Nepal COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund

In the New Year Nepal was once again hit with Covid-19 – this time with the highly contagious Omicron version. This lead to the government announcing a lockdown for a month in January 2022. However, from the first week of February, cases started to decrease, so the Nepal Government allowed schools to re-open from 13 February 2022 if they followed strict safety measures.

Though the number of COVID-19 cases have declined in Nepal in the past few months, people are still afraid because new variants of COVID cases are increasing in neighbouring countries, and there is no possibility of staying isolated from these people. Even though schools are open, it is compulsory for students and teachers to wear masks. This is challenging for schools, especially for the ones that are in remote districts. Schools in rural municipalities lack the funds to purchase the required safety equipment and supplies. Now, the schools need to source and fund masks and sanitiser as students’ families cannot afford to buy them.

Mr Hariprashad, Principal of Mahendra Kiran Buddha Secondary School, reports:

"We were very happy to welcome our students to school after a long time. All the teachers are very excited to see their students. Students are also very eager to learn and share the experiences they have during pandemics. We tried to keep our students safe as much as possible when they are in school. We have asked all the students to wear masks while coming to school. But, we found that a large number of students come to school without masks. They shared, that they don’t have money to buy masks. The school has some stock (provided by CRN) and distributed it to the students. We don’t have much stock as per the demand in school. Now, we are in a situation where we have to run our school without children wearing masks which means putting them at a high risk of COVID-19 infection. I put this matter in our school management committee meeting and even to the chair of our Ward. But, we did not get a satisfying answer from them. We are in such a dilemma what to do next, whether to run the school at full capacity or to run shift wise (not possible due to low number of teachers). I decided to share this present situation with the CRN as they helped us previously also. They helped us not only in reopening of school after the second lockdown but also helped our community people by providing food parcel support."

We are continuing to raise funds for the necessary health safety items so that schools can run without any fear of COVID-19.

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.