Wayao Village School Re-opens
October 1, 2007

    After a summer-long talent search, Kham Aid Foundation hired a
teacher for Wayao school, a young man named Shanglo.  Shanglo comes
from the nearby town of Xinduqiao and he is therefore familiar with
the local culture and fluent in the Minyak dialect spoken by children
and parents at Wayao village.  Shanglo is 24 years old and graduated
in 2005 from the Kangding Tibetan School.  He is also a very good
painter.  He began teaching at Wayao in mid-September, taking up
residence in the teacher apartment attached to the school.

    The school building, which had been derelict for several years, was
repaired and made useable in mid-July by some American high school
students brought to Wayao Village by the Where There Be Dragons
(www.wheretherebedragons.com).  The volunteers cleaned, repaired, and
painted the classroom and teacher living quarters.  The material cost
of these improvements was covered by an anonymous donor.

    Parents in Wayao have been very excited about the restarting of their
village school, and have responded with great enthusiasm.  A total of
29 children have been sent to enroll, ranging in age from 5 to
14.   Virtually all of these children have never attended school
before.  Shanglo is teaching them the standard curriculum of Tibetan
and Chinese language, art, music, and athletics.  Kham Aid Foundation
is raising additional funds to purchase equipment such as a cassette
tape player and balls for the children to use.

    At first we did not have enough desks at the school but a nearby
government school sent over half a dozen desk-chair sets so that the
number is now sufficient.  Using the NVIDIA grant, Kham Aid
Foundation has purchased classroom materials such as paper and
pencils.  Our Education Program Director, Zangkar Jamyang, has
visited the school twice, and Kham Aid Foundation president Pam Logan
has visited the school once.

To find out how you can support this school, visit our donation page.