In the village Thali, east of Kathmandu, the primary school of Chaula Narayan was destroyed by the earthquake in 2015. More than 80 children -ages 5 to 16- are staying in a shabby temporary building that can best be described as a barn. No windows, unfinished walls, a mud floor. No electricity and no sanitation. On broken school benches they attend class.
The children themselves are from the lowest ‘cast’ and some children lost one or two parents during the earthquake. The families living in Thali do not own earthquake resistant homes, the majority of the houses collapsed and there are not any resources to rebuild the village and the school.
Himalayan Care Hands Nepal has taken the fate of this community and have been in talks with the teachers. The biggest problem is poverty which is evident from the fact that the children get only one or two meals per day. We have therefore started a food program to give the children a hot meal every day at school. We also had to buy them clothing and new school uniforms and warm sweaters, thanks to donations from Belgium and England for the cold winter months.
Since 2016, fifteen members of the RK. Foundation Youth CHRISKO are travelling each summer to Nepal to restore and extend the school together with Himalayan Care Hands. They previously amassed an impressive amount together with all kinds of fundraising activities in the Netherlands. Not only with money but also with the hands they began to strip the old building to raise one new building along the old one. In 2017 they continued with the building of electricity, a toilet block, painting of the classrooms and the by far biggest task: the creation of a massive retaining wall at the other schoolbuilding (former stables) to avoid at regular landslides in the rainy season the building to collapse and putting children and teachers at risk. In 2018 they laid the foundation for yet the biggest achievement: a new secondary school.
To achieve this, extra classrooms must be built. The current buildings are not sufficient. So we plan an additional building with 8 classrooms near the place the second small building. The land has been donated to the school by the owner. The Nepalese Government has agreed to ensure the recruitment and remuneration of the required teachers and by that acknowledge the school as regular, official education.
