Sameer Shrestha Ancient Tibetan Proverb says that “A child without education, is like a bird without wings“. This proverb can be related to today’s world; if a child does not get education he/she cannot progress in life. In case of our country, most of the children are not getting education due to lack of opportunity or their critical economic situation. On 11th May 2014, ten students from DWIT along with three employees from Deerwalk Services went on a HIFE (Hiking for Education). The hike was organized by Deerwalk Social Welfare Network in collaboration with the Social Service Club of DWIT. The main motive behind the hike was to provide scholarship to students at the Dilli Sabitri School, Dhading. The hikers were accompanied by Mr. Surendra Nath Adhikari, the Campus Chief of DWIT, Mr. Amrit Silwal of DWIT Administration and Mr. Madhav Pandey, the chief guest for the occasion. Starting our journey form Baad Vanjyang and following a challenging route uphill with scorching sun above us, most of the hikers were tired half way along the route. Taking rests in several turns, the hikers walked their way to Khani Khola, Naubise where they had their lunch.

A child without education, is like a bird without wings

After a long and tiresome hike and finally having our lunch, we finally reached our destination, Shree Dilli Sabittri H. S School. 3km from the main highway where it stood peacefully beside the hill. Upon reaching the school and seeing those kids roaming around and enjoying life in their class room reminded us of our old school days. Those were the days. Without any delay we started our program, Mr. Surendra Nath Adhikari initiated the program in a group of the School Administration and the hikers. He started with our introduction followed by theirs. He and Rathu Nath Pathak (Ex Student of the same school) explained how the scholarship scheme was going to be like, how Deerwalk Social Network Welfare was formed to help the cause and how it’s going to help in the future. The objective of HIFE was well fulfilled when the surplus amount remaining from the hike was well spent. It was used for a purpose, where the kids from kindergarten to grade 4 were provided with stationery materials. On receiving those materials, the happiness and the pretty smiles on their faces can’t be really expressed in words. Honestly, it made our day. To distribute the scholarship amount we went to a class where all the students from classes 5 to 9 were gathered. A brief introduction about DSNW and the purpose of scholarship were given to the students. The main motto of this was to encourage and inspire the students. The students were promised that these programs were to be followed in the upcoming days if they showed some promise of hard labor in their study. Also an afforestation program will be following soon in the coming monsoon where those students could help take care of those plants. During the course of interaction Surendra and Madhav Pandey shared some of the facts & stories to those students. Students were keenly interested in the motivational speech & it seemed like those students were kind of amazed by the name “Deerwalk” like what’s that! Concluding the program, we had an interview session with the scholarship holder and their parents, most of the students & parents expressed their gratitude for our effort, said it was a good step. We should continue to do these kinds of steps in the coming future in other needful areas as well. 

Bijaya Gauli I have been participating and coordinating many hikes in Deerwalk but it was my first HIFE ever. 15 of the hiking team comprising DWIT students, college promoters and Deerwalk employees were very excited about the HIFE conducted to motivate and financially supporting few students of Dilli Sabitri Higher Secondary School, Naubise for their hard-work and academic excellence. The interaction with school teachers, students and their parents in the school made us realize the students from government schools are equally talent, skillful and competitive as compared to that of private boarding schools . The effort of school administration in improving the quality of education and all round development of students is really appreciable. Finally, I am grateful to DWIT, Deerwalk Social Welfare Network (DWSWN) and Deerwalk services for providing me this opportunity to add up a totally new experience in my life.