Dhandakharka is by far the most disadvantaged of the local communities. It is composed of a very different tribal group experiencing a much greater degree of poverty. School attendance and literacy rates are lower , as low as 50%. The school was completely flattened by the earthquake and Kasin raised £32,000 to rebuild it. This school was extremely remote and the local community didn’t have any financial resources of their own.
In November 2015, 6 months after the earthquake we travelled out to Nepal to organise the rebuilding of the school. We met with members of the local community to plan the build. The community were to provide some of the labour, breaking stone, mixing and carrying cement etc. This would help to offset some of the cost but also give the community a bigger stake in the project
The work was started in February 2016 . We employed the Pahar Trust to do the build and the work was supervised by Chitra one of the Trust’s engineers. The details of the construction can be seen on our blog. Amazingly the work was finished before the onset of the monsoon in July 2016 and the following November we went out to Nepal to open the school. We were treated to a grand opening ceremony by the villagers with much dancing, singing and speeches.
Since then , we have provided resources for the nursery classroom and built a new toilet block. Each year we visit the school.to see how they are getting on and in November 2023 we opened an After School club, using one of the classrooms.
The nursery classroom – Before and After