UPDATE JANUARY 2011

Dear friends and family,

As a partner of Lamling Vista Elementary School in Nagaland, India, we would like to bring you up to speed with our yearly update. First and foremost, a huge resounding thank you to each one of you who have contributed to this school! Many of you are unaware of the degree of impact that you directly have on the lives of the children in the village through education. Truly, without your help, Lamling Vista would not be a success.

Year Three of Lamling Vista
The third school year began just a couple weeks ago, as 150 kids said goodbye to their Christmas/New Year break and hit the books, moving on to the next grade.  They are still in the same location, but this year the fifteen 5th graders will come back to ‘rule the school’ again as 6th graders. That’s right, at the request of the parents a 6th grade classroom and teacher were added! We were pleased to hear the parents are involved in their children’s education enough to petition for it to continue, and that they felt Lamling Vista was an adequate place for that.

Construction of the New School
We had a minor setback last year in beginning construction due to a change of location. The original plot of land was officially donated by a villager, paperwork completed and all – but then he was offered a position in the government for that same plot of land and chose to withdraw his offer to us, understandably. The school board wasn’t as understanding but we will leave it at that. Nevertheless a new communal plot of land was identified and agreed upon among the villagers and construction began in January. The foundation is complete and the rooms are in progress (seven classrooms on ground level, one teacher office above). Venyei’s dad is leading the construction project while juggling a busy sowing season, village leadership, and being a father of 10. Without his help and wisdom, we would be paralyzed in our efforts. Kudos to Mr. Angshing!! We expect the school to be completed by this summer, and the transition to be made mid school-year. It is so exciting to see our dreams of providing a new, spacious, clean, durable, long-lasting schoolhouse for these children come to fruition!

The Financial Side of Things
We would just like to point out that over the last two years, since school began in February 2009, a total of $12,000  has been raised through you amazing people and has gone towards teacher salaries, textbooks, uniforms, sports equipment, and materials and labor for the new school. That’s pretty incredible taking into account the reality that we have had little to no time for fundraising… But this year, with completing the construction of the school and the addition of a 6th grade, we are in a financial place where that will need to change. So we are reaching out to those of you with time, ideas, or resources to help us get some creative fundraising efforts off the ground. And of course, your continued support through generous personal donations is a huge help and never ceases to leave us speechless.

There are now 8 teachers with salaries ranging from $55 to $90 per month, bringing the total monthly cost to $590 in order to keep the school running. This is up from $470 last year. Frankly we feel a little in over our heads with these numbers but are hopeful for the coming year to be full of fundraising! After all, we believe this cause to be more than worthy and will go to whatever lengths it takes to secure the future of these children as future leaders, engineers, teachers, and doctors of Nagaland and the world.

Thank you for joining us on this exciting endeavor! Again, we wouldn’t have gotten here without all of your support – thanks a million!

Peace and Love,
Kate and Venyei

---

Back to the Lamling Vista home page