The Newington College trips to Nepal have run since 1996 under the leadership of Mr Michael Davis and Ms Joanne Heaume (pictured above). This year Newington College will be undertaking the seventh trip to Nepal under the leadership of Mr Greg Pike and Ms Kate Shepherd.

In the past Newington College raised money for projects and academic scholarships to help the pupils of the Hermann Gmeiner Schools. SOS Children’s Villages and Hermann Gmeiner Schools are an independent, non-governmental international development organisation, which has been working to meet the needs and to protect the interests and rights of children since 1949.

In addition to the support of the Hermann Gmeiner Schools, this year Newington has undertaken a new initiative to aid the Kushudebu Public Health Mission Nepal (KPHMN), in the Himalayan region of Nepal. Boys and staff will be working on the refurbishment of one of the Health Centre’s buildings. There is very little transport in this region. Sick people have to walk or be carried to the nearest Health Centre.  Ang Tshering Sherpa, the guide of the last Newington Nepal tour, set up this Health Centre to help women who face complications during childbirth. Death during child birth is still too common in rural areas of Nepal. It is hoped that when this building is refurbished the Health Centre will be able to attract more staff to provided additional medical service to this region.

Both health care and education in Nepal are amongst the worst in the world.

The boys shall be raising funds for both the academic support and building materials to renovate the Health Centre. This is an excellent opportunity that Newington is providing for boys to gain an insight into the heath needs of rural Nepal and return with a sense of making a positive contribution to the lives of others.

The boys need your help to do any of this. There will be a mufti day on Monday 3 September 2012. We ask each boy to donate $2 and show they support by coming out of uniform. 

For those interested in finding out more about these organisations, please follow the links below.

Mr Greg Pike

http://www.kushudebu.org.np/programnactivity.php
http://www.kushudebu.org.np/newsnevent.php#44
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS_Hermann_Gmeiner_School
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS_Children%27s_Villages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal
http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/NPL.html
http://www.food-nepal.com/