Success
Stories falcha Girls’ Education Program
Room to Read Nepal VOL II, May- July 2014
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Ashmita practicing in a make shift football pitch. Decent football pitches are hard to come by in the district, and her team has to practice where they can. A resident of Kathmandu, she came to the district after her father passed away and her mother decided to migrate to UAE in search of work. “If it wasn’t for Room to Read’s timely support,” Ashmita says, “I would have been living with my relatives in Kathmandu, probably working as a domestic help myself.” Room to Read supported her to be a boarding student in Shree Chandeshwori School in Sindhupalchowk, a district few hours northeast from Kathmandu. Ashmita is a promising student, and is currently in the eighth grade. She plans to pursue her dreams of playing football for “as long as she can.”
Catch!
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shmita Sunwar squinted in the harsh midday sun. From just beyond the center line, the mid-fielder of the opposition team was dribbling towards her with great control. She flicked on the ball to her teammate, who skillfully half-volleyed it to the striker, who approached the post with great speed.
The tournament, sponsored by the association of Private Boarding Schools of Sindhupalchowk districts, attracts any school worth their salt in the district. For the district, which is situated few hours north of Kathmandu, it is one of anticipated annual school events.
Ashmita took position, carefully following the striker’s every movement. “I was observing the striker minutely,” she says. “Read the striker’s body language carefully, my coach had suggested, and you’ll be able to tell where they will aim the ball.”
In 2013, the audience witnessed one of the best games of the season. The underdogs (Ashmita’s team) denied the confirmed winners, and pushed their way into the top three teams. Her team finished in the third position; save for one suicide goal that ultimately cost them the tournament, she denied some of the best strikers a chance to pass through her.
“As the striker approached the D area with our defenders hounding closely behind her, I readied myself,” she says. The striker closed in on the goal rapidly and shot a marvelous kick. The ball lunged towards the goal.
“I never had a serious interest in the game,” she shares. “I only agreed to play when our seasoned goalkeeper got injured. I thought I’d be hopeless and that the tournament was a lost cause.” She went to practice without much in her mind; “I was keenly reading the striker’s move. Even before the she wasn’t confident and had little doubts that her team striker kicked the ball, I had already dived, arms outstretched.” would soon regret their decision to include her. Few minutes “The next few moments are little hazy,” she says. “What I into the first practice match, she realized her side was not vividly remember is the audiences’ thunderous cheers.” Ashceding any goals. Far from it – she was actually saving denymita’s save got the team in the top three tier in the coveted ing seasoned players. No matter how much they tried, they district football tournament. couldn’t get pass her – a rookie goalie.
“I was surprised that I could play that well,” she says. “After the first practice session, the team decided that I was their goalie. There was no backing out now. I practiced a lot. As a first time player with a lot of responsibility riding on my shoulders, I devoted most of my time to practice.” “Fear became a great motivator, and I pushed myself as hard I could. I was always afraid that my lucky streak would suddenly come to an end in the middle of an all important match. And that I would be exposed, and my talents would nothing more than a ruse. That feat kept me on my toes.” She trained so much that when she first stepped inside the pitch for her first game, she was armed with more bruises than anything else. “I wore the bruises and an injured finger to the first game,” she says. “My throat was parched and I felt that the entire stadium could hear the thunder of my heartbeat.” She didn’t let her fear get to her head, though. It was one thing letting it motivate her to train harder, but another to let it sap her confidence. Needless to say, she denied strikes after strikes. With her talent, her team made a beeline to the final stages, where ironically a suicide goal ended their dream. “It taught the team a great lesson,” she says. “We were not as alert as we should’ve been.” The team is nursing their defeat with incessant bouts of practice sessions. “We want to lift that cup next year,” she says. “We are already practicing. We won’t rest until we win the cup for our school.”
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Fear became a great motivator, and I pushed myself as hard I could.
THIS PAGE: Pema in her rented room, in Kathmandu. She is supporting herself and contributing in her family’s budget by working as a career counselor and waiter. She is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies, a course she thinks will help her to navigate the tricky world of business.
Aiming High!
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hat Pema Tamang vividly remembers is the massive “snow capped walls just outside her home”. On sunny days, when the clouds over dispersed, and the sky turned a brilliantly crispy shade of blue, she felt that she could just stretch her arms a little further from her front yard and could touch the majestic giants. It was one of her and her siblings’ favorite pastimes. “For hours on end, we would lose ourselves watching the Ganesh Range.”
Before the makeshift road connected her village to the district headquarter, her village was only reachable after two days worth of arduous trek. Yet in that isolation, Pema found her calling. It happened when a party of trekkers wandered into her village. They were trekking to the Ganesh Himal Base Camp, few days of more rigorous trekking from her village.
As soon as she got any break from eking a hard life on hard terrain (which were always too short to being with), she found herself taking comfort in their presence. “That the ranges were quietly watching me gave me strength was my solace.”
The trekkers set up their tents with the dusk, and one of their support staff went door to door buying additional supplies the team lacked. “I was amazed,” Pema recalls, “Someone would willingly walk through the grueling roads to walk in the shadow of the mountains we always saw.” Years later, when the family moved to Kathmandu to escape the civil war that would grapple the nation for a decade, the memory of watching the trekkers coming in to her village and buying local products for the entire length of their trip stayed with her.
Pleasant views aside, life on mountains —especially Nepali mountain villages where even a spartan existence might look regal—is hard. For Pema and her family it was even more so. Describing her native village in Shertung as remote is to stretch the word to its limit. Shertung is a day’s trek away from Dhadingbesi, after a grueling four hours on challenging road. Dhadingbesi, the district headquarter of Dhading district, is around four hour’s drive away from Kathmandu, on lucky days.
“I can picture the team vividly,” she says. “I realized that as much as they were enjoying the views, they were also helping our village economically.” Looking back, she realized that if there was a way to slash the poverty in which and other villagers grew in, it was through tourism. “But thinking about changing the village was a farfetched dream,” she says. “We had to start from scratch when we came to Kathmandu. Father’s partly income barely saw us FEEDBACK through. Educating us was out of question.” rishi.amatya@roomtoread.org
Pema’s father, a retired serviceman, had drawn the ire from the rebels in the village. With each visit, their aggression peaked when it became evident that they would actually harm him of members of his family to vent their anger. They slipped out of their village silently and came to Kathmandu empty handed, yet lured to the capital with the promise of security, if not anything else. Her father got a job working a night watchmen and her mother did menial household chores to make the end meet, so did her elder sisters. For few months she attended local school where she had the chance to participate in our Girls’ Education Program.
With our support she has gone to achieve great many things. She’s one of the first girls in her home, maybe even in her village to pursue an undergraduate degree. She’s pursing a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Studies, and working in one of the colleges in Kathmandu as career counselor. She advises the recent high school graduates about the choices they have further ahead and helps them to brace for it. “The Life Skills Classes has sharpened me for this role,” she says. “Earlier I hadn’t the knack of talking with a stranger, much less advising them on the course of their life. Its components helped to open up; I made friends easily and help me maneuver many obstacles I have had to face till date.”
Chasing Her Dreams “To be able to go to school and not thinking about how much dent it was adding in my family’s limited finances was a great relief,” she says. “For the first time in many years, I could focus on all my might on my studies.”
“Now, I use the skills I have learned to help other students like me.” In the hustle and bustle of the city, juggling university in one hand and full time job in another, she still finds time to appreciate the towering presence of the Ganesh Himal in the northern edge of city. There rooted firmly are her dreams, just on the edge of the horizon.
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I use the skills I have learned to help other students like me.
FEEDBACK rishi.amatya@roomtoread.org