GOOD APPLE: Dinesh Shrestha
Good Apples spotlights people and organizations improving education in the developing world.
1. How long have you been working in education? What made you start?
I have been in the social development field since 1983 when I was doing my undergraduate study. When I started my career in 1983 in the development field, I started a program called Integrated Rural Development which focused on poverty alleviation. Education was one of its major components.
In 1987, one of my friends introduced me to Lions Club, an international social humanitarian organization that gave me a platform to spend my leisure time and taught me to utilize quality free time for a good cause helping those in need. I initiated and led many social and humanitarian projects in the sector of education and health through Lions Club. That association really gave me courage and made me more committed to social work. I spent all my weekends and holidays helping the poor and those in need, without expecting any monetary return. Soon, I became addicted to social work and whenever I see people in need, I extend my support no matter whether it is through my personal initiative or from my own expenses.
In 1998, I responded to a random request received from John Wood (a former employee of Microsoft, who left his Microsoft job in 2001 to help children with their education in the developing world). During a trek in Nepal, John got an opportunity to visit some school libraries. He noticed there were very few books which were covered by dust. So he helped the school with new books. He went back to his home and collected some 3,000 books. I offered my service and support to help keep and distribute the books in Nepal.
Wood came and we distributed books to many schools. Afterwards, I encouraged John to continue sending books to the schools of Nepal and this went on for a year. Gradually, with the help of Wood, we founded Room to Read. Together with Wood, I not only designed and developed programs to support rural schools and girls for Nepal but the same programs were also replicated in later years in other developing countries. Now, the programs have spread to ten countries, with an eleventh country on the way.
2. Where are you working now? What are you doing to make education in the developing world better?
I have been involved with Room to Read since its inception in 1999. I’m fortunate to be one of the co-founders. Since then, I’ve helped children to improve their reading skills and to develop their reading habits. Apart from this, we also support the government schools with school construction, school libraries, and children’s literacy and reading materials that will enhance reading skills and habits among children in primary school. We also focus on helping girls to finish secondary school.
Room to Read is currently working in ten countries –- seven in Asia (Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) and three in Africa (South Africa, Zambia, and Tanzania) focusing on education.
During our first ten years, we focused on access to education by helping poor rural schools to rebuild their schools. We built safe classrooms, school libraries with grade appropriate books and reading materials, developed and created children’s literature partnering with the local authors and educators, and supported girls education with lot of life skills initiatives.
3. What does your typical day look like?
In the early years of Room to Read I was involved with program implementation. Now, I focus more on supporting the country offices for the program operation. Therefore, my day starts with checking mail and responding the queries, reviewing documents and approval requests coming from our countries of service. My response to the country offices usually deals with technical support, helping with polices, procedures, and system improvement etc. There are an average of 150 e-mails and letters that I respond to each day and more than 50% of them come with an urgent priority tag. Basically, my role is to advise and support country offices in program operation and implementation located in ten different locations. I also travel to our countries of service.
4. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced working in development?
The biggest challenge to work on development sector is to manage the need and expectation of people. There is so much to be done and there are not always enough resources. Our focus could be a small part of that large issue or problem or that many not be the mandate of the organization, but when we work with the community, they want us to address those issues also. There is also challenge that you cannot see the immediate results and it takes some time to deliver. It is difficult to change the deeply rooted attitude and behavior of the people. It is easier to show results while working with the small group of people but it is difficult to show immediate results while working with a large community made up of people of varying background. It is sometimes difficult to convince the parents with no education on the importance of education and educating children.
5. What’s the biggest challenge the education programs you’ve worked with have faced?
The biggest challenge that we’ve faced is to sustain the program after we leave. We as an NGO, cannot be there for life. One day, we have to leave or phase out, but the program that we have done needs to be continued or owned by the community or be bought by the government. This is where we see the challenges. Not all the government or communities we work with really take that up and continue, though we are doing our best to convince and educate the government and the local communities about the importance of the programs. The government and the communities have recognized the fact that, these programs are really important, but sometimes they don’t show keen interest in taking them up.
6. What’s been your favorite success story?
There are many success stories, but I will share with you one that I just discovered during my recent visit to one of our schools in Nepal. During my visit to Shree Buddhi Bikash Higher Secondary School where the library was established by Room to Read in 2010, I got an opportunity to have a chat with a mother of a nine-year-old girl which really impressed me and gave me a sense how our program has been impacting in their lives.
Every Monday her teacher takes her to the library and does various learning activities. The activities she loves most are drawing and quiz contests. More than the activities, what she admires about the library is that from there she can borrow not just one or two but three books each day. So every time the bell rings for break time she rushes to the library before even taking snacks!
On the contrary, when the school got the library, her mother Sarita Giri was furious rather than happy. She was worried that the books in the library would distract her daughter from her studies. Sarita regrets giving up her studies after getting married when she was only in Grade 9. She had to go through hard times after marriage. She has made up her mind that she won’t let her daughter go through the same plight. She wants her daughter to be educated and independent before she makes any other decision for life.
Binita loved the books so much that she didn’t give up reading them despite being threatened and coerced by her mother. Her test scores went up. When her mother went to school to collect the annual progress report, she had a conversation with Binita’s teacher who told her about the importance of reading books other than course books. These days, Sarita doesn’t stop her daughter from reading the books. In fact , whenever time permits she herself sits close to hear and take pleasure of the stories and other books read by her daughter.
7. What’s your advice to those just beginning a career working in education in the developing world?
Have faith in yourself and in others. First of all, you have to believe in the cause and see how you can contribute or add value to that initiative and then you can go on convincing others. Convincing others is difficult but people are receptive if you can set the example yourself. Anything you do, do with passion and not only focus on completing the tasks but see how effectively you can complete the tasks. Set examples. Be mindful of the challenges of working with people of various types and don’t give up. You need a lot of positive energy and belief in others. It is not possible to do all the work by yourself and you have to constantly energize and motivate others to work on the common cause.
If you know any Good Apples working to make education better in the developing world, tell us! contact@openequalfree.org
Creative Commons Love: Nina Matthews on flickr.com
Written by Travis Thompson
