Better Schools in Rural Nepal!

Schools in Dolakha District, Nepal are now more than halfway through the school year, which begins in the spring and runs through late winter. The more than 4,000 children enrolled at the 29 schools with which ETC presently partners are making good use of the classrooms, supplies, and equipment that ETC – with your very generous support – has built and provided in the time since the earthquakes.

During the monsoon season, there are things we cannot reasonably do. In particular, construction of any kind is not a good plan when the ground is soggy and roads on which the building materials must be transported may be closed or washed out. But there are plenty of things we could and did do during the monsoon season, including:

• Training 33 teachers in methods of developing their own educational materials
• Providing carpeting and shelving for 19 classrooms
• Holding 9 large-group meetings with parents (total attendance: 600) to discuss topics of importance to their children’s growth and development

So now that the monsoon season is over, what are ETC's plans and hopes for the rest of the school year?

• For one thing, we'll be building six more two-classroom buildings. These run just under $7,000 each, including furniture and supplies. Those that were built during the past year and are in use now were SO greatly appreciated by the students, teachers, and parents. They are safer and in most cases much nicer than pre-quake facilities, and they are certainly more weather-proof than the temporary facilities erected within a couple of months after the earthquakes.
• Every school also needs better toilet facilities. These are important for public health, to prevent the spread of germs and communicable illnesses that so frequently keep children (and teachers!) out of the classroom.
• Finally, every school still needs such everyday items as first aid and stationery supplies and educational materials (maps, charts, books, etc.). We provide these on a year-round basis. 

School improvements are among the work ETC does each year. However, because of the 2015 earthquakes, there is still so much more to be done than could possibly have been imagined when we began our current multi-year program cycle in mid-2014.

These children truly deserve the best possible environments in which to learn, grow, and thrive. ETC is committed – with the support of great friends like you – to doing as much as we can to make that possible. Thank you!

 (Photos by Rajanee Kunwar and Barbara Butterworth)

Links:

• ETC's Facebook Page
• ETC's Twitter feed @ETC_Nepal