World Children’s Day: Giving students at Shree Prithvi a safe place to learn

Every child deserves access to education for a brighter future. The Gurkha Welfare Trust’s Schools Programme is one of our longest-running programmes, and it has benefitted children living in hundreds of remote villages across Nepal.

Especially after the earthquakes of 2015, many schools throughout Nepal are in need of a refurbishment or a complete rebuild. On this World Children’s Day, we wanted to share an update from Shree Prithvi Secondary School, one of our latest school projects in Baksila.

Initially built in 1960 as a primary school, Shree Prithvi  has grown substantially through the decades, and now runs classes for 560 students. Each day, many of the pupils walk for over an hour to and from the secondary school, as it is the only school in the area that teaches up to grade 12.

Before our intervention, