Sanjiwani School Art Project

February 24, 2011
At Sanjiwani School


There are 14 visually challenged students who live in a hostel in the grounds of the Sanjiwani Model Higher Secondary School in Dhulikhel, Kavre District, Nepal. 4 of these students have sponsors who pay for their hostel and tuition fees. We always plan a special activity here to benefit all the visually challenged students. They range in age from 6 to 18 and attend the school with all the other 1000+ students from class 1 – 10.

Bobbie has suggested a “treasure Box” art project wherein the students would decorate wooden boxes with objects of many shapes and sizes and then the volunteers would help varnish these boxes so they would have their personal treasure boxes to keep as a memory of our volunteer activity. RR had the boxes made by a local woodworker and we brought the plastic jewels of all shapes with adhesive backings to make the process a little easier for our students. Each volunteer partnered with a student to assist and interact with them while they decorated their boxes. Each box was labeled with their name and the name of their volunteer. We had boxed lunches brought in and gave out goodie bags we brought for each student too! We also got to buy each one a shirt, underwear and socks from the local market.

A good time was had by all! The students had fun being out of the classroom for a few hours (who wouldn’t?) and created their treasure boxes and just chatted with us about their families and favorite things! I just felt really warm inside as I saw their smiles light up their faces as we joked around. They don’t care what we looked like or how we dressed or why we were there. They just enjoyed our company, received our presence and felt good that all eyes were on them that day!