Help Rebuild a Nepal School after the Earthquake

I visited Makwanpur District of Nepal in September 2016 and was pleased to see that the reconstruction of schools is well underway. We have formal government approval to reconstruct 23 schools and out of these 23 schools, the following has been achieved:-

- Work on 10 schools has been completed 100%
- Work on 11 schools is underway (ranging from 30% to 80% complete)
- Work in 2 schools is yet to start

The reconstruction work ranges from rebuilding classrooms to installing water sources. All of these are vital in ensuring that children in remote villages of Nepal are kept safe in school - and we know from our research that children who are safe in school are much less vulnerable to traffickers.

At Saraswati Primary school, their two new classrooms are 80% built. Because of the earthquake, three classes of school children are being taught together. This is the equivalent of reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all being taught in one classroom. This means that close to 150 children of different ages and abilities are trying to learn together which is nearly impossible. The new classrooms are going to make a great difference.

At the Praja Lower Secondary, a new water supply has revolutionised their teaching. Instead of teachers and students having to take time out to collect water, they can now focus 100% on their studies. And a fresh water source to toilets meant that many more girls were able to stay in school. In fact the School Principal told me that attendance had increased by 30% since the water source was put in.

Thank you for helping to fund these very practical improvements to schools in Nepal. You have made a wonderful difference to the next generation of young Nepali children. 

After the massive earthquake on 25th of April 2015 in Nepal, 747 school buildings and 2390 classroom were damaged and huge numbers of student were affected in Makwanpur. It will take many years for Makwanpur to fully recover from the devastating effects of the earthquake, however we are doing all we possibly can to get children back into school and safe from traffickers.

The DEO (Department of Education Office) in Makwanpur provided us with a list of schools that needed our urgent support.  We decided to make an assessment of the area and identify the worst effected schools.   During this evaluation, CRN visited 41 community schools and have selected 22 schools which after thorough investigation, we felt were important to support. 

Nothing is straight forward in Nepal, once the 22 schools had been selected CRN had to get approval from the Department of Education and National Reconstruction Authority in Kathmandu. The agreement letter includes the financial management, working guideline, time frame and all the rules and regulation for each school.

CRN in conjunction with DEO have formed a construction committee in each school. Each committee includes the school principle, SMC chairperson, PTA member, WCF member including community and a CRN representative. This committee is responsible for dealing with any issues related to construction and will closely monitor all work related to construction and maintenance. Regular monitoring visits of the reconstruction work are being made.  The villagers are very aware of the misuse of resources and are lobbying to generate more community contribution.  It is imperative that the village community are involved in the school rebuilding programme.

Many of our Children are still be taught in the Temporary Learning Centres, which we constructed immediately after the earthquake, but we hope that they will all be in their new schools by the winter.  Of the 22 schools that have been selected, one school is completed finished and a number of other ones are well on the way to being completed. In total all these schools will benefit around 3860 children.

After a very recent survey we are pleased to report that all the villagers are happy and contributing all that they can. The school teachers and DEO are very positive.  The construction committee is functioning well and is on target to complete all the schools.

Thank you from all of us and more importantly from all our children in Nepal. Without your support we could never have achieved what we have, however there is a massive amount still to do and more money to be raised.