Last week, I highlighted some of Shevon Wilson’s experiences trekking in Nepal. During that same trip, Shevon also volunteered at the Moonlight School in Kathmandu. Shevon’s first experience with the Moonlight School came in 2018 when she was working at American International School (AIS) in Hong Kong. She led a group of 27 high school students to Nepal. “This was part of the Outdoor Education and Leadership program at AIS. Each year the highschool students had an opportunity to travel on an international trip for one week. It was a chance to experience a classroom without walls,” she says.
“Our group traveled to Nepal and met up with Moonlight Trekking. We went on a 3 day trek up towards the area of Poon Hill. Then we returned to Kathmandu and we spent 2 days volunteering at the school. It was such a rewarding experience for both my students and myself. After this experience I knew that I wanted to return to Moonlight School if I could.” You can see Shevon’s testimonial video for her time at Moonlight School in 2018 at this link: https://youtu.be/UBH_33f7qCA.
After her trek in 2019, she spent more time volunteering at the school. “I spent 2 weeks at the school offering English lessons, math lessons and playing games with the students. There were students from age 4 – 15 or grades K-5. It was a humbling experience to be in this local school. Moonlight School is very special as it serves underprivileged students in Kathmandu. The school relies on donations as most of the families can not afford to pay for school fees, school supplies or uniforms. The school also attempts to find sponsorships for older students so they can continue going to school after they leave Moonlight.”
The school is funded by Moonlight Foundation Nepal (https://www.moonlight.org.np/aboutMFN.html), an organization founded in 2009 by Santosh Koirala with the goal of helping impoverished children. The school provides them with a basic education, getting them off the streets and giving them a chance to have a better life.
“The school is very basic with six classrooms, a small paved area for the kids to play and an office for the staff. The classrooms are bare. The students sit together on benches with narrow tables. There is a whiteboard in each room for the teacher. There is only 1 window in each room and it is covered by bars. There is no heat or air conditioning. In comparison to the classrooms in Canada it is a shock,” Shevon says.
“The students each have a bag with their school supplies. What was most surprising was how happy the students are. They are so keen and excited to learn. They were so curious to know all about Canada and they asked me endless questions everyday. The students did not have any toys or fancy pencil cases or school supplies. Just a pencil and eraser. Of course, some students were even missing these items. Yet at recess time the students would teach me a variety of games including thumb wars, high fives and hopscotch. The students were able to make due with what they had and they were happy.”
The younger students (grades K-2) did not speak English so a Nepalese teacher had to translate for them. In the evenings, Shevon would go on her iPad and download books and youtube clips of people reading books to show the students the next day. The older students were quite good with English. Shevon had many interesting conversations with them as they were very curious about life in Canada. One of their favourite topics was animals. They talked about animals that they had in Nepal and Shevon would try to figure out the English name for these animals by getting the kids to describe the animal and by showing them photos of her guesses. They were shocked that there are no monkeys or tigers in Canada and kept asking Shevon questions about why that is. They were also fascinated with wolves as Shevon told them about the wolves howling at the moon.
Shevon says that the highlights of her trip were reading stories out loud to the students, leaning a few Nepalese words from the students, going to each classroom in the morning to say hello to the students, answering questions about why there are no monkeys in Canada, eating lunch outside in the warm sun with other teachers, playing checkers with the students, and organizing pen pals for the students so they could write letters to new friends in Canada.
“The school is run by Santosh Koirala, Managing Director Moonlight Nepal Trekking and Adventure (https://www.moonlighttreks.com/). He runs a trekking company and he invests the money he makes from trekking into the school. Of course with the state of the world no one is travelling at the moment. Tourism Nepal states that in 2019 they had 1.1 million visitors to the country. However, due to Covid there are no longer thousands of trekkers arriving in Nepal and this means there is little money to fund the school. Moonlight school needs all the support it can receive. They have set up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise awareness and funds for their school. If you would like to support the school here is the link:” https://www.gofundme.com/f/moonlight-school-kathmandu?sharetype=teams&member=8422080&pc=fb_tco_campmgmtbnr_w&rcid=r01-161315334964-923665fe5778405b&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_lico%2Bbanner&fbclid=IwAR3Y-C8sRWiBwY6uZSa_WbezONNU3bYy-LQMq5-oEdsXE_7hr8Qte3LIu5Q. Any help is greatly appreciated!
“It was a magical time spent at Moonlight School and when my two weeks were over, both myself and many of the students had tears. It was hard to say goodbye when so many of the students had found a place in my heart. I hope I will have another opportunity to return to Nepal to visit these students. Moonlight School is always looking for volunteer help at the school. If you would like to visit the school and spend time reading with the students or becoming a pen pal please contact me” says Shevon.