Present situation of Education in Limi

Due to the very remote location of Limi the logistics of setting up a school here for the fledgling Antahkarana Society International was a daunting task for Deanna and Tashi. Ideally each village needed a school, each school needed a teacher and each teacher needed books and stationary. In addition to that the pupils in each school would need some basic provisions, like lunch.

To make matters even harder the valley was virtually snowbound from December to March inclusive. The schools could only be built in the summer and the timber and supplies needed for the building could only be brought by numerous yak caravans during these same summer months. Basic provisions would have to be stockpiled and teachers would have to be encouraged to spend the entire winter marooned in the valley.

All these logistical problems made the building of schools in Limi prohibitively difficult. There have to be an alternative solution. So Deanna and Tashi thought the best way to further education in Limi was bring some of the children from the three Limi villages to Kathmandu and educate them there. An old building was acquired in 2006 in the predominantly Tibetan Boudha district of Kathmandu. This building was renovated and became the Limi Youth Hostel. In late 2006 some 20 children arrived from Limi Valley to stay in the Youth Hostel. Some had to walk 17 days. Deanna and Tashi prepared these children to enter the Namgayl Tibetan Boarding School in Kathmandu.

In the spring of 2007 all of the 15 children were ready to enter the Namgayl Tibetan Boarding School in Kathmandu and they duly did. These children all completed a year’s education in spring 2008, and many received excellent grades. The Limi Youth Hostel was expanded significantly during this year to cater for and another 15 children who arrived in late 2007 to prepare to go to Tibetan schools in Kathmandu. As the first cohort of 15 children were finishing their first year the second cohort were starting theirs.

It is probable that Deanna, Tashi and Antahkarana Society International will continue to develop the Limi Youth Hostel in Kathmandu and educate a class of children here each year. The Hostel is however and expensive place to run with, educational bill, food bills and even dental bills to be met by Antahkarana Society International. The hostel despite being in Kathmandu has developed a strong sense of community spirit with the Limi valley homeland and has become a cultural centre.

One feature of this strong community spirit is that some of the elder children who completed their education in Kathmandu and lived in the hostel are now volunteering to go back to Limi to teach in the newly established primary schools in each of the tree villages. These primary schools are very rustic as present with no facilities and very basic buildings. However, the Nepali government cannot even hope to build schools here and no government teacher will ever stay for more than a few summer weeks.

Further reading