Lumbini Girls' School helping to keep girls at school longer

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While in Lumbini we went to a girls’ school where Vince did some service work in 2014. The school was founded by a Buddhist monk, together with assistance from a Canadian Buddhist nun and Canadians friends. Many girls are subsidised for their schooling and are part of the nunnery although they are not nuns. The belief is that, if they can be kept at school longer, they will not be married off while in their teens and will stand a better chance of going on to make a career for themselves. They are free to leave whenever they wish to. One classroom was filled with treadle sewing-machines and another room had quite a few computers. We met several girls and women that Vince had met in his previous visit. Two he was especially fond of were Deepa and Deera. Whenever Vince stopped working for a spell, Deepa would appear at his shoulder with a cup of tea. Her greeting was always the same. ‘Hello, Uncle. A cup of tea, not too strong, no sugar.’ He often told me what a lovely smile she had. We were there for the assembly which was run by the head girl. They did a few exercises, said a prayer, sang the National Anthem then the front girl of each line inspected the hands of the girls in their line. They had to have clean, short finger-nails. Nail polish was prohibited as were bangles. Overall, we were very impressed with the progress of the school.