A charity on the Isle of Man is preparing to open its 40th school in an area of the world where there are significant challenges in accessing quality education and health provision.
The Pahar Trust Nepal is marking 30 years since its inception with a celebratory event on 28 September.
The guest speaker will be record breaking mountaineer Hari Budha Magar who was the first, double above the knee, amputee to climb Mount Everest.
Charity founder Howard Green MBE told Manx Radio the work they do is all about trying to make a difference:
Hi, I'm Chanel, one of the journalists at Meng's Radio. Welcome to the latest edition of Meng's Radio Newscast. My name is Howard Green and I'm currently the president of the Paratus Nepal. Right. Now the trust, how many years is the trust? I know you say over 30 years. How many years is it? It was established, formally established initially in the UK on the Isle of Man, shortly afterwards in October 1993. Are we coming close towards the 31st anniversary or anything like that? Is that why we have the event? Not particularly. It's just purely and simply that we thought we would celebrate the fact that initially we had a wild dream of trying to fund a school from the Isle of Man in Nepal and we're getting close to funded 40 projects, most of which are schools in Nepal. So we're very proud that we have all these Meng's flags flying in the Himalayas and our Nepalese friends often talk about we dream of the Isle of Man island out of love and respect. Many of them have been here and consider it a privilege to come and say thank you to the people of the Isle of Man. Right. Now 31 years ago when this was still an idea, you know, how did the idea of this trust come about? Oh, very briefly. I grew up on the edge of the Lake District of Mountains. My father partly served with Gurker soldiers in World War II in the 8th Army and had a love and respect. Over 40,000 Gurkers have died fighting alongside our fellow men and that 200 years of loyalty is very special to us. I also had some students who were from God's scholarships from Nepal who came to stay with me and it was the most humbling weekend how the fought for a chance of an education. I then heard a gentleman through a headteacher's magazine who had funded a school in Nepal. There was no registered charity and I invited Tom to come and visit the Isle of Man. I was then a headteacher at Kirk Michael School and the rest is kind of history. After that I said I'd love to try and fund a school so the charity was registered in the UK and then in the Isle of Man shortly after. Now you're about to launch the 40th school in Nepal? Yes. How is it in the coming weeks? Coming months? Oh gosh not quite sure of the timescale but it's getting very close. We again have just secured funding for another two projects that will be Isle of Man funded and we just need to supplement the fundings of those and part of that will be done through a forthcoming event. Now before we go on to you know putting the Isle of Man on the map through the work of the charity as an educator yourself you know being able to stand proud and say I've contributed or I've helped to build 40 schools that's helped students in this disadvantaged area you know how proud does that make you feel? It's just I have a big thing about everybody deserves a chance depending on where you're born often determines where they have that chance or not. It still estimated there are 30 million students in the world who dream of an opportunity to go to school. For me as a developing country like Nepal that I love the country so much if it's going to grow and flourish then it needs an educated people not least of all girls education and girls were often married offered a very young age and arranged marriages whereas now we've got many young students who've gone on to degrees and so on so if a country again will grow and flourish then it needs an educated group of people and we're very proud that not just the construction people make schools not buildings and so we've done in tandem with the school construction we've actually done a lot of teacher training and things and resource provision out there as well so it's really helped to change lives and you've changed so many other lives and given so many hundreds of people the opportunity as well absolutely and I think as I said earlier it's the students that we've worked with throughout the UK in Denmark and other places how they have reflected on the opportunities that they have here often taken for granted and when others have fought for that chance and you share those experiences with them I feel as though it's really enriching to so many children and to make them dig in and make the most of the opportunities here as well so I understand the charity is holding a celebration evening this weekend yes we are indeed we've got a very special gentleman my dear friends family and colleagues have often had to listen to me but on this occasion we've got a very special guest and he is called Harry Buddha Maga I knew quite a lot about Harry and I particularly learned more when I was in Nepal in February opening two Isle of Man funded schools in the Magdi region quite a remote region and the captain Jit had actually served with Harry in the British army and one of our trustees a major Dan Chand who's visited the Isle of Man many times was also a colleague ex-colleague of Harry Harry had a very very humble beginnings I think he was born in a shed he had an arranged marriage at a very young age he worked and worked and worked his dream firstly was to pass the school even certificate which is kind of between our GCSEs and A levels he managed to do that when there's quite a low pass rate and his next dream was to get in the British army as a gurker soldier and every year thousands and thousands try but only a few hundred are taken