Expanding Education in Nepal

by Wouther Zwart '14, International Internship, VillageTech Solutions, Nepal

I spent four wonderful months in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, with a small NGO called VillageTech Solutions. Their education project is an audio-visual teaching aid, which is aimed to improve both the method of teaching as well as to augment the teaching material available to Nepalese public schools.

During my time in Nepal, I collaborated with Nepalese universities, local start-ups, open source groups and companies to finalize the development of the project and to build a community of students, engineers and entrepreneurs in order to expand education methods in public schools.

One of my favorite experiences was working with the budding open source and start up communities in Kathmandu. In the last few years, a rapidly growing group of students and young people are participating in hackathons, joining open source organizations, and exploring new opportunities. This community is energetic, open to new ideas, creative, and extremely motivated. They gave me access to a vibrant and exciting aspect of Nepal. I made many friends, learned a tremendous amount, had fun, and gained a great respect for the local people.

Read more about Wouter's work with the Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineers.