Help us rebuild schools in Nepal

After more than six months of planning renovations, meeting with community members and school leaders, and negotiating with government officials, earlier this month we officially received the green light for projects at 15 different schools damaged by last April’s earthquakes.

Following the approval by Nepal’s Department of Education, work will begin soon to rebuild classroom buildings at 14 schools and repair a toilet block at another school.

Overall, we expect these projects to benefit 3,000 students and 150 teachers in four different districts of Nepal that were hit hardest by the earthquakes.

Most of the schools we’re helping have faced severe overcrowding since the earthquakes, and some even conduct classes in half-destroyed buildings. They were left with no other option once temporary classrooms provided by charity groups last spring were destroyed by the monsoon rains in July. Their bamboo frames and tarpaulin roofs proved no match for the elements.

Now, winter temperatures mean that many children, studying in the open air, are getting sick. But new classrooms could be built in as little as six weeks, if local community members are available to help with the work.

(A photo below documents one such school, Kali Devi Secondary School in Lalitpur district. The walls of one classroom building were removed after being damaged by the tremors. Students attended class in the space even during the monsoon rains.)

Last Sunday, to kick off the renovation projects, we conducted an orientation program in Kathmandu for principals and chairpersons of school management committees. Representatives from 13 of our 15 partner schools attended, sharing their stories about how their schools and communities coped in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes.

Thank you for your support of our earthquake reconstruction work. Look for more updates soon on our progress.