Activities of Access Surkhet (Fifth Cohort)
Surkhet Access Graduation
Graduation ceremony of the fifth cohort, English Access Microscholarship program, Surkhet was held on October 16, 2017 in the gracious presence of Bishwa Raj Gautam, RELO Specialist, Hom Raj Khadka, NELTA Central Committee Member, Kunjarmani Gautam, Access Coordinator, Jit Bahadur Shaha, District Education Officer, Surkhet, NELTA ,Surkhet branch advisors, executives and other stakeholders at Hotel Valley View Cottage, Surkhet. The program was conducted by one of the Surkhet Access students, Swostika Adhikari. In the program, NELTA Surkhet Chair Bishnu Prasad Khadka welcomed the guests, Chief guest RELO Program Specialist Bishwa Raj Gautam inaugurated the program by lighting the ceremonial Panas. Access students Tara Acharya and Pradip Rana Cheetri shared their Access experience and Access instructor Nab Raj Poudel spoke on behalf of teachers. Then, Access students performed songs, dance, speech showcasing what they have learned in Access. Sangita Singh and friends sang an Englilsh song, Harisharan Rawat and Madan Sapkota summarised Access enhancement activities in PowerPoint Slides, Access students Yam Kumari, Laxmi, Samikshya, Sumitra, Sarswati, Pushpa, Neha, Sangita, Susma, and Pabitra performed group dances. After that, Access students and teachers received the Access graduation certificates from Chief guest Bishwa Raj Gautam.
Glimpses of Surkhet Access Graduation
Old-age Home Visit
On July 30, 2017 Access Center Surkhet visited ‘Prashanti Old-age Home’ as part of Community Service Program. The Surkhet Access students along with their Access Instructors visited the Old-age Home and interacted with the elderly citizens. Prashanti Old-age Home was founded in 20 years ago with a purpose of serving elderly homeless citizens. At present, it is serving eight elderly homeless men and women. It is also helping other neighboring elderly people to spend their time without much worry and stress. The visit started with cleaning of the building premises and the plantation of flowers. After the plantation, The Vice- Chairman of Prashanti Old-age Home Ms. Shital Singh Rathore met the students in a small interaction session and threw light on the purpose of the Old-age Home. She requested the students to honor the elderly people as we all are destined to grow old with time. After that Access students handed over the sweets and fruits to the elderly. The program was facilitated by The Focal Person Mr. Dipendra Khatri of Access Center Surkhet. There was warm presence of NELTA Surkhet Chair Mr. Bishnu Kumar Khadka on the occasion.
Quiz at Access
On February 4, 2017, Access Center Surkhet organized a ‘Quiz Contest’ as scheduled on the operational calendar. The students of both groups were mixed up and divided into four groups A, B, C & D containing five members each. There were four rounds in the quiz contest. The first round was conducted by Access instructor Mr. Motiram Sijapati, second by Ms. Puspa Bangsi, third by Ms. Indra Kumari Oli and fourth by Mr. Nabraj Poudel. The rounds were related to Nepalese and American history and culture, English vocabulary. The Access Instructors took turns for doing other roles like keeping the scores, watching the time and etc. The prizes were given to the first, second and third group. There was also a consolation prize for the fourth group. There was a warm presence of Mr. Khagendra Thapa, Advisor of NELTA Surkhet and Mr. Dhaniram Sharma, Secretary, NELTA Surkhet. The guests distributed prizes to the winner groups. The program was competitive, informative and fruitful.
Surkhet Access Organized ‘Farewell Obama’ Program
On the January 20, 2017 Access Center Surkhet organized a program to bid farewell to Mr. Barack Obama with mini-project works. The students were divided into groups and distributed a worksheet each but the worksheets were different for each group so that they could collect more information. The students discussed and used internet resources to search for the information given in the worksheet. They also collected and shared information from/with other groups. When they finished collecting information, they were assigned to present their findings in front of the whole class. All students in each group took part individually in their presentation. They divided their parts in the presentation. Students did a bit of research and a lot of group discussion learning a lot about the outgoing President of USA Mr. Barack Obama and bid farewell to him.
Students searching for information on the task on the internet and then presenting their findings
Surkhet Access Marks Intenational Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women
On November 25, 2016, all the Access family celebrated the first day of 16 days’ long campaign for elimination of violence against women along with Access focal person Dipendra Khatri and NELTA Executives. Students were briefed about the background behind the campaign by showing videos and providing some reading materials on the topic. Then all pinned an orange ribbon on their shirts and marched with banner and placards towards Kalingchowk, near Access Center. The program was initiated with the short speech from Access instructor Ms. Indra Oli on the elimination of violence against women. Then students made slogans on streets with orange color and lit candles. Some Access students shared their feelings about violence against women. A crowd of people witnessed the program, Access students interacted with them, sharing their perspectives and listening to theirs.
