Dear friends of NAG – Namaste!

The year 2019 has flown by and a lot has happened again at NAG. This includes construction work, sporting successes, help in remote villages and the fight against plastic waste.

The constant replacement and restoration of old buildings at NAG continued in 2019. The northern part of the school building is one of the few buildings that we have not yet replaced since we purchased the land. The building part was dilapidated and has not been used for a long time, for safety reasons. Thanks to donations from Switzerland, we are now able to rebuild the second part of the school building and in the future we will also be able to provide adequate infrastructure for the teaching staff. This includes a teachers’ room as well as toilets, which the teachers do not have to share with pupils. The old building has already been demolished and work on the new building is progressing rapidly, so that we can, hopefully, inaugurate it in the course of 2020.

This year we were also able to open the new art room on the roof of the girls’ dormitory. Thanks to the help of Andrew Gray and the financial support of the International School of Zug and Lucerne, we now have the right premises to offer appropriate drawing and art lessons for all classes. Andrew Gray himself taught at NAG for half a year. Under his guidance, the ”NAGers” painted many great works of art; our grateful thanks for this!

Sports activities are very important for the children and young people. While the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams continue to win many tournaments, our climbing team is now also becoming more and more successful. Only a few years ago, sport climbing was mostly unknown in NAG (and also in Nepal), but now there is a real boom: In 2019 NAG even provided the Nepalese champion in climbing. Since the sport is becoming increasingly popular, we have expanded the climbing wall at NAG. Now there are overhanging parts to the wall and, therefore, it is a challenge for the more experienced climbers among the ”NAGers”. These successes are great for the children. The most important thing for us, though, is that the children have the opportunity to learn and try things out. Especially for the weaker school pupils, this gives them the opportunity to find an activity in which they are strong and can build up self-confidence. We, therefore, also offer numerous other extracurricular activities.

However, the focus is of course still on the actual school education. Our goal remains the same: to provide education to children who would have no chance without NAG. In 2019, we have also taken in numerous children. Around 200 children are currently attending the internal school and living at NAG; 250 more attend school as day students and return home in the evening.

NAG’s own mobile clinic was again on the road in the remote villages. Our doctor and nurses are constantly providing practical and medical assistance in these villages, whose inhabitants otherwise would not have access to basic medical care, due to their remoteness. Even today, there is still little medical care in the distant areas and the mobile clinic makes an important contribution to providing for the population’s most basic needs.

NAG also committed to the fight against plastics in 2019. In order to protect the environment and avoid waste, NAG will use as little plastic as possible. Numerous measures contribute to this; for example, NAG no longer uses plastic bags and most recently its toothbrushes are not made of plastic either; the first consignment of bamboo toothbrushes arrived shortly before Christmas. At first glance, this seems like a small measure. With a consumption of 2000 toothbrushes per year, it makes a difference.

We can only do the work in Nepal thanks to your generous support, dear NAG friends! Also in 2019 we have received numerous donations, which have all made it possible for us even to help the children in Nepal at all. We thank you very much for your great trust in our commitment.

On behalf of Nicole, all NAG employees and the Foundation Board, we wish you all a happy and successful New Year.

Make sure to make a note of our NAG annual event: this year it will take place on 22 March 2020 in Horgen.

In the name of the NAG-council,

Nicole Thakuri-Wick, Gründerin NAG

Sophie Winkler,  Präsidentin des NAG-Stiftungsrats