Rose Bartels, BA Design student, received funding to volunteer at a school in Kathmandu, Nepal.
For my placement I travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, to stay at the Nawa Asha Griha (NAG) School. I found the placement because this school is twinned with a school in Switzerland where a family friend works. This friend had visited Nepal on several occasions and recommended my sister and myself to the headmistress as potential volunteers for the school.
The view from our accommodation
Both my sister and I studied art subjects at university; therefore, it was suggested we would volunteer in the art department while at NAG. The school has 400 pupils, half of which live onsite full time and range in age from around 4 up to 18 years old. Previously I had a little bit of experience working with children, such as helping to run art workshops, but I had not worked with children in this capacity or on this scale before. Working with the kids was the biggest highlight for me and has helped me realise this is something I would like to pursue as a career.
It sounds cliché to say a trip abroad has changed your life, but the experience I gained in Nepal has helped me to get more work, in tutoring and nannying. And this helped me decide I would like to gain a TEFL qualification in order to teach English as a second language abroad for the foreseeable future.
My favourite moment was painting a mural to go in the children’s playhouse. Everyone, staff and students, wanted to get involved and it was lovely to see the kids’ reactions to what they had helped create and how it sparked their imaginations for play.
Painting the mural