Nepal is a photographers dream. Snow capped mountain, picturesque villages, wonderful faces and an explosion of colour and culture await you. However it is not always as easy as you think taking photos at our early years school projects!
Photographers the world over will tell you how hard it is taking photographs of children. This is particularly the case with young children engaged in play. They don’t tend to sit still for long and much as we want to encourage active movement, there are times when we wish we could get the children in our fun, child friendly classrooms to sit still long enough for us to get a great photo. The kids have other ideas of course!
We have been really lucky over the years to host a number of volunteers who just happen to be great photographers. The two beautiful photographs above were taken by Bernie Ingils who visited our Nepal project schools in 2017. Sadly we can’t have them over in Nepal all the time! Therefore, one of the challenges is teaching our lovely Nepal team, unaccustomed to using cameras, how to take really good images. Not only that but there is lots to do during a school visit and taking photos is only a tiny part of the supervisory visit.
We tell it how it is
They often arrive at a school that wants to join our programme, to find children sitting on the floor of a classroom that is barely fit for anything let alone learning. There might not be time to get the light right or ask the children to move to a different corner of the room. A record of what is actually happening in the classroom is what is most important. Authenticity is vital to us and we tell it how it is. The photos of these children above show what school is like in thousands of classrooms across Nepal!
Imagine sending your child to school knowing that they would sit in an empty dark and dirty classroom taught by poorly trained and demotivated teachers. Hundreds of thousands of families across Nepal face this reality every day and we are passionate about changing this sorry situation.
Yes, we photograph school toilets!
We take photos to document so many aspects of our work. Obviously we want great shots of the children at our project centres and the classrooms that they are in. We also need to get photos of the communities, landscapes, the children’s homes, and people in the fields going about their daily life. The more background we have the better. But we take pictures of less pleasant things too. Our supervisors often take photos to record the state of school toilets - believe me that can be an unpleasant task! As part of our programme requirements, schools must make an effort to clean up the environment around the school including the toilets. Photographing them is a great way of measuring change!
Busy, Creative Teacher Training Courses
Taking pictures of adults would seem easier than children. However once our regular Teacher Training courses are in full swing, getting the right photo for our website or social media pages can be a challenge. Our training is so hands on that trainees are often moving around learning new activities or down on their hands and knees creating their own resources. Try taking a lovely photo when the carpet is covered in card, scissors and crayons!
Recording Daily Life in Nepal
Some of the things that the Nepal team would take for granted as part of daily life are in fact really interesting for our supporters. This elderly man in the photo below is used to carrying heavy loads like this each day. If you look closely at the photo of this classroom, you will see that it is not only filthy and untidy but has a roll of barbed wire in the corner.
Photographs are a vital record of change
Creating a photographic record of what is happening in rural Nepal is really important to show our supporters what we do and why there is such a need. Photographs are also a vital part of our monitoring process and document how a school is improving over time. Transparency is important to us and photos reveal so much about what is actually going on. Our Nepal team takes photos of classrooms each time they visit one of our project schools - last year they made over 700 supervisory visits to rural classrooms!
Sharing Improvements with You
We like to share our photos with our supporters. Our Friends of First Steps Himalaya monthly giving programme does just that. Friends receive detailed, illustrated reports packed with photographs from our Nepali co-founder, Durga twice a year. These reports are full of images of what is actually happening on the ground, documenting the changes each school is making to improve their classrooms and school environment.
Friends of First Steps Himalaya is a wonderful community of people passionate about making change through grassroots. People like you from all over the world, giving an amount to suit their budget, knowing that their contribution is making a sustainable difference to the lives of children in Nepali communities. We would love for you to join us!
Incredible changes
We couldn’t do this work without your help. The support we receive from our regular monthly donors means that we can keep running our early years classes in Nepal.
“ Every time I arrive, it makes me so happy to see the incredible changes not just in the classrooms but in the families of the children too. I wish each and every one of our Friends of First Steps Himalaya could come and see the change for themselves.'“ Durga Aran, Founder
Founder, Durga with children at Sangachok 10 years ago!
Durga with children at Dyali School in 2019