Roshani helps to fill the learning gap due to COVID

Bhandarkharka, a village not too far from the Dakshinkali municipality, seems very remote in terms of development. In this community, Illiteracy is high, modern necessities like internet connection are very scarce and parents can not help their children in their studies when schools are closed. During the past two years, schools remained closed for most of the time, hampering the education for the local children. Some schools offered online learning for students who had smartphones, and internet access.  Most parents had no schooling and were not able to teach their children to learn at home.

The people of Bhandarkharkha have their own language and customs. Most speak the Tamang language and many find speaking the national language, Nepali difficult. Even though literacy rates are lower, many families are starting to learn the value of educating their children, including girls. Roshani Rumba is from this village and recently she graduated from High School and is now studying in college in Pharping. While in school, she was mentoring a local G.L.O.W. Club and she also helped the local women understand the awareness programs organized by the foundation by explaining in their local language. Roshani not only understands the importance of education for children, especially for girls, but also understands the value of mentoring and support required to make it accessible.

Schools closed as soon as they were open for in-person classes due to the Omicron variant, unfortunately, and all the educational institutions were closed for one more month. Children who were happy to go back to school were once again out of school. Roshani felt very bad for the children who were losing the opportunity to learn in school, and she was also one of them because her own college also shut down during this time. In order to help the local students and to also keep her own skills sharp, she started teaching. At first, she started with just one girl (Bahini) from her neighborhood, but pretty soon others started to come to her for help. Another local boy also came to study, and her class started to grow. Being a former Rukmini Bahini herself, Roshani wanted to make sure that she was supporting the local Bahinis from her community who were part of the foundation family, so she asked Alisha, Siwani, and Manjari to study with her while schools were closed. The three bahinis were very excited to continue their learning, and started lessons with Roshani Didi. 

Roshani Didi wanted to teach local children with the following objectives:

• help children to keep up with their lessons in schools while classes are not accessible
• to help in their studies so that they can do better in school
• to help them understand their lessons and improve their reading and writing skills
• to make the girls feel like they can express their feelings with others
• to improve Nepali language skills so that they can understand their lessons in school while also maintaining their own language and customs

Roshani enjoys helping children in the community by tutoring them with their studies, motivating them to be confident in sharing their thoughts, asking questions using the methods she learned mentoring the G.L.O.W. Clubs. She encourages Bahinis to learn Nepali while also maintaining their own language. The girls are slowly developing confidence to be able to speak and ask questions in their classes. As a result of the tutoring, Bahinis are also becoming more open in sharing their feelings and asking questions. Their reading and writing skills are also improving.

Even though schools are open again now, Roshani has continued tutoring children in her community and is supporting 15 local children who come to study with her because she not only helps them with their schoolwork, but she also understands them better than even their own teachers. Roshani has demonstrated how valuable mentoring can be. As a foundation, we are looking to find and hire more mentors and tutors like Roshani that are based locally in different villages and communities to help our Bahinis develop and grow.