One school’s attempt at a better future
SEE appearing students put a lot of effort and a few extra hours of class
ARV drugs
The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is ‘Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Community by Community’. But it has already been over nine years that a school at Kirtipur has been providing a holistic model of care to a community of HIV-positive children
Every morning before classes begin, a group of students gather in their modest school compound for the national anthem. A head girl addresses the assembly from up front and there is the familiar exchange of drill commands as she instructs and the students comply to stand at ease and attention. Dressed in uniforms, these 27 children make up the entire student body of Saphalta HIV Sikshya Sadan.
In many ways, Saphalta is like any other regular school in the City. For both the primary and secondary levels taught from Class I to VIII, and Class IX to X, the school follows the course work as outlined in the National Curriculum Framework. Six days a week, the classes run from 9:00 am until the bell goes at four in the evening. Apart from academics, there are extra-curricular activities. Children learn to play guitar, paint and enjoy a game of cricket.
But despite all this, the school has a unique environment of its own — far from any other regular Nepali public or private school. London-based World Book of Records, even underpinned the school as the world’s first school with a distinct identity.
Established in 2010, it is the only ‘officially registered’ one of a kind organisation that provides free education, medical support and care home for 27 children living with HIV, all under a single roof.
HIV carriers continue to face significant discrimination in many areas of society, especially when it comes to education and schooling. Most of the children living and studying at Saphalta have faced the brunt of society in one way or another.
Some have been shunned by their previous schools, the majority have been orphaned by AIDS, others abandoned by their families. Although, the stains of past can be hard to get rid of, the students have exciting new prospects to strive towards, which they believe, education has opened up for them.
They neither seek sympathy for their past nor pity for their condition. All they ask, as 17-yearold student, Manju Chand, puts it, is to be treated as equals.
The step-ahead
This school year is a pivotal one for Saphalta and even more so for the first batch of seniors as they look forward towards their forthcoming Secondary Education Examination (SEE).
There are three students currently enrolled in Class X and one of them is Chand.
Chand is the first child to have been rescued by Saphalta.
In fact, it was her story that eventually set the motion for Spahalta’s two founders Uma Gurung and Raj Kumar Pun to start the care home. They came to know about Chand from a newspaper article that depicted her condition in an impoverished part of Dang. “Hearing hers and all the stories of discrimination, the two of us decided to do something substantial for these children,” explains Gurung. “She is this school’s very first daughter.” Chand also addresses both Gurung and Pun and her mother and father.
Today, Chand is at an important phase of her life as she aims to transition from childhood to adulthood. She is preparing diligently for her SEE. As the senior-most student, she does wish to pass out with flying colours.
“I am aiming for an A,” she says.
But what after SEE? Chand has made her decision: she wants to pursue Management for her higher-secondary education.
The thought of life after Saphalta, does concern both Gurung and Pun and their apprehension is palpable. Heading to college after SEE means leaving the caring, comforting environment to make it on her own in a country that’s too quick to dismiss her as a mere victim of HIV. “Manju, her batchmates and others to follow will face all sorts of problems and challenges after leaving,” says Pun, “But they are all smart, intelligent and talented children and I take pride and feel confident in their abilities.”
There is no shortage of talent at Spahalta. The school office is filled with certificates and trophies brought home by children participating in different contests. The walls are covered with beautiful paintings and doodles, and some of the boys are increasingly getting better with guitar. In one of British Council’s initiatives, Special Action Project, Chand had even participated in a national-calibre forum with participation from 30 schools across Nepal.
She had given a speech on HIV, which even won the school the Social Action Grant Award.
Chand, is aware of HIV and can explain it better than adults twice her age. “People think HIV is a disease but it’s a virus.
With timely, nutritious diet and medication, it can be kept under control,” she explains.
A day in their life
The children wake up at 6:00 am except for those studying in Class VIII and X. There are eight students who will be appearing for Basic Level Examination (for eighth graders) and they wake up at five in the morning along with three other SEE-appearing students. The morning ritual begins with a yoga session and after everybody has washed and made their beds, breakfast is served. The children then get in line for a dose of their Anti Retro Viral (ARV) medications at 8:00 am on the dot. They keep at this routine like clockwork and the person who ensures that it remains that way is Dattu Ram Rai, one of Saphalta’s long-standing teachers. He teaches Nepali but is also responsible for every health-related issue concerning the children.
