Education Nepal Project #23822

Improving rural schools in Nepal

by Child Rescue Nepal

Project Report | May 9, 2022
Boosting school attendance through clean water and happy classrooms

By Joanna Bega | Chief Executive

This rural school is so happy with their new taps

We support over 40 schools in the Makwanpur District of Nepal, working to increase the attendance of children – particularly girls. This is of huge importance as children that attend school are much less likely to be trafficked. Also, the longer girls stay in school the less likely it is for them to marry young and the more chance for them to earn a good salary in the future.

There are many ways we help to do this, including providing clean water and toilets, improving the teaching and making the classrooms more appealing. One primary school had to close sometimes in the summer months due to lack of water. We have put in new taps and now they have a constant flow of clean drinking water.

The new taps have resulted in a surge of attendance by the local children. There are 104 children enrolled at the school; attendance used to average of 55, but now they have over 90 children attending regularly.

In another primary school, we completely refurbished a pre-school classroom. We provided new carpet, tables, cushions and teaching materials. Transforming a bare room into a welcoming and comfortable space for learning has been transformative for the young children.

Your donations are helping us to stamp out the sale and exploitation of children in Nepal, giving them the chance for a safe and secure future.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

The preschool classroom used to be like this

This classroom is much more suitable now

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Jan 14, 2022
Help schools open safely after Covid-19 lockdowns

By Joanna Bega | Chief Executive

Helping children stay safe at school

The Government of Nepal has now permitted all schools to open, after being closed for eighteen months due to the COVID-19 pandemic (with a short spell of reopening from November 2020 to January 2021). The government has created strict rules for schools to follow before they can reopen, including disinfection of classrooms and toilets, compulsory mask wearing, measuring body temperature before entering school and setting up of handwashing facilities.

However, the task of reopening schools was very challenging, especially for the ones that are in the remote part of the country. Schools in rural municipalities lack the funds to purchase the required safety equipment and supplies.

Mr. Dipendra Jha, Principal of Kalika Secondary School, reports:

“We teachers were in such a dilemma when the government decided to reopen the school. They said that school will resume by following safety measures, but I was thinking how would it be possible? How to manage risk in such a big number of children, I was thinking and thinking, and I thought again. We teachers can afford masks and sanitiser, but what about the children? I was really in such a dreadful situation and shared this feeling with the chair of the rural municipality, but he could not give a satisfying answer. My big tension was about the children whose parents are very poor and not able to manage food. How can they give masks and sanitiser to their children when they send them to school? So, I thought to share my situation with Child Rescue Nepal (CRN) who are like our close friend since they have been supporting us in building toilets and taps, giving bursaries etc. And I shared our problem with CRN, and they said do not worry we will do something. After a week, CRN came here to our schools with lots of support. I cried since I feel so happy! And feel relieved and thought the risk of COVID will be managed among our children. I on behalf of School Management Committee and my entire team would like to thank CRN for providing such amazing support in such a difficult situation and creating an environment to bring children back to the school again."

We are continuing to help schools reopen safely by providing items such as sanitiser, liquid hand soap, masks and thermal thermometer guns. Thank you for helping to fund these items which enable children to access their education again.

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Sep 21, 2021
Update on the Covid situation in Nepal

By Joanna Bega | Chief Executive

Our team have been distributing emergency food

Whilst in much of Nepal life is back to normal, there are worrying signs that infections are rising again. Schools remain shut and hospital wards are full. A patchy testing regime means that the full extent of the problem is largely unknown. In addition, vaccines are in short supply and only a small percentage of the population have been lucky enough to receive one – let alone two.

However over the past few months, thanks to the generosity of people like you, we have been able to feed 770 families. We have also worked in partnership with other organisations like the Nepal Red Cross to distribute thousands of facemasks, gloves, oximeters and bottles of sanitiser to people in seven different districts.

We are so grateful for your help which has enabled us to respond practically and quickly to help children and families in Nepal. In some cases the food parcels have quite literally saved lives, as you will read in Kalika's story below.

Kalika's story

My name is Kalika* and I am 40 years old. My husband and I have two daughters and a son. I have a disability in my legs, so it is hard for me to work. Sometimes I wash dishes for my neighbour. Sadly since Covid I have not been able to work, and my husband has lost his job at the brick kiln. When lockdown started and we both lost our jobs, I started to think that God does not like poor people. That was when our anguish started. We were out of food and didn’t have enough savings to even buy one kilogramme of rice. When our small children started saying “we are hungry” we were in so much pain as we didn’t know how we could survive.

When we were out of options, I sold my earrings for 4,000 NPR (£25), which were a wedding gift from my husband. With that money I bought food to save my children’s lives, but it lasted no longer than a month.

Then I heard that there was food support coming and we received rice and lentils and beans. I cried because I was so grateful. I told the team that my stove will burn in my house for two days and we will have a full stomach without any stress. Before this support, we had more fear of dying by hunger than from Covid. From today onwards we will not have any problem with food. We know we can survive.

Kalika and her family now have enough food

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