The NRN-Canada Annual Conference on Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Non-Resident Nepalis-National Coordinating Council (NRN-Canada) is pleased to invite all NRNs to its annual Conference 2009.
The NRN-Canada Annual Conference 2009 is being organized in cooperation with affiliated community organizations across Canada.
Hosted by:
Nepalese Community Society of Calgary (NCSC) and
Calgary Nepalese Community Association
Venue:
Temple Community Association
167 Templegreen Road NE, Calgary, Alberta T1Y 6G3.
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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
For Presentations on Project Ideas at The NRN-Canada Annual Conference 2009
As a part of the conference, a session is dedicated to Presentations of Ideas of projects, programs and policies that have potential to benefit NRNs living in Canada and all Nepalese at large in short term, medium term and long term.
The Conference organizing committee calls for submission of abstracts for Presentation of Project Ideas from all concerned. If you are interested in presenting a project idea, please click at this hyperlink for >>> Abstract Submission Instructions.
May 2, 2009 at 7:12 pm |
Instructions for abstract submission for Presentation of Project Ideas are given below:
1. All abstracts must be submitted online at the NRN-Canada Blog site at or emailed to Dr. Drona Rasali at d_rasali@yahoo.ca. The deadline of submission of an abstract is June 15, 2009 midnight (Mountain Time).
2. All abstracts submitted will be judged by a panel of the organizing committee members for their relevance, importance and potential for benefiting directly the NRNs as well as Nepalese at large and suitability for presentation at the conference.
3. The top ten abstracts among those submitted within deadline will be selected for five minute oral presentations at the Conference by the submitter or her/his representative. Use of a PowerPoint presentation is encouraged for clarity and efficiency in presentation.
4. All bright project ideas approved by the panel will be listed as NRN-Canada’s Project ideas, and publicized through its website/blogsite for wider dissemination and discussion among NRN-Canada’s members.
5. A NRN can submit up to a maximum of three abstracts for bright project ideas. However, if more than one abstract submitted by an individual is selected, only one will be included in the top ten abstracts for oral presentations.
6. The length of main text in the abstract should be a maximum of 200 words.
7. How to submit an abstract? First, copy the following form onto a Word document and fill out its contents with your abstract materials. Secondly, examine your whole document for accuracy of your information and abstract contents and copy them. Then, click on Comment (blue hyperlink) and scroll down to go the “Leave a Reply” Comment Box found at the bottom of the page. Finally, paste the copied contents onto the Comment Box and hit the Submit Comment button.
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ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM
for Presentation of Project Ideas
Fullname of the presenter: ___________________
Email address: _________________________________
City: ________________________________________
Contact Information (This information will not be published):
Mailing address:_______________________________________
Home Phone No.:______________________________________
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: ___________________
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Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
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May 14, 2009 at 2:25 am |
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Fullname of the presenter: Dr. Drona Rasali
City: Regina
Title of the Project/Program/Policies:
Canada wide cooperatives for Nepali products and services
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
The Nepalese people living in various Canadian cities are growing lately. Still, they are not only small in number, but also lack sufficient critical mass to run their niche market based businesses to serve the ethnic needs of their communities for making the Nepali products and services available at the local level. Therefore a federal cooperative of Nepalese living in Canada is proposed to unite them to serve themselves. The cooperative will be incorporated under Canada Cooperatives Act. Nepalese living in Canada will themselves be the owners and the main consumer clients of the cooperative enterprise. The cooperative shall raise its start-up capital from cooperative shares purchased by members. In addition a capital formed by issuing investment shares to members or non-members will also set up based on its feasibility. The market provisions for Nepali products and services will be organized for their distribution through the cooperative outlets across Canada. The examples of the business activities are: organizing Nepali movie and artists’ concerts, distribution of non-perishable consumer products and services from Nepal, which have a potential for niche markets among Nepalese across Canada. The Cooperatives shall operate in feasible cities across Canada and run democratically (one person, one vote basis)
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May 31, 2009 at 2:10 am |
Fullname of the presenter: Dr. Pramod Dhakal
City: Ottawa
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: Usha: Ushering Shared Aspirations
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
A project to bring the reach of education to the margins of society through the light of knowledge will be presented.
The freedom from hunger, the right to basic education, the right to health and a responsibility to future generations are universally accepted human values and rights. All member-countries of the United Nations are committed and working to fulfill these humanitarian goals by 2015. However, despite continuing efforts, majority of rural Nepalese are illiterate (52%) and disparity in illiteracy between males and females is high. Project Usha from Canada Forum for Nepal proposes to produce educational contents for preschool to Secondary School based on the national curriculum of Nepal with an emphasis on promoting literacy and numeracy, through material that is comprehensible in local context and that helps preserve traditional knowledge and skills. This content will be produced in collaboration with local, district, and central governments in Nepal and educators, educational institutions and international experts abroad. We will use low cost technology for content storage, synchronization, and transmission.
