For the past 2 weeks the GFF volunteers have been working very hard to purchase all the materials and bring them to the respective sites.
The EKIN volunteers also have been working hard preparing skits, speeches and other performances that they will have for the kids of the schools while distributing the gifts.
They have landed yesterday Sunday 1 June at Bagdogra and reached Kalimpong by jeep. This is the itinerary they will follow during this week:
02nd June (Monday)- Visit to Teesta Government Primary School, Jubilee Primary School and Ramlal Dahal Government High School.
9:15am
leave for Teesta Bazar Primary School. Takes half hour to reach. Program will start at 10am and here we will
be for an hour. Here we will distribute
Library Books, Teaching and learning Materials, two computer sets and Two Water
filters. From here we will drive uphill
towards Kalimpong town and proceed towards Jubilee Government Primary
School. The program starts here at
12:30pm. Here the program is short as we
are distributing only two computer sets. From here we proceed towards Lunch at
the Town. (local restaurant). At around
2pm we proceed towards Ramlal Dahal Government High School which takes us
almost 30 mins to reach from the Kalimpong town. The children will be waiting
for us and here also the program is short as we are distributing only Two
computer sets.
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| Jeep trips |
03rd June (Tuesday)
– Visit to Milan Sangh Primary School (lass Villa) located at Darjeeling town.
On this day we have an early breakfast and drive towards Darjeeling. Darjeeling
is 75 kms from Kalimpong and takes 2 and half hours to 3 hours drive. It’s a
beautiful drive and one can also see mountains, rivers and lovely tea gardens
placed on the hilly slopes. Just before
the town our school Milan Sangh Primary school is located on the midst of the
tightly packed houses. This school has been introduced us by the members of the
Rotary Club of Darjeeling and the members has done the arrangement s for
today’s program including the short medical camp for these underprivileged
children. Here we will have the members
of Rotary Club of Darjeeling waiting for us along with the School children and
the teachers. Here we will distribute a)
Library books, b) Library cupboard, c) One Water filter d) Teaching and
learning materials. After this short
program we will help the Doctor to do a short medical checkup for the 30 school
children. After the program we will
drive towards Darjeeling town and eat at the local restaurant and also walk around the MAL or the centre of
the town. Late Afternoon drive back to
Kalimpong.
Distance
Time taken
Altitude of Darjeeling : Approx 7000 feet.
04th June
(Wednesday)- 7 AM
- After an early breakfast we start for
a journey of
two and half hours towards the village of Dablin. The drive is
interesting as we cross hills and beautiful villages but due to rough roads we
drive slowly to reach our destination.
Finally we arrive at our first school i.e. Reon Dablin Government
Primary school where the children and teachers will be waiting for us. Around
10am we distribute our first educational items comprising of a) 14 Desk and
benches, b) 1 water filter, c) One library Cupboard, d) One set library books
and e) One set teaching and learning materials.
After this lovely visit we drive for 10 mins down hill and reach a high
school called Sadhu Sundar Singh High School where the school children and the
teachers will be waiting for us. Here we do another distribution program i.e.
a) 33 Desk and benches, b) 2 water filters, c) One library Cupboard, d) One set
library books and e) One set teaching and learning materials f) Two computer
sets. After the visit we drive further
downhill on the rough road for 10 to 15 mins till we reach the last road end
called the village of Katarey. From here
we walk for half hour till we reach the school of Reon Sadhu Sundar Singh
Primary School. Our camping staff along
with our camping gears will be waiting for us.
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| Road conditions |
Overnight at the Camps in Reon SSS primary
School ground.
05th June
(Thursday) - around 9am we will have the
official welcome by the children
of the Reon Primary school. After our welcome is finished we start white
washing the school walls. Some of us will also be putting primer at the
windows.
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| Reon school |
06th June (Friday)
- After Breakfast we
will start our second day of painting. This day will be basically to paint the
walls which has now dried after white wash from yesterday. Also proper paint
will be put on the windows. We hope to
finish by evening.
Overnight
at the Camps in Reon SSS primary School ground.
Program for Akanksha (EKIN in situ project coordinator) : After
early breakfast Ms Akanksha will walk towards the road end where Saom (GFF director) will be
waiting with the vehicle to take her to the remote village of Longshyel (one of
the most remote place in the sub-division of Kalimpong). It will take us almost
drive of 4 hours to reach this remote village. Due to rough road conditions we
drive slowly hence the driving hours are long. We hope to reach by 12pm where
we will be welcomed by the teachers and the students of St.Thomas Primary
School. Here we will do the distribution
of Water filter and Teaching and Learning materials. Also we will see the Solar
lights which has already been fixed on 28th of May 2014. After this lovely
visit we will drive for almost 4 hours to reach Kalimpong town via the tourist
village of Lava.
07th June
(Saturday)
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| Soam, Shiva and GFF team |
After an early breakfast we walk for half
hour towards the road end where our vehicle will take us to the Sadhu Sundar
Singh High School. This school will be our main venue for Medical camps. On
this day we will do medical camps with the help of volunteer Doctors i.e. Dr
Sharon D Fonning MS (Gyno) and Dr S Basu MD.
The program are a) To D-worm the children present (All three schools
will be present), b) To Do blood
grouping of 200 people present c) To do medical checkup by the Doctors, d) To
distribute some gifts for the children by the doctors . Camp will be from 10am
to 3pm. After the vote of thanks by the
local committee we will then proceed towards Kalimpong.