It is he who accompanies the children on their routine visits to the Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital at Teku. “The children need to be checked every two or three months to assess their CD4 count,” he explains.
Usually, AIDS is diagnosed when the CD4 count drops below 200. Many children, when they were brought had lower counts, but now as per Gurung, have been consistently maintaining a normal range of 500, 800, 1200. The ARV, although by no means a cure, plays a vital role in keeping the virus under control and the children take medications two times a day at 8:00 am after breakfast, and 8:00 pm after dinner. Apart from these routines, the majority of these children pass their time in much the same way as others but outside the walls of their school, things might not have been the same.
Brunt of ignorance
Pun and Gurung haven’t intentionally installed ‘Saphalta HIV Sikshya Sadan’ signboard on the main gate for everybody to see but on the school premises.
Pun had sold his family home at Kirtipur and Gurung her cosmetic shop at Basundhara to invest in the estate where the school is currently based at Bhatkepati, Kirtipur.
Initially, the school faced trouble from the community asking them to relocate somewhere else after learning about the children being sheltered there.
“Locals used to think these children would transmit the disease if they mingled with theirs.
Now, people aren’t afraid to send their little ones to play inside the school compound,” elaborates Gurung.
There have been a number of efforts that Saphalta children have done in their community.
They have organised awareness programmes, visited door-todoor to distribute pamphlets educating the locals. On some occasions, for example like the Asar 15, the children even partake as the neighbourhood gets together for ‘Dhan Ropaain’ (paddy plantation) in the surrounding fields and verdant terraces.
“There’s still a long way to go when it comes to a discrimination-free society. In places like Dang and Kailali, there are many stories of students getting shunned by schools,” mourns Pun. Before they came to Saphalta, for many children even taking medication wasn’t simple, nor was hiding it from others. Once the schools realised they were taking ARV, they were simply asked to leave.
Fortunately, the 27 children at Saphalta don’t have to hide their condition and inside the confines of their school-cum -home, can hope for a bright future in a non-judgemental and non-discriminatory setting.
Every morning before classes begin, a group of students gather in their modest school compound for the national anthem. A head girl addresses the assembly from up front and there is the familiar exchange of drill commands as she instructs and the students comply to stand at ease and attention. Dressed in uniforms, these 27 children make up the entire student body of Saphalta HIV Sikshya Sadan.
In many ways, Saphalta is like any other regular school in the City. For both the primary and secondary levels taught from Class I to VIII, and Class IX to X, the school follows the course work as outlined in the National Curriculum Framework. Six days a week, the classes run from 9:00 am until the bell goes at four in the evening. Apart from academics, there are extra-curricular activities. Children learn to play guitar, paint and enjoy a game of cricket.
But despite all this, the school has a unique environment of its own — far from any other regular Nepali public or private school. London-based World Book of Records, even underpinned the school as the world’s first school with a distinct identity.
Established in 2010, it is the only ‘officially registered’ one of a kind organisation that provides free education, medical support and care home for 27 children living with HIV, all under a single roof.
HIV carriers continue to face significant discrimination in many areas of society, especially when it comes to education and schooling. Most of the children living and studying at Saphalta have faced the brunt of society in one way or another.
Some have been shunned by their previous schools, the majority have been orphaned by AIDS, others abandoned by their families. Although, the stains of past can be hard to get rid of, the students have exciting new prospects to strive towards, which they believe, education has opened up for them.
They neither seek sympathy for their past nor pity for their condition. All they ask, as 17-yearold student, Manju Chand, puts it, is to be treated as equals.
The step-ahead
This school year is a pivotal one for Saphalta and even more so for the first batch of seniors as they look forward towards their forthcoming Secondary Education Examination (SEE).
There are three students currently enrolled in Class X and one of them is Chand.
Chand is the first child to have been rescued by Saphalta.
