Splendid Valley 2007
Splendid Valley School in 2007
A History of KASIN
Our story began on 22nd December 2003 when founder trustee Arthur Benbow first visited Nepal on a 14 day organised cycle tour. It was just three days before Christmas when Arthur cycled through the remote village of Palubari in the Kathmandu Valley. He came upon a school with no children, it was Saturday, a day when the children of Nepal don’t go to school. However, some staff and the Headmaster were at the school.
Arthur was welcomed by the Headmaster who looked at the bearded globetrotter and said “Welcome Xmas Father, would you care to see around the school?” Conditions for the six staff and 80 children were incredibly basic with only one toilet for both staff and children.
In the short period we had been in Nepal we had been impressed by the beauty of the Country and the friendly welcome from every one we made contact with.
Sadly the country had been through seven years of revolution, mass protests & strikes and it was another three years before the first election took place when Nepal became a Democratic Republic. Add to this the fact that the main source of income for Nepal was from farming and Tourism, arising from which, state funding for education had a very low priority, with 70% of the adult population being illiterate.
It was obvious to our group visiting Splendid Valley English School (founded in 1998) that help in any shape or form would be welcome. Bearing in mind that the best way to improve the quality of life for any 3rd World country is to provide help (not money) to educate the younger generation. So our group took the story and pictures of Splendid Valley School back to friends and family in the UK. Arising from which funding and offers of help were sent and taken out and in 2005 it was decided that we should become a registered Charity.
Thanks to the support we have had in the UK and beyond plus major funding from a larger Charity in Italy known as Friuli Mandi, Splendid Valley School now has a new school building less than a kilometre from the old one.
It was in October 2007 that a group of our trustees and supporters attended the inauguration of the new school building which now caters for 250 children. Many children and some staff must walk an hour or more to get to school where there are now 18 staff including 16 teachers.
Having completed our project in the Kathmandu valley In 2011, the focus of our activities shifted to the Phulkharka region a more remote rural area to the north of Dhading. Here we provided resources and equipment for many of the schools as well as teacher training .
In 2015 a devastating earthquake hit Nepal and the epicentre was not far from Phulkharka. Almost all the houses and schools were destroyed although mercifully the number of casualties was low as the earthquake happened in the afternoon. KASIN raised funds to rebuild a primary school at Dhandakharka in one of the most marginalised communities. Since then we have completed many other projects in this area as well as in the Kathmandu Valley , Kurintar and near Jhapa in southeast Nepal. These are detailed on other pages of this website.