Successful ESL


Our mission, or goal, at Learning English With Laughter, is to help people to learn to speak English.

With this ability, many of our students have been able to get good jobs in the tourist industry, instead of earning their living running drugs or in prostitution.

We have been writing and selling English Second Language materials for over 20 years.

In that time, we have taught, or given workshops in The Czech Republic, Brazil, Hungary, India, Albania, Ukraine,

Hong Kong and Nepal.

 

In working with a Not-For-Profit organization in Kathmandu, (Volunteers Initiative Nepal), we became aware of the plight of the Dalit people, the “untouchables”. These people, living in remote areas of Nepal, have been discriminated against for hundreds of years because of the caste system. Although this discrimination has lately been prohibited by law, it still exists. With the proceeds from the sale of our ESL materials, we are sponsoring a “self-help” program. Its goal is to train groups of these people methods of increasing their meager incomes.

In November 2019, we visited a group of these people. The roads to Okhaldhunga are all but impassable, so we traveled from Kathmandu by helicopter. As well as giving a workshop to ten teachers, and supplying them with free textbooks for their classes, we visited a class of women learning to make small decorative purses, for sale in the larger centers of Nepal. We had heard that our project was supplying four sewing machines to this group, but we were unprepared for the enthusiasm and dedication that this group of 15 or 20 young women showed for the program.


Next, we visited a class of women learning to make jewellery. They were very proud to show us the results of their work, and were so happy to see us, they sang and danced for us on the gravel driveway that was their “classroom".
We are now investigating bee keeping and metal work as possible subjects for training these people.

In living with these people for only a few days, we immediately experienced the lack of water. Each household must spend 3 to 4 hours a day walking to a water source and carrying the water home. Personal hygiene is very difficult when water is so precious, and so bacterial infections flourish. Growing vegetables is very difficult if you can’t water them adequately. We recently had a report from Dr. Laxmi Ghimire, the program manager. (Dr Ghimire is a medical doctor, trained in Public Health).

He reported that the chronic shortage of water has limited the resident's ability to grow sufficient vegetables, leading to malnutrition, particularly among the children. Lack of hygiene has brought health problems to the whole community.

This problem seems to be so profound, we talked with the village elders in two locations, to discuss building reservoirs. The rainfall there is around six feet a year. It comes in the short monsoon season and all runs away. We think that if we could build reservoirs, we could capture the rainfall and supply hundreds of people with clean, reliable water at central points in their communities. This would cut down disease, and eliminate the need for the drudgery of carrying water from remote locations. This time could then be spent raising livestock and growing vegetables. In other words, it would substantially change hundreds of lives.

The beginning of 2020 brought Covid 19 to all parts of Nepal. As part of our program, the people were taught public health measures, including social distancing, wearing masks and hand washing.


Although the people do not have running water, they were taught how to make soap from fat and wood ash.
They were able to use their soap to practice hand washing, as well as other measures to prevent the spread of the virus.



In areas where there were no facilities for formal lectures, the people learned about the dangers of Covid 19, sitting on the road.



The classes we sponsor on making jewellery and hand bags are very successful, and the women are very excited with their results.
20 Dalit families participated in a five day course in bee keeping. Each of the graduates was given a hive of bees. Honey is expensive in Nepal, and this will be a valuable source of income for these families.



Some of the Dalit men have been doing metal work, using ancient, traditional methods.



Working in partnership with Volunteers Initiative Nepal, we were able to supply modern metalworking equipment to the Dalit metalworkers of Okhaldhunga.


Just after Christmas, 2020, the work began on the first water reservoir in Okhaldunga. There will be 20 Dalit families involved. They received lectures in water conservation with micro irrigation methods, modern farming practices, composting and cooperative marketing.


The Dalit People in Okhaldhunga, although they have lived in very difficult conditions for generations, have an amazing capacity to show their joy by dancing and singing.

If you are interested in helping, or if you would like more information, please contact us:

info@eslcurriculum.com