Brand new project in Nepal

English Teacher in Bardia Tharu Village

Barida national park is in the west of Nepal close to the Indian border set in the Terai or flat lands home of the Tharu people. EHN Nepal has just taken on a school in this area that need English speaking people to help teach the local Tharu communities children.

This is a new project for EHN in a more remote part of Nepal which takes about 15hrs by local bus to reach. Therefore this placement should only be considered by someone who has volunteered in a developing country before or who has an adventurous personality.

After talking to the school principal, he told us that the students of this school are struggling with the English section of a 6 part exam. This is a very common problem in Nepal and EHN would like to help by sending English speaking people to assist in the lessons.

Your duties will be to help get the class ready and teach English working mostly on pronunciation and grammar. The position would be on a 6 day a week basis with Saturday off , in Nepal they do normally finish early on a Friday as well and have many festival so days off are common. Please also be warned that when you work in local community you will become the focus of their attention so everything you do will be of interest. Some volunteers find this hard where as others revile in it so if you are the type of person who likes privacy I would recommend looking at some of the urban projects where you are less of a star attraction due to a higher number of westerners already living or working in the area.

If you choose this placement you will be staying in a beautiful mud and wood built Tharu village called Thakurdwara in the centre of Bardia Natioanl Park. You would be living with a local family in their home close to the school in the village. The homes are normally mud and wood constructions with some of the new ones being made of concrete. All homes have several animals such as goats & buffalo living beside the house as well as many grain stores around the house. It's a very simple way of life but to EHN a beautiful and sustainable way to live and one we hope to help preserve. As explained below we pay a large percentage of the money you give directly to your hosts, so you're helping them financially as well as helping to improve their overall English.

One other thing you need to bear in mind is that you will be living in a National park with wild Elephant, Rhino, Tigers and Leopards so at night you should not walk alone or wonder far. In some extreme cases the wildlife will enter the village to find food and EHN would like to make sure that volunteers are not on the menu.

The Way EHN work

EHN charge £10 or $15 per day plus an £80 or $120 admin. The bulk of the money you pay goes to the home stay you'll be living with and the rest on food and transport. All you need is enough to cover luxuries such as beer, chocolate, internet, laundry and some souvenirs. Everything else is covered by EHN including your airport pickup and drop off and a city tour. In the case of this project EHN will also be making a contribution to the school for teaching materials to support the project further.

If you want to find out more about this position please contact EHN on the email address below.

phil@ehn-nepal.org www.ehn-nepal.org