Wednesday

Nepal: A Girl's Life

Making room to read

While trekking in Nepal in 1998, American John Wood saw that many children couldn't afford to go to school and that schools in the poorest rural areas had a chronic shortage of books. For Wood it was a transformational experience that spurred him to start a literacy program called Room to Read. This Rough Cut tells the story of Wood's nonprofit that now helps to educate millions of children in the developing world and visits some of the Nepalese children and communities his program has helped. read more

"Once upon a time there was a girl whose name was Sabina Timilsina..."
So begins "A Girl's Life" in the sing-song broken English of a 9-year-old who lives in a village outside Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. It's the voice of a girl narrating her own life. A girl with a mother, a father and a brother. A girl who rises at dawn, brushes her teeth, and goes to school. A girl who likes to play volleyball and badminton, but most of all loves to read.

You can tell right away she's playful and smart, but her story seems rather ordinary -- until you realize that her family is of the lowest caste, the Dalits, or "untouchables," who typically earn their living breaking rocks. In a country where 70 percent of the women are illiterate, Sabina is an exception, an extraordinarily lucky girl who has a scholarship that...

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2007/06/nepal_a_girls_l.html

India: Hole in the Wall

An Indian scientist embeds a high-speed computer in a wall bordering a slum, turns it on, and watches what happens as children begin to teach themselves to use the machine. [This story was originally broadcast in October of 2002, with an encore broadcast on many PBS stations March 20, 2003.] read more

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/india/thestory.html

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/india/

The Tibet Vision Project

The Tibet Vision Project acts as a catalyst for Tibetan ophthalmology programs by transferring the technology and skills of modern eye care to the poorest populations of Tibet at an affordable cost. We aim to establish Tibetan self-sufficiency in providing eye care to their own people. The success of this Project lies in the strong local and regional partnerships that empower Project participants to respond to locally defined problems. Our joint goal is to eliminate preventable blindness throughout Tibet, with local resources only, by the year 2020.

Our vision is that every Tibetan whom we encounter will experience modern eye surgery with Heart: restoring sight, bringing light, allowing Tibetans to see the incomparable beauty of their homeland. None of this work could proceed without the generosity of its supporters and donors — thank you.

http://www.tibetvisionproject.org/

http://www.visioningtibet.com/

Sunday

Travel Nepal

Thinking to traveling to remote Nepal? Well, Nepal isn’t that remote anymore. With roads and bridges and ropeways, Nepal is opening up to the world. The lush green grassland, vast empty forests and majestic mountains, Nepal has it all. Maybe you want to trek to the Nar and Phu valleys. This grueling trek will take a lot of anyone so its always good to know a little something about it first. How about a first hand account of the valleys and their pristine beauty?

Possibly, you don’t know where to go. If that’s the case then read on. Select a headline that strikes your fancy and see the place through the eyes, and lenses, of someone else. Traveling in Nepal is an experience like no other. You never know what might happen. Take a chance.

http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/special/travel_nepal.php