About CFFN:
Canada Foundation for Nepal (CFFN, formerly Canada Forum for Nepal) started a range of informal activities in 2005 and was officially registered as a not–for–profit organization the following year. In 2009, we decided to become a charitable organization aspiring to bring the reach of education to the margins of society and to distant geographies in Nepal. Our conviction is that knowledge and education are the most profound requirements for building a just and prosperous society. We promote critical thinking and scholarly exchanges between Nepal and interested parties from abroad, and incubate research and development with an objective of improving rural education and livelihood. We like to position CFFN as a bridge between those who are concerned about global issues and the most disadvantaged children, women and men of Nepal who lack basic education, knowledge, and capacity to achieve decent-livelihood, innovation and progress. Our programs stem from awareness towards the needs of individuals, families, nations, and the world as a whole.
June 2, 2009 at 4:50 am |
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Fullname of the presenter: Kedar Bhakta Shrestha
City: Oakville, Ontario)
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: NRN Canada – Nepal Investment Committee-
• Hydropower
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
Nepal is rich in hydropower. Unfortunately the country is facing a huge electricity shortage. Recently, Nepal government has made the investment environment more lucrative in order to attract national and international investors. On other hand, Canada has long experience in hydropower. A Quebec based company had successfully completed a small hydropower project in Nepal and now it has started a second project.
NRN-Canada is a new umbrella organization of Nepali community in Canada, and it has its own challenges. Financial capability and technical expertise of NRN-Canada will be a major concern for this noble project, but can be started from scratch by interested persons. Notwithstanding these challenges, NRN-Canada can float this new concept, which ultimately will benefit Nepal and NRN-Canada in future.
Initially, NRN-Canada can only be a link between Canadian and Nepali hydropower related parties. Canadian investors can decide their involvement based on the knowledge and initial information provided by NRN-Canada. Members of Nepali community will be able to buy a small share of the investment and/or provide help in preparing reports, data collection, networking, and design etc. NRN-Canada also will seek to cooperate with Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for Nepal’s development projects.
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June 10, 2009 at 4:20 am |
Fullname of the presenter: Michael and Tineke Casey, Ottawa
City: Ottawa
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: 4C: Community Child Care Centers in Nepal
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
A project for developing community child care centers for promoting early childhood education and enhancing overall literacy and education.
Poor villagers in Nepal lack institutionalized childcare and those who have the greatest need carry the least ability to pay for it. The need arises from the nature of the farming in rural Nepal as both parents are needed for farm work, which starts at dawn and ends as darkness falls. Inevitably it falls to the older children to care for the younger ones while parents are working in the fields. The problem is not unique to Nepal but it is endemic there.
Having children as young as 4 or 5 taking care of their younger siblings has hindered educational attainment of a large number of children in rural Nepal. Whether a school age child stays home or brings the younger siblings along to school, who loses out are mostly the children. Class sizes soar and repeat rates reach 40% given the lack of suitable attention paid by the teacher to individual students. Only the most mature of students can progress in such an environment. Girls tend to suffer disproportionate to boys in terms of dropout rates. We saw a e part of the solution to this problem in early childhood education and care in community child care centres. This project is about bringing community run early childhood education to rural children in Nepal.
June 13, 2009 at 5:30 am |
Fullname of the presenter: Raju Tuladhar, Ph. D., P.Eng,
City: Calgary
Title of the Project/Program/Policies:
Helping Public Education Sector in Nepal
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
Two main resources needed for the development are: “Human Resources” and “Natural Resources”, of which the “Human Resources” seems to be the deciding factor. Countries like Switzerland and Japan are the best examples which have demonstrated that geography or lack of natural resources does not stop a country from being developed.
There are many road blocks that prevent exploitation of the available human resources in a country. Some of them are social issues such as lack of security, law and order, social injustice, inter-ethnic conflict etc.
Other type can be called as technical – that is inadequate training of the man-power due to the lack of access to the “Quality Education”. Many third world countries have very insufficient funds for the public education. Nepal is no exception. Whereas there may be few private schools which can provide a decent learning opportunity, there are not too many public schools that provide quality educations. As a result, a large group of students who cannot afford private schools due to the economic reasons cannot fully develop their talents and the country can ultimately loose a large chunk of the potential human resources.
