High-Altitude Hopes For Wokingham Holt School's Himalayan Partnership
School partnerships will climb to new heights in Wokingham next month – when one of the district council’s communications officers makes a seventeen-day expedition up Mount Everest.
Each month, emails from girls in Year 8 at The Holt School, Wokingham wing their way 4000 miles to a school in the Indian Himalaya, where they are eagerly received by pen-friends in the tiny mountain school of Lakshmi Ashram.
“The partnership with Lakshmi Ashram is extremely valuable,” says Jonathan Galloway, 8C’s philosophy of religion teacher at The Holt. “Making friends with other young people on the other side of the world really brings an international dimension to lessons and is pertinent to so many areas of the curriculum. But it can be difficult – Lakshmi Ashram only has one very old computer between all sixty girls. I would like more of our students to be involved and write individual letters, but I am anxious not to overload the Ashram’s limited capacity for communication.”
However, the poor IT provision at Lakshmi Ashram is set to change. Fundraisers Jenny Coates and her boyfriend Phil Larby, from Finchampstead, are about to undertake a high-altitude challenge to raise money for the partnership. At Easter, Jenny and Phil will be trekking to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, the highest campsite in the world at 5600m. If they make it, they will have raised £5,000 in sponsorship for the Holt’s Himalayan partnership, to be spent on improving communications equipment at Lakshmi Ashram.
Jenny Coates, now communications and web officer at Wokingham District Council, set up the partnership between Lakshmi Ashram and The Holt after visiting Lakshmi Ashram in 2003 as a volunteer. “Of all the voluntary projects I took part in across Asia, the projects at Lakshmi Ashram impressed me the most. The school is full of innovations for new farming technology, and is educating the children of disadvantaged farming communities. When I got home I showed my photographs to several different schools here, because I wanted children in Wokingham to see what children in the Himalayas can achieve with so little,” she said.
“I was so pleased when The Holt decided to set up the partnership. It has been fascinating to see the girls comparing their lives.”
Since the partnership began, the girls have compared their daily lives, their homes and the festivals they celebrate. They have written reports to each other about major events – Christmas in the UK, and Shivaratri in India.
And now the girls of 8C at The Holt, Wokingham have made a DVD for their Indian friends to watch, so that they can introduce themselves in person. Jenny Coates will be presenting the film made by Class 8C, when she visits the Ashram after the fundraising expedition.
Girls at The Holt helped raise sponsorship for the expedition by selling raffle tickets. Local clubs and businesses have also made generous donations to the project, which has seen £5000 raised for computer equipment, to be donated when Jenny and Phil have completed their challenge.
After facing sub-zero temperatures and possible altitude sickness on their Everest expedition, Jenny and Phil will be visiting Lakshmi Ashram on the way home, to tell the children all about it. “I’m excited about our trek. Everest Base Camp is such a famous place, in such a beautiful part of the Himalayas.” says Jenny. “But I’m more excited about visiting Lakshmi Ashram afterwards – I can’t wait to show 8C’s video to the Ashram girls. They will be fascinated. We hope we can make a video of Lakshmi Ashram too while we are there, so that the Indian girls can show their mountain home to their friends in Wokingham.”
Each month, emails from girls in Year 8 at The Holt School, Wokingham wing their way 4000 miles to a school in the Indian Himalaya, where they are eagerly received by pen-friends in the tiny mountain school of Lakshmi Ashram.
“The partnership with Lakshmi Ashram is extremely valuable,” says Jonathan Galloway, 8C’s philosophy of religion teacher at The Holt. “Making friends with other young people on the other side of the world really brings an international dimension to lessons and is pertinent to so many areas of the curriculum. But it can be difficult – Lakshmi Ashram only has one very old computer between all sixty girls. I would like more of our students to be involved and write individual letters, but I am anxious not to overload the Ashram’s limited capacity for communication.”
However, the poor IT provision at Lakshmi Ashram is set to change. Fundraisers Jenny Coates and her boyfriend Phil Larby, from Finchampstead, are about to undertake a high-altitude challenge to raise money for the partnership. At Easter, Jenny and Phil will be trekking to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, the highest campsite in the world at 5600m. If they make it, they will have raised £5,000 in sponsorship for the Holt’s Himalayan partnership, to be spent on improving communications equipment at Lakshmi Ashram.
Jenny Coates, now communications and web officer at Wokingham District Council, set up the partnership between Lakshmi Ashram and The Holt after visiting Lakshmi Ashram in 2003 as a volunteer. “Of all the voluntary projects I took part in across Asia, the projects at Lakshmi Ashram impressed me the most. The school is full of innovations for new farming technology, and is educating the children of disadvantaged farming communities. When I got home I showed my photographs to several different schools here, because I wanted children in Wokingham to see what children in the Himalayas can achieve with so little,” she said.
“I was so pleased when The Holt decided to set up the partnership. It has been fascinating to see the girls comparing their lives.”
Since the partnership began, the girls have compared their daily lives, their homes and the festivals they celebrate. They have written reports to each other about major events – Christmas in the UK, and Shivaratri in India.
And now the girls of 8C at The Holt, Wokingham have made a DVD for their Indian friends to watch, so that they can introduce themselves in person. Jenny Coates will be presenting the film made by Class 8C, when she visits the Ashram after the fundraising expedition.
Girls at The Holt helped raise sponsorship for the expedition by selling raffle tickets. Local clubs and businesses have also made generous donations to the project, which has seen £5000 raised for computer equipment, to be donated when Jenny and Phil have completed their challenge.
After facing sub-zero temperatures and possible altitude sickness on their Everest expedition, Jenny and Phil will be visiting Lakshmi Ashram on the way home, to tell the children all about it. “I’m excited about our trek. Everest Base Camp is such a famous place, in such a beautiful part of the Himalayas.” says Jenny. “But I’m more excited about visiting Lakshmi Ashram afterwards – I can’t wait to show 8C’s video to the Ashram girls. They will be fascinated. We hope we can make a video of Lakshmi Ashram too while we are there, so that the Indian girls can show their mountain home to their friends in Wokingham.”
Wokingham District Council
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