on I've done lots of work with gurker recruits in the past so they learn about our culture and their culture and so on and Harry then was posted to Afghanistan where tragically he lost both his legs however my experience is so many Nepales are resilient have fortitude and despite such adversity as you possibly know he's been on television many times he's climbed Mount Everest and he's the first double amputee to have actually done so and he's such an amazing man he's doing so much for disabilities and things like that in Nepal and empowering young people despite the adversity you can achieve so Harry will be here doing a presentation called Conquereen Dreams at King William's College this forthcoming Saturday. Perfect is it members of the public invited can they get tickets you give me that information is it a fundraising initiative? Well yes of course we will actually use it to supplement the next Alaman school where we have quite a chunk of the budget that we actually need so this will go to an Alaman project most definitely and you can boot tickets through Eventbright and then just stroke power trust function and you should be able to then book online you can order the food fabulous food by Curries and Steaks and Shree has been a partner where there's on a number of initiatives it's £49 including your booking fee but a beautiful theatre lecture theatre the lovely ambiance of King William's College and the dining hall I think it'll be a very successful night and very fortunate the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister will be joining us for this celebration. Right as the founder of or one of the founders of this organization you know when it comes to funding funding is so dire for all of these it's so much needed for all of these charities you know for the work that you do especially with what you're doing at the moment talk to me about that you know I mean we've got a cost of living crisis so obviously you're seeing less and less coming to the porch you know how difficult is it or how much needed is this funding? Gosh it's difficult it's not who you help it's who you don't help isn't it's always a dilemma for people and that thing about charity should stay at home it's always a difficult one however we've just proved that the people in residence of the Alaman have just been incredibly generous and have totally embraced the opportunity I've been fortunate to take hundreds of people in that region to Nepal who thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it's made them reflect themselves so they've done lots and things to help us but in the main I would be invited to do presentations and tell a story after that so many seeds are sown and people will help you and I'm very proud to say that young people and students we often hear the bad things about them but there are a lot of good kids out there who do amazing things who've raised towards a million pounds over the last 30 plus years both here of Scotland UK and so on to help and supporters and I think that's a fantastic celebration on their part I have I'm just very proud of the achievements of young people not least of all but it's come through rotary it's come through grants from the Alaman government we've had some help and support which we're very grateful for and individuals we've done a thousand different things we've had some great difficult days away you wonder if you can keep going but something always happens and it's a privilege to share the story I think I'm on my last two questions for the next project how much are you guys looking to raise to be quite honest I'm not quite sure we have a project manager now and I'm not quite sure the shortfall but it will be between five and ten thousand that we actually need for the grant that we have secured in that kind of region so the event forthcoming at King William's College will help us towards that target and my last question is I know it's not just the schools that you guys work towards building I remember when we had I remember when there was some torrential rain in India I know you the the the the trust got together and started doing some fundraising so there's other projects that you guys get involved in as well as education we've actually done a number of health posts and so on and you are quite right where you have helped during the emergency as if you remember in 2015 that poor suffered a huge earthquake and over 9,000 people lost their lives I remember I was traveling on the sea cat to towards Liverpool my daughter was running the London marathon to run to for the trust and we lost signal as we all know halfway across and just prior to that I heard there'd been an earthquake and of course initially I thought oh dear a lot of schools are going to fall and down after all that hard work but it was great testimony to our team that actually only two really suffered minor damage than the rest are all earthquake proved but the miracle the earthquake happened on a Saturday otherwise many more students would have lost their lives in old established schools so yeah emergency aid health posts and finally we've done a few hostels I remember stories some young ladies to get to the equivalent of six form studies we're actually walking three hours there and three hours back so that was six hours walking so we built a small hostel with some bunk beds and a small cooker so all that walking time become study time and within a year or so their results improve dramatically so it isn't just always about more resources better teacher training it's an amalgamation of all those things thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radian newscast you are obviously someone with exquisite taste may I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radian podcasts at your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone thank you You
