Grant awarded to BlinkNow Foundation
The Foundation is pleased to again support BlinkNow. BlinkNow’s vision is a world where every child is safe, educated and loved. Their mission is to change the world by empowering Nepal’s children. The organization does so by providing quality education, a safe environment and through inspiring others.
Scholarships will be made for both boys and girl who have yet to be sponsored in the 2020 school year. Their students are the most vulnerable children in Nepal who otherwise would not have access to a quality education. Furthermore, the students’ enrollment impacts their entire family not only by having educated children, but families are also provided resources like medical care, educational workshops, and first priority access for mothers to be enrolled in the Kopila Valley Women’s Center. Their approach is community–based and holistic. The nucleus of the community impact is the school, with additional programs such as their Women’s Center, Girl’s Hostel, Health Clinic, Children’s Home and Futures which collaborate in a symbiotic relationship with the school. Scholarship support and student enrollment is the foundation to their larger community impact. By supporting a student at the school, the impact not only helps the student but also their family and community in Surhket. The teachers BlinkNow supports have had to do a quick pivot in helping their students adjust during the COVID-19 pandemic. The teachers have mobilized quickly to support their students, making multiple phone calls each week to every student to assess their health and safety. The teachers also began developing packets of learning materials to distribute weekly. Each teacher has been sent home a computer from KVS’s computer lab and been given a stipend to buy data packages if they did not already have access to WIFI. Because of this new posture they are operating in, teachers have grown their technology skills tremendously. BlinkNow has been closely monitoring teacher’s development and have created YouTube workshops to help teachers develop best practices with distance learning. Looking forward, Nepal has no plans of reopening schools and the country recently went back into lockdown. KVS will continue to be flexible and responsive to the needs of the community and the student’s they serve.