Community Service Program- Cleaning of Deuti Bajai Temple Surroundings
All the students and instructors from Access Center Surkhet gathered in Deuti Bajai Temple to clean the surroundings on October 1, 2016 as part of community service. The temple is situated in the south-east direction and it is one of the attractions for tourists and pilgrims in Surkhet. The temple is a busy place and thus littered with waste left by devotees and tourists. During the community service program, Surkhet Access students and instructors swept the premises of the temple, collected the waste and disposed it safely. They also provided some plastic buckets and dustbins to the temple priests to help keep the surroundings clean. Access students also interacted with temple goers, requesting them to keep the temple area clean. The students participated in the program actively. It gave them a warm feeling of achievement. NELTA, Surkhet executives and NELTA life members also participated in the program.
Mid-Western University Visit
All the Access students and instructors from Access Center Surkhet were gathered at the center on August 20, 2016 to visit Mid-Western University. The students observed the various faculty campuses of the university. It was a weekend, yet various classes were running at the university and the Access students observed some classes. They observed computer lab, electrical lab, civil lab and hydro lab of engineering department. The technicians of each lab demonstrated short practical and described about equipments in the lab to Access students. Access students had a chance to interact with lecturers and chiefs of various faculties. After visiting the campus areas, all went to the Central Office to meet the Vice- Chancellor of the University, Prof. Dr. Upendra Kumar Koirala where he delivered speech about higher education opportunities and shared his success story with Access students. The Access students were excited and happy to meet the Vice-Chancellor and also to visit the university. They all had a motivational and fruitful visit.
Surkhet Access Visits American Corner
All the students and instructors from Surkhet Access Center visited the American Corner Surkhet on April 30, 2016. On reaching there, Ms. Usha Tiwari, a staff at the corner, warmly welcomed gave information about the library. Then, the students were divided into two groups and sat in two different library rooms. They started filling the activity sheets, collecting the information themselves through observation and asking Usha madam. After the allocated time for writing was over, the students enjoyed reading some new books for two hours. Finally, they all were gathered in the computer lab for reviewing their books and sharing their reflection on their visit to the American Corner Library. On their reflection, they expressed their enthusiasm, acknowledgements and feedbacks, too. From this visit, they knew about different sections of a library and how to seek information for a particular book.
Access Surkhet Organized its First Reader’s Club Activity
The first meeting of Surkhet Access Reader’s Club was conducted on January 30, 2016. Twenty students from both groups including ten girls and ten boys were selected as the members of the first reader’s club. They were informed fifteen days earlier about the program and were handed over the Xerox papers of the book ‘The Story of Nelson, a Lady Bird, Adventure from History. Then the members were explained about the different roles to review the book. The members were free to choose their preferable roles themselves. The role of the guest to introduce the book was played by the Access instructor; Nabraj Paudel. In the meeting, there was the warm presence of the NELTA Surkeht chairperson, advisor, secretary and Access focal person of NELTA Surkhet.
The program lased an hour and Access students did their level best to review the book playing the different roles of moderator, presenter, speaker and critic. From their performances, we discovered them being researchful, curious and informative as they had gone through other references to gain much more information about the book. We are quite satisfied for what they did from their level. Non-participants too enjoyed the program thoroughly and learnt many things about the book. The club members along with their responsibilities are listed below.
S.N Name of the members Roles
1. Sarika Bhattarai (Moderator)
2 Govinda Oli (First speaker)
3 Prakash Sunar (Second speaker)
4 Binod Basyal (Third speaker)
5 Kamal Khatri (Fourth speaker)
6 Prakash Budha (Fifth speaker)
7 Sumitra Chaudhary (Sixth speaker)
8 Laxmi Panta (Seventh speaker)
9 Tara Acharya (First critic)
10 Nabraj Oli (Second critic)
Access Surkhet Paints Zebra-crossing Sign as Community Work
The Surkhet Access center organized community service as per the operational calendar of English Access Microscholarship Program on January 23, 2016. The Surkhet Access center chose an urgent issue that affected many people. The forty Access students and four instructors gathered at the busiest part of the town- Neta Chowk and painted two zebra-crossing signs. The program was organized with the technical assistance of District Traffic Police, Surkhet. With the lack of zebra crossing sign, the locals and pedestrians were facing lots of problems. Because of this, local people applauded the effort of Access students and also helped them. They thanked NELTA and Surkhet Access, for organizing such community work. The students were then given information related to traffic by Inspector Harka Bdr. Rawal, the In-charge of District Traffic Police Office, Surkhet. The event was covered by most of the local newspapers in Surkhet. There was also warm presence of Mr. Dhaniram Sharma, the secretary of NELTA, Surkhet. Access students participated in the program enthusiastically, it was an amazing experience for them.
Surkhet Access students painting zebra-crossing sign in presence of Traffic Police
Access Surkhet Marked 67th International Human Rights Day
Access Surkhet organized Speech contest to mark the 67th International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2015. Students were informed about the program a week ago so that they could prepare well and deliver their speech accordingly. On the scheduled day, at first, the students were shown some slides on Human Rights and the history behind celebration of International Human Rights Day. Then, they were made to copy some important points on their note books. Students gave a speech on the history, declaration of Human rights day, its importance in the world and their conclusion on the topic as well. Access instructors judged their performance based on fluency, content knowledge, confidence, presentation style and their conclusions.
Access student Neha Thapa is delivering her speech
English Access Microscholarship Program, Nepal 