From “helper” to “cultivator”
At the core of Calls over Ridges is a comprehensive and systematic model of educational service that includes the following: “educational fundraising,” to offer scholarships so that children can pursue education without financial anxieties; “building educational resources,” thus helping schools to create supportive environments; “encouraging parental participation,” by holding parent days and parent‡child seminars, which impress upon parents the importance of their children’s attendance at school; and “increasing motivation to learn,” by inviting successful people who moved from remote areas to work in the capital to come and give talks.
They also drew from their earlier experiences with foreign service, which taught them about the limitations of short-term stints: “If the decision to go abroad is just based on curiosity and a desire to see some different place, then it’s going be hard to get into the shoes of local people,” says Tsai bluntly. “That’s why volunteering is not the best recruitment mode for us.”
Maintaining that approach would only end up in emphasizing mutual dependency, which is certainly not a good thing for local communities.
“Calls over Ridges’ ultimate goal is to leave.” Tsai mentions that time and time again over the course of our interview.
Consequently, the organization’s approach is to select a small number of local youths to put through higher education. After these young people graduate from college thanks to Calls over Ridges’ support, they will have foreign language skills and the ability to find resources, and can become key actors for turning around a locale.
A good example is Sang Doma Sherpa, one of the organization’s local partners in Gorkha. He started working for them as a volunteer interpreter. Later, after working on various projects at different times, he became a communication portal between the organization and schools. With his skills being cultivated step by step, he became familiar with the organization’s operating methods.
Today, as the local outfit has taken on the spirit of the Taiwan group, Sang Doma has registered the Nepal branch of Calls over Ridges with the Nepalese government as a local NGO. The methods and structures have been extended from Taiwan, but the personnel and resources are now all local.
The organization’s plan for planting the seeds of education takes a multifaceted approach. It has helped to increase schoolchildren’s motivation to study.