Global Alternative Learning Alliance

What's New

Global Alternative Learning Alliance (GALA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed by five teachers in 2006. GALA works with inspired educators and others in their communities around the world to 1) develop non-traditional and creative alternative education programs for children who would otherwise go without education or whose educational needs are not being met by existing schools; 2) create education programs that promote community development and provide training and information to community members, especially young people, in areas such as health and hygiene, income generation and employment, environmental preservation, and local culture; and 3) provide opportunities for worldwide service learning as well as intercultural immersion and exchange. All of GALA’s current programs are located in the country of Nepal.

GALA's Programs in Nepal

Global Alternative Learning Alliance is currently engaged in variety of educational and related initiatives in Nepal.

Junkiri (which means "Firefly" in Nepali) is an alternative school with two campuses -- in the village of Sankhu and in Kathmandu -- started in August 2005 by Indira Ranamagar, director of Prisoners’ Assistance Nepal (PA Nepal). Current enrollment is 67 students, some from PA-Nepal's home for children who would otherwise be in jail with a convicted parent, and some from the local community. The children attending Junkiri have had limited educational and learning opportunities. Many spent years living in prison. Junkiri provides these children with a supportive environment that encourages them to learn, be creative, and reach their individual and unique potentials. [Read more...]

Village Junkiri is a community school started in September 2005 in a small farming village in Jhapa district in southeastern Nepal. In July 2007, construction was completed on a new school building with three classrooms. Village Junkiri’s curriculum includes reading, writing, math, health and hygiene, cooking, and farming. Village Junkiri serves as a combination school, library, afterschool program, community center, and youth club all rolled into one. [Read more...]

Hopeful Vocational School (HVS) in Kathmandu provides training in tailoring to eight teenage girls living at Hopeful Home Orphanage. The girls enrolled in HVS will be able to start their own small businesses so they can live independently, or they may use their skill to earn the income needed to continue their education. They can also train more girls from other orphanages and the local community. HVS helps underprivileged young Nepali women earn money and become self-sustaining. [Read more...]

The Manda Hawa schools are two primary schools located on a mountain near the village of Nawalpur in the Sindhupalchok district of Nepal. Sindhupalchok is a poor rural mountain district about 5 hours northeast of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. The Manda Hawa schools ensure that all the poor and dalit (low caste) children in and around Nawalpur can receive an education. [Read more...]

Milky Way School is a kindergarten and first grade program for children of carpet factory workers and other poor families in Arubari, near Kathmandu. By providing for all of its students’ school needs and helping families address the issues that affect their children’s ability to attend school, Milky Way School makes the opportunity of receiving an education a reality for all the children of Arubari. [Read more...]

GALA’s Rural Health Education program works with and supports efforts to provide health, hygiene, and nutrition information to Nepal’s poor rural population, and to provide basic midwifery, nursing, and first aid training to individuals, especially women, in rural areas. The program goal is to increase knowledge of and access to basic health care in rural communities. This program was launched in February 2008 with a two day midwife training/women’s health workshop, attended by 68 village women, in the hills of Sindhupalchok district. [Read more...]

GALA's Prison Children Rescue fund supports efforts to take children living in jail with a convicted parent out of Nepal’s prisons and to give them a healthy life either in their original communities or at a children’s home such as the one run by PA Nepal. [Read more...]

GALA is part of the East Pole Inclusion Project, a multidisciplinary team working to create a truly inclusive environment for students with physical disabilities at East Pole English School in Jorpati, near Kathmandu. The East Pole Inclusion Project is creating a model for collaborative inclusion planning that will benefit students at East Pole, and that can also be implemented at other schools in Nepal. [Read more...]