A brilliant story of collaboration

Kent Coast Volunteering attended the fantastic Dahain Festival in Folkestone on Sunday, organised by the brilliant Folkestone Nepalese community.

We met very special guest, Hari Budha Magar, the first double amputee to climb Mount Everest, overturning the law to make it happen, and holding the World Record. Gurkha veteran, Hari, reached the summit 13 years after losing his legs in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan.

After a great evening we looked back at some of the work we have done with the community and Kent Adult Education at Folkestone Nepalese Community Centre. We’d like to share Mark’s experience supporting training at the centre. Mark is pictured centre with Hari above.

Training of the Folkestone Nepalese community

Two years ago, Folkestone Nepalese community, with the support of Kent Coast Volunteering, opened the Folkestone Nepalese Community Centre which is underneath Cheriton Library.

There were numerous individuals, organisations, funders and partners involved, to many to mention in a here, if you would like to know more, please visit the community centre’s website fncuk.org

From the beginning, Joanna Eve curriculum leader of community learning and skills (Response) at Kent Adult Education, Maha Rai, Community Centre Manager, and Mark Connorton, Kent Coast Volunteering’s training manager and Folkestone Nepalese Community Centre officer, have been collaborating to deliver training to the Folkestone Nepalese community to help them with integration and to enjoy the learning experience.

In December 2021 we held a first aid course which was badly needed as only Mark was trained but he could not be at the community centre all the time, and we managed to train nine first aiders which now means that a trained first aider is available whenever the community centre is open.

Last year we were able to deliver two IT courses which aided 18 individuals in learning much needed IT skills, which really makes a difference to feeling part of the community as well as being able to stay in touch with friends and loved ones all over the world.

This year we have been running two oral spoken English classes, we had to put two on as so many people wanted to attend, I’m sure I don’t need to say what an impact it has made with improving English skills.

Which brings us to the 27th of September, Maha asked Mark who got permission from Jo to put on a “Skills for Volunteers” course, this course is all about volunteering, what is a volunteer, how to volunteer, benefits and barriers to volunteering as well as many other aspects of volunteering.

To us, it clearly demonstrates the progress that has been achieved over the last two years, that members of the Folkestone Nepalese community now feel confident enough to consider volunteering with local organisations and charities.

None of this would have been possible without Jo having faith in Maha and Mark by sharing their vision of complete inclusivity by offering everybody equal opportunities to learning regardless of anything.

Here we see Mark ably assisted by Kent Coast Volunteering Trustee and a retired teacher, Heather, explain the difference between volunteering, unpaid work and employment.

We were very excited to be able to welcome Nabin the chairperson of the Folkestone Nepalese community onto the course, here you can see him taking pictures, the translator is the other person standing up.

We always make sure our learners have a nice lunch, here we all are tucking into chicken and chips, I don’t think there was a crumb left.

Here we see Heather discussing the benefits of volunteering, one of the real benefits to the Nepalese community is to improve the spoken English, another is to include integration.