Community Service Experience
Among all the community services that I have done in Access, the best and most that I liked was “visiting four different religious sites and Prithvi Narayan Campus”. Our teachers had called us at 8:00 am in the early morning and we were there at the same time. I was very excited to visit PN Campus and four different religious places Temple, Gumba, Mosque and Church. I with my friends started our journey at around 8:30 am. Our focal person Mr. Mukesh Adhikari and chairperson of Gandaki province Dr. Nabraj Neupane was also with us. The environment was also supporting to us as the day was cool in a scorching hot.
Firstly, we went to PN Campus. There, I roamed around all faculties, and I saw Seti khola nearby. I also got opportunity to see a large stone in the Campus premises and came to know that it was thrown by Bhimsen Thapa. I saw museum and science laboratory too. After visiting the Campus, I came to know that it was established in 2013 BS and the first principal was John George.
Then, we moved towards religious sites. Our religious sites visit was started from Matepani Gumba. I was my first time to see it. We went to the top floor of the Gumba and came to see that Pokhara looks so beautiful from there. As renovation was going on, we couldn’t enter in the main part of the Gumba. However, we gave a dustbin and a broom for the Gumba. And after having interaction for a while, we moved to next.
The next was Mosque. We went to the Mosque of Miyapatan. There, we heard speech about Islam from the in-charge of the Mosque and came to know that only Muslim men are allowed to enter in the main part of the Mosque, even the Muslim female are restricted. While having roza (one of their festivals), they don’t even drink a drop of water. We gave a dustbin and a broom here too and after had a group photo.
Similarly, we visited Krishna Temple of Rambazar. Most of the Access students were Hindu, so we were known about the worshipping and other rituals of the Temple. There, a program was going on about the welfare of old citizens, but it did not disturb us. We gave the same things there and took some photos.
At last, we went to the Church of Nayagaun. As it was weekend, many followers were there, and they were having session about human life. Children were in separate room, and they were learning relax dance. We got speech from the chairperson of the Church about the meaning and truth of life and way of being safe from sin. There too, we gave a dustbin and a broom and after that we started to come back.
To conclude, the main theme of our visiting was to have religious tolerance and develop feeling of helping others. It is said that “service to humanity is service to mankind”. I learned about different cultures and visited Gumba and Church for the first time. It was different than other community service. So, it is my best experience of my life.
(Written during the Access program)