When helping Nepal, many of us think providing only the infra-structure like school building and equipment etc. However, it is important to note that there is no use of the school building or the equipment in there if there are no support staffs. A student can not be given a proper knowledge of a subject matter if there are no well-trained and properly educated teaching staffs.
To prepare the Nepalese work force for the long term challenges of the modern world, it is imperative that Nepalese students get a quality education in the key subjects such as Math, Science and English. Schools in the public sectors, villages and remote areas need to hire better qualified teachers in these key subjects.
The present project proposal is that each Diaspora of NRNA scattered around the world adopt one public school and provide financial assistance to the school to attract more qualified teachers to that school in the key subjects of Math, Science and English. A set of criteria can be set which will qualify a school teacher in these key subjects to get additional financial supports from a NRNA Diaspora.
June 14, 2009 at 3:45 am |
Fullname of the presenter: Madan KC
City: Toronto
Title of the Project/Program/Policies:
Investment in Real Estate Market in Canada
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
Each year around 200,000 people migrate to Canada from different parts of the world due to favorable Canadian immigration policy. A large number of landed immigrants, foreign investors and citizens like to invest in Canadian real estate market because of the strong and stable Canadian economy.
There are ways to invest in the real estate market even with a minimum investment. Toronto is one of the most economically growing cities in North America. It is rapidly growing thus, opportunities to investment is still there, which might not be affordable in near future.
Based on your interest, investment can be made in real properties in different ways ranging from short to longer terms that will have re-sale value and high return in 3 to 10 years. Option 1: investment in pre-construction condos with a minimum of $20,000 in core downtown areas. Option 2: individual or joint investment as developer in core downtown areas with a minimum of $500,000 per project. Option 3: individual or joint investment in vacant land/ Farmland with a minimum of $200,000 per project. Return in land or housing investment is extremely high compared to any other secured investment. Therefore, I call upon you to invest and secure your future in Canada.
June 18, 2009 at 4:31 am |
Fullname of the presenters: Bishnu Subba, Desh Subba, Raju Tuladhar and Drona Rasali
City: Calgary/Regina
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: Proposal for Consulate General Office in Calgary
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
Canada is a rich society in its diversity, with Aboriginal, British, French traditions further enriched with the heritage of immigrants from every part of the world including the South-Asia. Nepali immigrants have now been enlisted as one of the recognized ethnic entity in the country, as shown by the Canada Census 2006. At the time same, Nepal and Canada maintain a cordial friendly relationship of cooperation for several decades. More recently, the presence of the people of Nepali origin across Canada as well as the new Nepal emerging as a Federal Democratic Republic demand much stronger relationship and cooperation between these two countries and their people. However, these countries are yet to establish their diplomatic relationship at the level of residential Embassy. Many citizens of Canada as well as Nepal are currently facing difficulties in accessing services of the embassy of one another. Especially, access to consular services of Nepal in the western Canada has been arduous to access. Therefore, we are proposing that an Honorary Consul General of Nepal be appointed to provide services in the western parts of Canada. Calgary city is the most suitable location for establishing Nepal’s consular services, for the following reasons: 1) It is centrally positioned to all western provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 2) It has a significant number of people of Nepali origin residing in Canada, 3) The city is the economic hub of western Canada, and the proposed Consul General can play a facilitating role in business and investment opportunities for Nepalis between Nepal and Canada, 4) The Nepalese community people have organised themselves in two community organizations, which can provide ready community support to Honorary Consul General when needed, 5) Another major city, Edmonton where a significant number of Nepali people reside is only 3 hours drive away, 6) The University of Calgary has been involved in the development of Nepali in several projects for many years, 7) There are significant number of Canadians living in Calgary and Edmonton, who have been making Nepal a destination for tourism interests, mountaineering, medical charity work. We also propose that NRN-Canada plays a facilitating role in establishing Nepal’s consular services in Calgary.
June 18, 2009 at 4:35 am |
Fullname of the presenter: Mr. Chitra Pradhan
City: Winnipeg
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: NRN-movement and Nepali childhood education
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
Children’s education system in Nepal and Bhutan will be review. Based on the first hand experience from these two countries, a workable model for children education in Nepal will be discussed. Also, a model how we can include Nepali cultural heritage and language in the education of Nepali children will be presented.
June 18, 2009 at 4:43 am |
Fullname of the presenter: Ms. Radha Basnet
City: Ottawa
Title of the Project/Program/Policies: Women’s program in Canada’s NRN-movement
Main text of the Abstract (maximum of 200 words):
A pre-conference meeting of Women and Children Development committee of the NRN-Canada in Calgary is planned for Friday, June 26. Women’s Program- Women’s program in Canada’s NRN-movement will be discussed and proposed from the outcome this meeting.