Girls' Education in Bhutan

On 2 October 2014 Murray Woods, Paul Bombardier, Tanya Williams, Rachel Clacher, Anita Bain, Karen Murray and Lisa Shakespeare are travelling to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan with Heather McNeice and Krista Waddell. The trip is an important fundraiser for the Australian Himalayan Foundation ("AHF") and their girls' education program in Bhutan.  Although not coming to Bhutan on this trip, Susie Pitts, who completed the Jhomolhari trek in 2012 with Heather and Krista, is supporting the group's fundraising efforts in Noosa. 

Heather and Krista have been working with the AHF and RENEW,  ("Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women") a local charity in Bhutan, to support an education program that funds girls from remote villages to attend boarading school. Children in rural Bhutan often live several days' walk from their nearest school which makes boarding their only option. Although the annual cost of boarding is just $100, this is beyond the means of many families who live in extreme poverty.  As a result, girls, in particular, are often denied an education.   Many of the girls funded by RENEW's education program have very difficult family circumstances, reflecting RENEW's focus on helping victims of domestic violence.

Over the last few years, Heather and Krista have met with the directors of RENEW in Bhutan and have visited schools in the isolated villages of Laya, Lingshi and, in 2013, in the remote Lunana region, where the two tiny schools are seven days' walk from the nearest road.    The facilities in these schools are extremely basic. In Lingshi, the school building had lost its roof in a storm and the children had classes in tents, depsite the freezing temperatures. One school in Lunana had neither stationery, nor furniture, with both the children and the teacher having to sit on the floor.    These schools close for six months of the year when snow blocks the high mountain passes.  

This year, we will, once again, meet with RENEW and visit a school attended by girls on the RENEW education scholarship program. Our goal is to raise $20,000 towards the on-going funding of the girls' scholarship program. Any money raised in excess of that amount will be used to buy resources for some of Bhutan's most impoverished schools.   Having seen what a difference a small contribution can make in Bhutan we hope you will support us in our fundraising this year. 

All the money we raise goes directly to the AHF (we have paid all our own travel expenses).  Donations can be made via this page and, if you live in Australia,  it's all tax deductible. 

Thanks so much!