The John Yearley Park to hold major sports events in Nepal!
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IT HAS HAPPENED! After several months
oƒ secret negotiations with around 23 separate small landowners, we now have the land we need for “John Yearley Park”.
Flat land in Nalang is difficult to find which further complicated the process. Special thanks must go to “The Man” who conducted the negotiations on our behalf
The sports area will prove to be a great asset for The Nalang Model Academy and the Trust has plans for many sporting competitions there in the years ahead. The hostel donated by the Trust at the NMA will provide ideal accommodation for visiting teams and training programs from Nepal and other countries.
The location and altitude of the John Yearley Park is ideal for professional trainings of all sports!
Now the work begins on making the land fit for purpose. The park will have three main elements -the first being a sports ground which will include a full size football pitch (the first ever in Nalang).
The second being an area to hold regular agricultural and other markets (again a first) and also commercial activities to help improve the local economy.
The third part will include a driving school to improve driver safety.
The park is conveniently situated alongside a road which also make access easy and has a good supply of water.
The Yearley Trust Chairman, John Yearley, said “It has long been an ambition of mine, and of the community, that there would be those facilities in Nalang to both improve the quality of life and the local economy. When I first started helping the people of Nalang at the start of 2019 I gave them my version of Martin Luther King’s great speech “I have a dream”. In my dream I had a vision of a greatly improved and expanded Nalang Model Academy – we have achieved that by totally refurbishing the school, adding extra classrooms, donating a new computer room to improve IT technology, enabled studies for year 11 and 12 pupils to start studying at the NMA (previously only the very few who could afford to go and live in Kathmandu could study up to the age of 18 and qualify for university ) – the first totally Nalang educated pupils are now studying at Universities in Nepal
We built a 56 bed hostel to provide boarding accommodation for pupils and new high quality accommodation to help attract teachers from the city. The dream of improved education in rural Nepal – our two Ical English Teaching Ambassadors are doing that by training teachers in rural schools how to teach English in a fun way and our arrangements for cooperation between the NMA and two schools in England further enhances the dream.
I dreamt of medical facilities for all who need them at Nalang – our Medical Centre takes care of that. Of the rebuilding of houses damaged by the earthquake – the Interlocking Stabilised Soil Block Making Factory we donated is taking care of that in an environmentally friendly way and, also meets another “dream” as a source of employment. That dream is also being met by the forming of a women’s cooperative to make and market craft products in Europe which also helps the dream of women empowerment, as does the work of our two Sports Program Officers, both of whom are sporting icons in Nepal, using sport to educate girls about empowerment and their rights.
The dream of improved local economy is coming to fruition also with the new Agricultural Market and Driving School and the further free education opportunities in agricultural subjects to local farmers offered by The Yearley Trust Centre of Excellence.
Martin Luther King unfortunately did not live to see his dream become reality.
I have lived to see mine, with the support of my best friend and soulmate Doriana Diyo Dimitrova Warren, come true. I am a VERY proud and a VERY happy man”
Pictures: The Trust’s founder and Chairman John Yearley is pictured with special guests from The NMA’s partner schools in England (New College School Oxford and Hailsham Community College) when he formally opened the park with a grand ceremony and an all day celebration! He was carried shoulder high in a sedan chair all the way to the park area with a traditional Nepali band leading the way and around 500 hundred happy and excited people dancing all round him.The