Vicky Sherpa or the strength of education

Vicky Subirana, or Vicky Sherpa, her married name, is a Catalan teacher who has spent 8 years in Nepal developing educational projects for children with no economical resources. These children, along with their families, belong to the lowest castes of the Nepalese society, and are considered to have no right to education. Convinced that access to education is a basic tool to improve living conditions of children and of society in general, Vicky Sherpa presents us with the crude reality of everyday life in Nepal: poverty and squalor, a very high percentage of illiteracy among the population, child labour, the terrible division among the castes, as well as the reality, not always ethical or legal, of adoptions. We present here some of her answers to our interview:

«It is through education that we can transform the environment. If we only concentrate on the social and economical aspects, ignoring education, the result is not the same. We are trying to create in Nepal a “transformation” school, open to all castes and ethnic groups, which teaches children to look at their surroundings with a critical gaze, to think in a creative and analytical fashion, and thus enable people to influence their own cultural reality in the way they wish. Nowadays, schools in Nepal not only don’t reach the most under-
privileged classes, they do not give the individual any freedom to think by him/herself. The schools are run according to the dictates of cultural tra-
dition and castes which perpetuate great social injustices».

«I insist on the fact that access to education is a tool for transformation, capable of generating changes led by the active agents of that society itself (families, children...) and in response to the actual needs of that environment and not those imposed by politicians and other countries. The idea is to train individuals to choose and develop the society they want by themselves. We cannot solve the problems thinking with a Western mentality. The solutions have to come from them».

«We should focus our energies on raising government awareness, applying pressure for them to carry out policies that are truly in everybody’s interest. Our educational project and our help programs in economical projects for families are in fact a small help that does not change much. I am perfectly aware of this, but it is also important to mention that 600 families have been able to progress thanks to these programs».