Giving continuity to its scholarship program, the Punya Foundation developed a partnership with the Bhutanese Refugee Women Forum (BRWF) and made agreement to implement the Scholarship program in the Bhutanese refugee camps. The BRWF has been working for the welfare of Bhutanese women and vulnerable children living in the refugee camps in Nepal.
Working methodology: The Punya Foundation organized a series of meetings with the advisor of BRWF, Mr. Amber Subba and BRWF program manager Mr. NB Subedi. Following the establishment of basic understanding and terms of working agreement, 2 rounds of trilateral (BRWF from Nepal, the BRWF Advisor, the Netherlands and the Punya Foundation) meetings were organized through conference call. Based on these meetings, a working modality was agreed.
The selection methodology: On 9th September 2013, the BRWF program manager, Mr. NB Subedi called for a meeting involving people working at the community level in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. The meeting was attended by the following stakeholders
- Assistant principal TRSS
- Head master NHA
- BRWF General Secretary
- BRWF social animator
- Shekhar Rizal, on behalf of the Punya Foundation and
- BRWF Program Manager
The meeting decided to use the guidelines set by the Punya Foundation to select the students for the scholarship program, namely:
- Children of Martyrs’ family
- Children having disability and or orphaned by one or both parents
- Children having disabled parents and/or who could not afford the higher education of their children
- Children who would not get resettled to third country within one year time from then and
- Children who would not be able to go to school without support of a third party.
The team unanimously decided to focus on selecting deserving students whose parents are not able to support for their studies and the students who have not applied for the resettlement process. The meeting adjourned planning to meet again on 26th October.
On 26th of October, in addition to the above mentioned stakeholders, the meeting was attended by the Camp Secretary and the Camp Secretary of Beldangi, the Camp Secretary of the Sanischare refugee camp, the Deputy Camp Secretary of the Sanischare refugee camp, the School heads from Beldangi I, II, III and Kumari Gurung, the BRWF Coordinator. In addition to development of the implementation strategy, the meeting decided on further monitoring of the process.
The scholarship selection team constituted of the BRWF program manager, Mr. Shekhar Rizal, representatives of Camp Management Committee and representatives of all the refugee camp schools selected the following students for the scholarship program of year 2013-2014
- Buddhi Bal Monger, Bel-II
- Buddhi Maya Rai, Bel-I
- Aman Chamlagai, Bel-I
- Bikram Rai, Bel-II
- Mitra Lal Dahal, Bel-II
- Abinash Rai, Bel-II
- Dharma Singh Khadka, Bel-II, A2/80