Every day at 5 pm, about 30 children from all different elementary schools, gather in a small room with their notebooks and pens. They pack themselves tightly - some on the bed, some on the floor. The bare cement walls of the room are plastered with old newspapers. Overlapping the newspapers are chart papers with multiplication tables, alphabets, scientific diagrams, and mathematical formulas.

The room, equipped with nothing more than an old whiteboard, is in a teacher's house.

The teacher is a 15-year-old Brijesh Rajbhar, a 10th-grade student from Shree Nepal Rastriya Higher Secondary School in Sedwa, Parsa.

In the village of Sedwa, the majority of families rely on tobacco farming and other sustenance farming for their livelihood. Most men also leave home to work as seasonal migrant laborers in India. Some parents leave their children in the village and come to Kathmandu to earn their living and support their families back home.

These families who come from historically marginalized communities- Chaudhary, Mushahars, and Dalits, chose a life of hardship with the aspiration and hope that their children would be able to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and lead a life of dignity.  

These aspirations and hopes often meet a dead-end at schools where a lack of teachers, inadequate resources, teaching methods, and overall school governance fall apart, leaving students behind.

“We’ve had Teach For Nepal Fellows come and teach us in our school (for the last six years), but there are not enough teachers in primary schools. One teacher has to teach all the subjects and there are too many children in every class. As a result, children don’t get the attention they need.” Says Brijesh.

Brijesh started voluntarily running this after-school tutoring for primary school children in his community two years ago. He teaches English, Math, and Science because these are the subjects that children seem to struggle most in.

Over the last two years, the number of students attending the class has remained consistently high and growing. The children can do multiplication tables up to 20 and their reading skills are up to their grade level.

For an entire year, no one knew that he was running these classes. Early this year, right after school, Brijesh walked up to Amulya (who is a Teach For Nepal Fellow teaching in his school) and requested him to refill a board marker for him.
Amulya, unsure who this was for, asked Brijesh if any of the teachers had asked him to get the markers refilled.

Brijesh said, “No. It is for me”.

“When I saw how Teach For Nepal Fellows were leaving their home and coming to our school and community to teach, I thought to myself, I can do that too,” says the 15-year-old young man.

Brijesh’s father is a farmer and his mother takes care of the house and family. He has two older brothers, four older sisters, and one younger sister. Teach For Nepal Fellows Amulya and Akhilesh have been teaching Brijesh for the last two years. 
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We at Teach For Nepal, hope that this story will lighten up the New Year of all who have supported and been part of Teach For Nepal as you realize how far your compassion has reached and has the potential to reach in inspiring an entire new generation.

Amulya and Akhilesh are currently doing their second year of Fellowship at Nepal Rashtriya Secondary School Sedwa, Parsa. Before joining the Fellowship Amulya completed his Master in Development Studies, Kathmandu University School of Arts, while Akhilesh completed his Bachelor of Technology, at Acharya Institute of Technology, India.