Activity history
2002 - 2005
In 2002, with support from MondoChallenge Foundation (MCF), a UK-based charity, Mondo Challenge Kalimpong (MCK) was established in Kalimpong of Darjeeling District, India, with an aim of bringing about community development through improvements in education and livelihoods in the region.
Almost immediately after Mondo Challenge Kalimpong was set up, volunteers from MondoChallenge Foundation who had taught at schools in the Darjeeling region wanted to support activities in the villages where they had lived and worked.
Several of them decided to sponsor individual children at Lotus Academy and Alpha Nursery School. Many of the families whose children attended these schools were very poor, often with only one parent alive.
In these early days, we also put in place a small scale agricultural programme, funding the purchase of seeds as well as paying for a local agricultural expert to teach the children about plant propagation and cultivation methods.
A Teacher Training programme was started during the year with a series of modules developed by an experienced local trainer. The programme continues to be an important activity for MCK.
2006
Those who have visited this lovely region will know it is the perfect setting for simple, not too challenging trekking, perhaps best described as a ‘short stroll in the Himalayas’! MCF/MCK therefore started a Village Discovery Tour which benefits the villages as well as enabling visitors to see the Himalayan foothills in the company of local guides.
The sponsorship programme expanded during the year and it became apparent that there was a danger both of duplication and of missing really needy families where the children were less good at communicating their need to the staff or the volunteers.
The decision was made to completely revise the system for sponsorship and to fund the schools directly rather than individual families. Thus was born the Education Grants Programme, which remains the major plank of our funding.
Another innovation was the inter-school sports. Under the support from the Foundation, Mondo Challenge Kalimpong organised and sponsored the event, providing trophies and other prizes and has done so annually since.
2007
This year saw the first new building funded by Mondo Challenge Kalimpong at Mount View school. Built on land donated by a local family, the building was a single floor structure with six small classrooms and a flexible layout.
During the year, the Education Grants programme was extended to 3 more schools - Mount View, Sacred Heart and RIBS - as more funding became available.
As the number of schools being supported grew, additional inter-school activities were launched. A general knowledge quiz and the Mondo ‘Oscars’, a drama contest, were among the new activities.
2008
More new building work took place with a major extension to Magno Vale Academy in the Darjeeling region.
The Education Grants and Training activities expanded further, assisting 700 children.
A new initiative was the sponsorship of cubs and brownies packs at two schools, Lotus and Magno Vale.
2009
By far the biggest programme to date was the completion of the new school building at New Rise Academy in Kashyem. An eight classroom structure on two levels, and built to withstand monsoon conditions, the building has a top floor ready to receive further classrooms as the school moves to offer a full set of secondary education classes.
2010 to 2011
The Education Grants Programme was extended to cover 12 small schools in the Kalimpong and Darjeeling regions with 1545 children being supported.
Grants were given to Sacred Heart and Magno Vale for their new building programmes.
Inter-school activities continued to take place as did the cubs and brownies.
Village Discovery Tours were promoted through tour operators with the aim of bringing additional visitors to the area.