Monthly Newsletter – May 2012

May your month have been successful and productive. The scholars of Rukmini Foundation have been in school through our program for over a month now. On top of all of the challenges these brave girls are facing, they are also dealing with nationwide strikes, which have cancelled classes for more than a week in their first month. The scholars are not deterred though and will continue their quest towards education despite additional challenges.

Mentoring Program (Didi Program) Kicks Off

Now that the girls are starting school, we are slowly introducing all of our programs to promote a holistic development of the scholars. One of the key aspects of our program is to introduce a mentoring component, which will help to instill self-confidence for the scholars while allowing the mentors to have a guiding hand in the success of their mentees. One of the mentors, Rasmita KC and our Program Manager Nabin Aryal have written a post about the first meeting of the mentors and scholars. From the meeting, a home visit schedule was established and the scholars also agreed to write a monthly report about any topic they choose as a way to express themselves through writing. You will find these posted in our blogs in the coming weeks and months.

A New Curriculum for A New Future

Along with mentoring, providing access to a high quality education is another key component of Rukmini Foundation’s holistic approach. Towards this end, the foundation leadership, along with community leaders and even international aid organizations’ representatives, has been working toward implementing a new curriculum that will not only provide a better education, but also teach the students how to be better thinkers and problem solvers. In a country with so many problems, we need problem solvers more than students who are good at memorizing facts and figures. Our program manager describes this new curriculum and how we hope it will be the start of a new way for the students to learn, especially around teamwork and critical reasoning.

Students learning to work together. Collaboration over competition.

Looking ahead …

Here are some of the things you have to look forward to in the coming weeks and months:

Home visit reports from our mentors, which will shed more light about the home lives of our scholars.
Personal reports from the scholars, which will give them an outlet for their creative writing.
Fundraising Event: Ruk & Roll in Columbus, Ohio on June 24, 2012. More details to follow on the website.

Thanks again for all of your support. Till next time … Namaste.

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