Spiti Valley: About the school

We are going to Rangrik in the Spiti Valley and providing beds for children that go to the Munsel Ling School there.

Since 1962 when a large number of Tibetan refugees entered the Himalyan area of India, the Trans Himalayan Aid Society [TRAS] has been raising funds to help nurture children in need. Their mission is to support the health and education of children in this area. Children at the school were mostly born in India in Tibetan refugee families. Some children are still coming to the Spiti Valley from Tibet, but it can compromise the safety of their families left behind so not many come to India any more.

Sleeping Children is only one of several groups that are helping the children at the school. Since 2007 teams of students from the University of British Columbia [UBC] Global Heath Initiative have been working to evaluate the children's health and educate them on living healthy.

We are presently on the way to Manali with our driver Jeetu.

The Spiti Valley Three

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Spiti Valley: A Memorable Trip

In 1981, Murray Dryden, founder of Sleeping Children Around the World, made a ten-day trip into the Himalayas to deliver 1,000 beds (approximately 10 tons) to four remote villages never before serviced by SCAW.

He said, "It was an adventure I will not soon forget."

This year, our team will deliver 380 beds to one remote village in the Himalayas. Murray's trip required twenty-six porters who carried the beds up into the mountains two weeks before Murray and his group arrived. The beds for the Spiti Valley distribution were delivered by truck early in June -- just after the roads re-opened for the summer -- to the remote village of Rangrik where the Munsel-Ling school is situated.

We will not be arriving there until the middle of next week since the village is at an altitude of more than three thousand metres and we stop for two days in the village of Manali (at eighteen hundred metres) in order to acclimatize our bodies to the altitude.

From Murray's report of his trip:

We had three porters, a guide, and a cook and we stopped for five minutes every thirty minutes. The cook was anxious to ply me with tea.

After sailing along for four hours, word came to halt for light refreshments. I was to know later that this was the notice of a formidable "enemy" lying ahead. At 16:30 we were given the order to "attack." It was up, up, up on narrow and slippery trails, and it was getting darker. Earlier, our trip routing had been changed from a 3-hour to a 6-hour objective. I sensed that the game was to kill me off early. My confidence was indeed gradually being shot down -- I was even thinking of the possibility of an air lift! The thought of nine more days of this torture almost made me sick.

At least we don't have to walk.

The Spiti Valley Three

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Spiti Valley: A Special Distribution

Going to the Munsel-Ling School in Rangrik in the Spiti Valley of the Himalaya Mountains, in Northern India.

The Spiti Valley Three: (Left to right) Milton van der Veen, Laura Harper, Clarence Deyoung (Team Leader)

A special distribution to celebrate the Year of the Millionth Bedkit and commemorate SCAW founder Murray Dryden’s trip to the Himalayas in the 1980s is about to take place. The SCAW travelling team met at SCAW headquarters on Thursday and leaves Toronto on Friday evening, July 3^rd.

Team members Laura Harper, Milton van der Veen, and Clarence Deyoung are honoured to have been chosen to represent Sleeping Children on this memorable occasion. This special distribution is being made possible by an estate donation to be used for bedkits. Keep an eye on these live reports as we try to keep you abreast of the details of this special distribution.

The Spiti Valley Three

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Spiti Valley: Leave Your Comments Here

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Uganda: 6,000 Bedkits delivered

6,000 bedkits delivered!!!

We're back from the hills of western Uganda where 6,000 children are now sleeping under mosquito nets, getting healthy and ready for a new day of learning.

We had many, many moments of joy with the children and the communities with which we were working. These photos show some of our experiences from the past week.

Debbie Will-Dryden for the Uganda team

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Uganda: The survey

From Uganda 2009 Photo Album

We went to two locations today, each with five hundred bedkits: the towns of Rukiga and Kabale. The day began with a group of village women dancing, singing, clapping, and drumming to show us their appreciation.

Under the hot sun, in a pasture field, I lead the children in fun actions to keep them occupied until the distribution started.

Surveys are a very important part of distributions in order to provide the most useful bedkit for the designated area. When a local translator was available, two of us started the surveys. We asked the questions to father, mothers, grandparents, boys and girls like:

• What do you like best in the bedkit?
• What was the most useful / least useful item?
• Do you have a mosquito net at home already?
• What colour do you prefer the net to be?
• What might they suggest be added to the bedkit?
• How long do they hope their child will go to school?

Shirley Aerts for the Uganda team

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Uganda: Slideshow 1

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Uganda: Rukungiri

Click link below to see more photos. From Uganda 2009 Photo Album

Dear Donors,

There are moments when the gratitude I feel for your wonderful generosity to all these special children overwhelms me. Because of you I have heard the voices and clapping of five hundred little angels as they welcomed us in anticipation of receiving your most generous gift: ‘Their bedkit.’

Because of you I have seen the happiest of smiles — smiles that could melt an iceberg.

Because of you I had the absolute pleasure of giving your gift to the children yesterday ... as I handed it to a beautiful young girl I said “This is for Special you from someone in Canada who loves you.” Her eyes met mine, she touched my hand and said “Please tell them I love them too.” They all do!

Our sincerest "Thank you," for caring so much for these beautiful children who have so little but act as though they have so much.

Together we will have given six thousand children in Uganda hope.

Annette Arnold for the Uganda team

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Uganda: Upcountry in Mityana

From Uganda 2009 Photo Album

We left our Kampala accommodations at 7:30 in the morning knowing that it was going to be seven nights on the bumpy roads of rural Uganda.

Our first stop was Mityana, a rural area in the hills west of Uganda. We arrived to five hundred children lined up outside their government-sponsored school.

We explained to the children the gift that they were about to receive from their donor. The cheers of the children as we showed them the bedkits items was truly heart-warming.

Then our team got into action, ensuring that we kept our promise to the donors of the bedkits.

The photos show our team with the children - Ruth and Annette handing out the bedkits, Shirley ensuring with Sieg that our accounts and labels were correct, and Greg greeting the children and getting them ready for the photos.

To see all the photos, go to the Uganda 2009 Photo Album.

Debbie Will-Dryden for the Uganda team

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Uganda: Going Upcountry

From Uganda 2009 Photo Album

Short message from the 2009 Uganda team:

Today we leave to go upcountry for seven nights. Hopefully we will have access to the computer. Keep your fingers crossed!

... we also received more photos from yesterday's distribution, including the tire rim school bell pictured at right. To see them all go to the Uganda 2009 Photo Album.

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Uganda: Second distribution

Click photos to see larger versions. From Uganda 2009 Photo Album

Today we went outside of Kampala to distribute 500 bedkits.

We started the day with overcast weather, then it got hot, then windy, then rainy, and finally we ended a wonderful distribution with sunshine.

After the distribution, we ate lunch at the site. Today's site was a government-sponsored school, with children from form one to form seven. The classrooms were bare of educational materials with the exception of a few student exercise and writing books.

We saw the children playing outside, skipping and playing soccer, just like our students do at home. The only difference is that these children were skipping with pieces of twine knotted together and their soccer ball was an empty plastic water bottle.

We could see from the signs posted around the school that the education of these children is all-encompassing.

Today's photos show some of our bedkit recipients with the school signs in the background.

A tire rim is rung like a bell at the end of class.

Debbie Will-Dryden for the Uganda team

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