New Backpacks, New Beginnings: Stationery Reaches 70 Students at Yangrima School
COMMUNITY UPDATE
HEAL Nepal in partnership with the World Vision Advocacy Forum delivered pencils, notebooks and more to a mountain school in Sermathang — part of a wider push to keep vulnerable children learning.
9 June 2024 · Sermathang, Helambu-2, Sindhupalchok · Community-Based Public Health and Education Project
The Stationery Distribution Program banner outside Yangrima School, 9 June 2024.
Education starts with the basics. Long before a child reads their first book, they need a pencil that writes, an eraser that works and a notebook to fill. For students at Yangrima School in Sermathang, those basics aren’t always guaranteed – for many families in this corner of Sindhupalchok district, the cost of stationery is one more barrier between a child and their schooling.
That’s the gap HEAL Nepal set out to close on 9 June 2024, distributing full sets of stationery to every student at the school as part of its Community-Based Public Health and Education Project – a broader effort to improve education, healthcare and economic opportunity for vulnerable communities in rural Nepal.
A Morning of Firsts
The event brought together an unusual mix of guests for a school courtyard: Mr. Tashi Lama Hyolmo, Executive Director of HEAL Nepal; Mr. Navaraj Adhikari, Director of the World Vision Advocacy Forum (WVAF); Mr. Govinda Timalsina, a Senior Economics Researcher with the World Bank and Mr. Nima Lama Hyolmo, Principal of Yangrima School – alongside staff from both organizations, teachers and the students themselves.
Wrapped in traditional scarves and welcomed with the national anthem, the guests opened the program with a shared message: that small, practical support can have an outsized effect on a child’s path through school. Mr. Hyolmo walked attendees through HEAL Nepal’s wider project – its free healthcare services, health education work, school playground upgrades and scholarship programs – funded through the Wilde Ganzen Foundation, Stichting Nepal and WVAF.
Mr. Adhikari spoke to WVAF’s role as a partner organization, emphasizing the two groups’ shared commitment to community-driven, sustainable development. And Mr. Timalsina, drawing on his research background, made the case for why something as small as a pencil matters developmentally: it’s often a child’s first tool for fine motor control well before it becomes a tool for literacy.
Stationery sets laid out for distribution in the Yangrima School courtyard.
70 Students, One by One
By the end of the morning, 70 students – from kindergarten through grade 12 – had each received a complete set of stationery, handed over personally by the visiting guests. Five additional sets were left with the school office for students who needed extra support later in the year.
A student receives pencils, erasers and notebooks from program volunteers.
For Principal Nima Lama Hyolmo, the gesture carried weight beyond the supplies themselves. He thanked HEAL Nepal and its donors not just for easing pressure on students, but on their families – many of whom, he noted, struggle to afford even basic school materials. “It helps the students,” he said, “but it also helps the parents.”
Looking Ahead
The program closed with Principal Hyolmo expressing hope for continued partnership – support that could help address absenteeism and dropout rates that still affect rural schools like Yangrima. HEAL Nepal and WVAF both signaled the same intention: this distribution is one piece of a longer-term commitment to the Helambu region, alongside the project’s ongoing healthcare and infrastructure work.
As one researcher put it during the discussion, the real return on a box of pencils isn’t measured in rupees — it’s measured in the confidence of a child who, for the first time, has everything they need to write their name.
About the project: The Community-Based Public Health and Education Project is a joint initiative of HEAL Nepal and the World Vision Advocacy Forum, supported by the Wilde Ganzen Foundation and Stichting Nepal, aimed at improving education, healthcare and economic opportunity for vulnerable communities across rural Nepal.