Letter from the Chair, Summer 2025

Chair of HVPN-UK, Matthew Hilton-Dennis, reflects on priorities for the charity over the coming months.

Namaste! And a warm welcome to this summer edition of the HVP Nepal-UK newsletter. We hope this finds you well, whether in the monsoon rains of Nepal or in the heat of a surprisingly hot UK summer.

This update comes fresh off the back of our most recent HVPN-UK committee meeting, and I hope will convey the same note of optimism that was present at the meeting. All three schools are celebrating very good results in the recent SEE public examinations (equivalent to GCSE).  Achievement like this is a testament to the very hard work of the Class 10 students and their teachers at HVP Dang, HVP Thali and HVP Balkumari, and we congratulate them all.

Academic results are of course only part of the picture, and we are happy to report on the thriving cultural, spiritual and extra-curricular life of the three school communities, as you will see from the updates from each of the three Heads, respectively Bhola ji, Rajkumar ji and Vishnu ji. The holistic richness of an HVP education is still at the heart of everything. As a charity, we continue to support the schooling of the poorest children through our Scholarship Find, which is divided between the three schools and sent out on a quarterly basis. You will find a clarification in this newsletter on how that money is spent and how needs are differentiated across the three age levels in the schools: pre-primary, primary and secondary.

One of our key aims moving forward is to re-establish the UK university volunteer programme. What was once a virtuous cycle of volunteering each summer at the three schools, with the previous cohort of undergraduate volunteers setting up the next, came to an abrupt half with the Covid pandemic. Our ambition is to restore this programme, which is of vital importance to the HVP schools in Nepal and to our long-term prospects as a charity. Plans are afoot, therefore, to have university volunteers back in each of the three schools for July 2026. Leading on this is Ellie Piggott, a former volunteer herself, who is co-ordinating a volunteering sub-committee that will reach out to Oxford, Durham, UCL and potentially St Andrews at the start of the new academic year. As you read this, if you know anyone who might be interested in becoming a volunteer teacher in Nepal, please do not hesitate to get in touch by emailing hvpnuk@gmail.com

The programme intends to build on the volunteering which has already taken place over the past year, including 16 students from Merchant Taylors’ School last summer, committee member Sue Dascombe and her granddaughter, and just recently, David Walker and Emily Asti, who volunteered at HVP Balkumari after finishing their medical studies at Nottingham University. Special thanks to Izzie Asti for convincing her sister and partner to head out to Nepal; Izzie now joins the HVPN-UK volunteering sub-committee as our Durham University representative. Another volunteer who has only last week finished a stint of teaching at HVP Balkumari is Priyenka Devkota, currently studying at UCL. Priyenka’s family have a long history of supporting HVP students and so it is fantastic that such a legacy continues. A central element of success has been the fact that these last two placements saw9 volunteers accommodated in HVP Balkumari itself, the hostel provision of the school for so many years its joyful heart and part of the core experience of volunteering. Vishnu ji has spoken of his delight in having volunteers staying at the school once more. Long may this continue.

Priyenka with students in HVP Central

There is very positive news on the progress of infrastructure projects in the three schools. With the help of our support, in particular from the Atkin Foundation, the construction of a brand-new toilet block at HVP Thali is now well underway. By the end of this month, Rajkumar ji hopes work will be complete on what is a fundamental priority for any school, which will include full sanitary provision for female students. At both HVP Balkumari and HVP Thali, the considerable money raised by last summer’s volunteers from Merchant Taylors’ School has been put towards refurbishing classrooms with new desks, which are already in use and have brought immediate benefit to the learning environment of the students. HVP Balkumari has also enjoyed having an artist in residence, whose work has transformed the entrance to the school and other outdoor spaces. While not a project affiliated with HVP Nepal-UK, there has been impressive progress on the building of a new prayer hall at the Children’s Peace Home in Dang, made possible by support from the Nepal Maharishi Vedic Foundation.

Looking further ahead, we have been in discussion with the schools about their needs both in the short term, and in the mid to longer terms. One evident priority emerging for both HVP Dang and HVP Balkumari is the need for a new school bus. Having a safe, reliable and cost-efficient means of transporting students to and from the schools each day is an essential need, and the ageing buses at both schools are becoming increasingly problematic and expensive. We have pledged our support, therefore, towards purchasing two new vehicles, a fundraising project for both the immediate and mid-term future.

With this in mind, we are delighted to announce a fundraising event for the Autumn of this year. On Saturday 4^th October, we hope that as many of you as possible will join us for a sponsored walk in the Chiltern hills. Beginning at Tring Station, near the historic Hertfordshire town of Tring, we will be setting out on a circular walk of the Chiltern Hills, taking in the National Trust Ashridge Estate and the heights of Ivinghoe Beacon, which is the closest we could get within 30 miles of London to a Himalayan peak! You will find further details on Facebook and we hope the allure of autumnal colours, memories of trekking in Nepal and a very good cause will mean you will join us for an HVP Nepal-UK family day out.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.

Yours,

Matthew Hilton-Dennis

Chair, HVP Nepal-UK