Author Archives: Jim Schofield

KASIN has a new patron!

A welcoming handshake from KASIN President Arthur Benbow

Today the trustees travelled to Liverpool to meet Professor Padam Simkhada who has recently been appointed as Associate Dean for the Faculty of Education, Health and Community at Liverpool John Moores University. The first ever Nepali Professor to be appointed in the UK, it’s an amazing coincidence that he comes from Tamang Kharka and was educated at one of the schools that we help to support. We are very much looking forward to working with him on our future projects.

We’ve just had a lovely morning at Bradley Primary School, near Skipton! We talked to the school about our visit to Nepal in November and then about the consequences of the earthquake on our schools. The children listened beautifully, and kindly gave us a cheque towards building a new school there. Thank you very much on behalf of Kasin Charity.

Many thanks to the lovely people who organised the Murder Mystery evening! What stars:-
Vera Lakhwani, Roshini Melwani, Benita Chandiramani, Arti Uttamchandani, Jaya Matta and Jaya Relwani.
They raised over £2,000 to help rebuild a school in Dhadakharka!

As a result of the amazing support we have had since the tragic news of the earthquake we now have almost enough funding to rebuild the small primary school for 80 children at Dhadakharka. one of the most needy and marginalised communities in the Phulkharka region.

This picture shows the ruins of Dhadakharka school and the temporary shelters in use at the moment.

The new school will be designed to be as earthquake resistant as possible and we will take advice from the experts.  We have had some initial plans drawn up and here are a few extracts.

18 schools in the area have collapsed damaging most of the school furniture.

KASIN has just sent £5000 to replace desks chairs and cupboards and will employ local craftsmen using local materials to make replacement furniture. This will provide employment and give a sense of purpose as well as adding much needed revenue to the local community.

Jyoti Adhikari (Vice President & Co-ordinator in Nepal) has sourced some large tents so that teaching can resume for the children in the Phulkarka region. Some furniture is now needed, desks,tables chairs, whiteboards etc. for about 18 schools. KASIN is sending a further £2500 for this.

The furniture will be made by local craftsmen. It is very difficult to get anything transported to Phulkharka and this will give some much needed employment. The idea is not to provide money but to encourage self-reliance. There are plenty of craftsmen around and this will be a good way of supporting the local community as well as enabling the schools to reopen.

We are also planning to rebuild one of the primary schools, possibly at Dhadakarka. This will be designed to be earthquake resistant. An engineer will visit the site shortly and provide some clear costings. A community management committee will be set up to oversee the project.”

We have been receiving some fantastic support from schools in the UK.

On Thursday Water Street School in Skipton had a fund raising day and…

Hill House International Junior School have organized a non-uniform day to raise money.

We are very grateful for their involvement.

The project to build EarthBag houses was started by Jyoti Adikari, Director of Holy Himalaya Ecotrek and our Vice president and Coordinator on the ground in Nepal.

This inexpensive method to create structures which are both strong and can be quickly built is ideal for the urgent need for housing before the start of the monsoon.

These pictures show the technique that evolved from historic military bunker construction and temporary flood-control dike building methods. The technique requires very basic construction materials: sturdy sacks, filled with inorganic material usually available on site.