Screenshot from 2013-05-11 14:54:29

Jaipate School

Maya Universe Academy’s third campus is located in the semi-jungle area of Jaipate, a village in the Syangja District. The Syangja campus has been established to meet specific goals to eradicate child illiteracy and continue to spread Maya’s mission to educate and transform impoverished, rural districts. Tragically, Syangja hosts one of the worst literacy rates of all 75 districts in Nepal. The majority of children here do not go to school long enough to learn to read or do basic math. The few that do not drop out have only one option – a government-run school. As in the rest of Nepal, the government school does not have the resources, human or material, to provide the children with even a semblance of education.

Jaipate is an opportunity for the Maya philosophy of empowering local communities to strengthen themselves from the inside out to take root. In one of the most severe parts of Nepal, the majority of students drop out of school after idly wasting time and grave investment. Brick topped building and teachers with no compassion simply cannot meet student needs. At Maya Academy Syangja, we seek to overcome an incomplete educational system.

Maya – Jaipate is located within the Brahmin community. The community does not consume alcohol or meat. The 16 students aged from 5 to 8 that make up the latest extension of Maya are fun-loving and ambitious students who have excitedly accepted our Mayan volunteers.

When we enter a new village, we enter through the eyes of a child, we give them hope, love, and something to read. They are the easiest to convince of the importance of education. But we know we have succeeded when, through the eyes of the elders, we have given the community real tools for solving the many hardships subsistence farmers face. Here in Jaipate, the village creates electricity from a nearby dam. One of the first community outreach projects for Jaipate has been to build a communal mill powered by electricity from the river. As we continue to build our presence in Jaipate, our vision and the Maya standard compels us to not only focus on the children, but on the village as a whole. We farm and we live the life of a local while teaching about the world. Come, join us, and experience life and maya in rural Nepal.