PRESS RELEASE

The Day Care Centre opened in Tang Ting, Nepal, from funds raised by the generous donations of the people of  Debden and Wimbish, has provided an unexpected bonus.

The Day Care Centre was established to provide good quality care for young children whose families were unable to pay for child care during the day, while they worked. Children were taken to the fields with their parents and only provided with a meal in the morning and evening.  This resulted in some 25% of the children being under-nourished,and some being considerably under-sized for their age.

The Day Care Centre now provides the children with a meal in the middle of the day, and has been equipped to a high standard, to enable the children to enjoy the pre-school learning that our children benefit from.

Two Committee members of the TTTA, recently returned from Nepal, were pleased to report that the nurse, who regularly attends the centre to weigh, measure, inoculate and monitor the children, says that since the day care centre opened, the children are now in the normal weight and height range for their age group and she is delighted with their progress.  An additional benefit, says the  Head Teacher of the school in Tang Ting, is finding that the children are able to study better and are improving educationally.

The chairman of the TTTA, Moray Bayliss, who is due to return to Tang Ting in April to monitor the progress of this project, said “I am very proud of the Association’s team of volunteers and extremely grateful for the generosity of public donations that has helped the charity achieve this result”.

Founder of the charity, Cllr Tina Knight, stated : “The Day Care Centre has been such a success we would now like to extend the  original concept of childcare from the age of two and a half years old to include children from the age of eighteen months”.  She added  “Current facilities and funding do not allow expansion of such care to the youngest children at present, but with future fund-raising we hope to extend this and eventually provide crèche facilities”.

The Tang Ting Twinning Association is a registered charity, twinning Debden and Wimbish with Tang Ting in Nepal, which is home to many of the Gurkhas serving at Carver Barracks.  It aims to form a close alliance between the villages, so that we can learn about each others cultures and way of life, improving our communities as a whole.  The TTTA will be holding future fund-raising events throughout 2010 to enable this work to carry on.

Should any other village or school in the Uttlesford District be interested in a similar project with another village in Nepal, please visit www.tangting.org or call 01799 540881.

Helen Carter - Press Officer, TTTA

P.O. Box 44, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 3ND.