groups, 31 teachers, 43 sighted children and 19 students with visual impairment were benefited. The entire workshop was facilitated by Mr. Prof. Boguslaw Marek Ph.D. OBE, The John Paul Catholic University of Lublin, Poland and who is the representative of Hungry Finger as well. The Head Staffs, Chhitup, Resham and Lokraj and WWS’s representative Gurmu Lama also help during the sessions.

During the 5 days session, varieties of new and latest technique, methods for teaching to visually impaired students especially those totally blind were discussed during the workshop. We believed that it was very helpful especially for the students with visual impairment and the teachers who teach such students. The workshop also offered training to the participants introducing innovative educational resources which can make teaching more effective and practical. The sessions were basically focused in tactile graphics which can be used for explaining difficult concepts and for making learners with a severe visual impairment more independent. As all course books for sighted learners are full of illustrations which are very often omitted from adaptations for blind learners, Mr. Marek presented numbers of special and innovative materials for introducing learners with a visual impairment to tactile drawings, diagrams, maps, tactile books, resources for teaching geometry and for explaining various difficult and abstract concepts etc. For more details on each session day by day, you can read further below this page.

Workshop for the Teachers in Government Schools in Simikot:

Title of workshop: “Innovative resources for inclusive education of children with a visual impairment"

A day workshop for teachers from different 8 government schools working with or interested in working with children/students with a visual impairment was organized in the hall of Lama Cultural Forum Simikot Humla. The workshop was started at 11 am and over at 3 pm on 20th of February 2014. Chhitup Lama helps the facilitator, Marek in translation of English into Nepali. Mr. Resham managed all the technical parts of session specially electricity, projector etc.

Areas covered during the session were:

• Perception, types of and pedagogical implications of visual impairment.
• A totally blind child in the classroom: challenges and solutions.
• Reading, writing and drawing – how can children with a visual impairment fully participate in the education process.
• Learning Braille is not difficult, A Braille course for sighted persons
• Gaps in the knowledge of the world - explaining difficult concepts based on visual experience and spatial relations
• Introducing totally blind learners to tactile graphics – geometric shapes, drawings, street plans and maps.
• Tactile audiographics – tactile drawings, illustrations and maps which can talk.
• Stress- free testing – accessible multiple choice tests, quizzes and crossword puzzles
• What can a sighted teacher learn from a blind child? Summary of the workshop and feedback.

At the end of the workshop, the teachers presented were really impressed with the resources that are exhibited during the session and Kali Bahadur Shahi representing all the teachers participant thanked the organizer and the facilitator Bob for such important and interesting session. Mr. Shahi even requested Head Nepal and Bob to keep continue organizing such workshop in the future as well.

Workshop for sighted children:

Title: “Secret code, talking pictures and other attractions of a classroom without a writing-board”

Aim of the workshop: Raising awareness of and developing a positive attitude towards visual impairment among sighted children.

The second day, on 21st of Feb, another workshop for secondary level sighted students from 4 different school was conducted. During the workshop sighted children learned basic facts about visual impairment and also got acquainted with a wide range of resources which make it possible to totally blind children fully participate in all lessons in the classrooms at school. A quick Braille course, making tactile drawings with eyes covered, exploring pictures and maps which can talk, walking with white-cane with blindfolded are only some of the activities in which the children were engage. Students were very excited during the session. The facilitator, the professor mentioned that similar workshops organized on a regular basis in Poland bring very encouraging results building a very positive attitude towards blindness and blind individuals. So he also hopes the same in Simikot Humla as well.

Workshops for learners with a visual impairment:

Title: The Exciting world of tactile drawings”

During the 3 days sessions from 22nd to 24th of February in Head Nepal Simikot, totally blind children and children with low vision have got a chance to make and to explore tactile drawings of varying complexity. After the workshops the children specially the one with totally blind, Gorasingh and Gahugora got a good understanding of the relation between objects and drawings, of geometric shapes and of floor plans of buildings, street maps and maps of countries. They also got a chance to try some new computer software and devices which can be used to make maps talk. Some stress free test were also introduced as well as accessible ways to solve crossword puzzles. The students were divided into severals sub-groups and had chance to practice one group by another. Most of the resources/materials that are used during the workshops and brought from Poland are provided to Head Nepal for the children with visual impairment. For this great support and innovative resources, we are very happy for the professor and would like to render our sincere gratitude to Mr. Marek for his great contribution!!!

Course provider/Facilitator: Prof. Boguslaw Marek Ph.D. OBE, The John Paul Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.

Read the experience of Bob about simikot and The workshop february 2014

Here are some fotos of all the workshop Bob has conducted

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A Workshop with Parents with Visual Impairment:

A workshop with the parents of the 25 children with visual impairment has been organized in Head Nepal on the 10th of February. Since most of the people in Humla are uneducated and are not aware of special education and even the basic interventions for children with different disability, this workshop was intended for parents of children with visual impairment to update the progress/development and even the challenges of their children's education and also to train the parents in how to behave and work with their children with blindness. In the first part of the workshop, the parents were informed the result of the children in the final examination in December 2013. All the 20 children got passed in the exam and some of them did really great in their class. Laxmi Shahi is the topper of her class scoring the highest marks! Gorasingh obtained the fifth position in his class. Every parent had a chance to know the educational status of their child. Afterward, Head staffs got an opportunity to know from the parents what the children are doing in their respective villages during two months winter vacation. Mr. Resham enquired about the challenges of the children while being at the home in the community. Mr. Gorkha Bohora, the father of Gorasingh shared his experience of mind set change of community members toward Gorasingh: “In the past, three years back, people in the society used to say, he is blind cannot do anything except eating and staying at home and he is cursed, but these days, people around him say that Gorasingh is talent student, good singer, can go around even to school on his own, is one among the few who can speak and understand English in his village etc. People around him now started talking to him as well” Similarly almost all the parents can sense some positive changes and development in their children.

In the mean time, parents and the Head Staffs had further discussion on how the children with visual impairment can further integrated/participated in community activities social events in the villages. As a result, we realized that awareness and sensitization among the community members on the one hand and empowering and developing the capacity of the children themselves on the other hand are the best two ways to create a blind friendly and inclusive/integrated community. At the end therefore, both the parents and the organization felt that it is their responsibility to work for it! Finally, as the educational year of 2014 starts from the 14th of Feb, we as Head Nepal and the parents mutually agreed and signed in the agreement with the terms and condition of running/managing of the Head Vision Home and asked the parents to get their child to the center in the same day.

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