In fact, it was her story that eventually set the motion for Spahalta’s two founders Uma Gurung and Raj Kumar Pun to start the care home. They came to know about Chand from a newspaper article that depicted her condition in an impoverished part of Dang. “Hearing hers and all the stories of discrimination, the two of us decided to do something substantial for these children,” explains Gurung. “She is this school’s very first daughter.” Chand also addresses both Gurung and Pun and her mother and father.
Today, Chand is at an important phase of her life as she aims to transition from childhood to adulthood. She is preparing diligently for her SEE. As the senior-most student, she does wish to pass out with flying colours.
“I am aiming for an A,” she says.
But what after SEE? Chand has made her decision: she wants to pursue Management for her higher-secondary education.
The thought of life after Saphalta, does concern both Gurung and Pun and their apprehension is palpable. Heading to college after SEE means leaving the caring, comforting environment to make it on her own in a country that’s too quick to dismiss her as a mere victim of HIV. “Manju, her batchmates and others to follow will face all sorts of problems and challenges after leaving,” says Pun, “But they are all smart, intelligent and talented children and I take pride and feel confident in their abilities.”
There is no shortage of talent at Spahalta. The school office is filled with certificates and trophies brought home by children participating in different contests. The walls are covered with beautiful paintings and doodles, and some of the boys are increasingly getting better with guitar. In one of British Council’s initiatives, Special Action Project, Chand had even participated in a national-calibre forum with participation from 30 schools across Nepal.
She had given a speech on HIV, which even won the school the Social Action Grant Award.
Chand, is aware of HIV and can explain it better than adults twice her age. “People think HIV is a disease but it’s a virus.
With timely, nutritious diet and medication, it can be kept under control,” she explains.
A day in their life
The children wake up at 6:00 am except for those studying in Class VIII and X. There are eight students who will be appearing for Basic Level Examination (for eighth graders) and they wake up at five in the morning along with three other SEE-appearing students. The morning ritual begins with a yoga session and after everybody has washed and made their beds, breakfast is served. The children then get in line for a dose of their Anti Retro Viral (ARV) medications at 8:00 am on the dot. They keep at this routine like clockwork and the person who ensures that it remains that way is Dattu Ram Rai, one of Saphalta’s long-standing teachers. He teaches Nepali but is also responsible for every health-related issue concerning the children.
It is he who accompanies the children on their routine visits to the Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital at Teku. “The children need to be checked every two or three months to assess their CD4 count,” he explains.
Usually, AIDS is diagnosed when the CD4 count drops below 200. Many children, when they were brought had lower counts, but now as per Gurung, have been consistently maintaining a normal range of 500, 800, 1200. The ARV, although by no means a cure, plays a vital role in keeping the virus under control and the children take medications two times a day at 8:00 am after breakfast, and 8:00 pm after dinner. Apart from these routines, the majority of these children pass their time in much the same way as others but outside the walls of their school, things might not have been the same.
Brunt of ignorance
Pun and Gurung haven’t intentionally installed ‘Saphalta HIV Sikshya Sadan’ signboard on the main gate for everybody to see but on the school premises.
Pun had sold his family home at Kirtipur and Gurung her cosmetic shop at Basundhara to invest in the estate where the school is currently based at Bhatkepati, Kirtipur.
Initially, the school faced trouble from the community asking them to relocate somewhere else after learning about the children being sheltered there.
“Locals used to think these children would transmit the disease if they mingled with theirs.
Now, people aren’t afraid to send their little ones to play inside the school compound,” elaborates Gurung.
There have been a number of efforts that Saphalta children have done in their community.
They have organised awareness programmes, visited door-todoor to distribute pamphlets educating the locals. On some occasions, for example like the Asar 15, the children even partake as the neighbourhood gets together for ‘Dhan Ropaain’ (paddy plantation) in the surrounding fields and verdant terraces.
“There’s still a long way to go when it comes to a discrimination-free society. In places like Dang and Kailali, there are many stories of students getting shunned by schools,” mourns Pun. Before they came to Saphalta, for many children even taking medication wasn’t simple, nor was hiding it from others. Once the schools realised they were taking ARV, they were simply asked to leave.
Fortunately, the 27 children at Saphalta don’t have to hide their condition and inside the confines of their school-cum -home, can hope for a bright future in a non-judgemental and non-discriminatory setting.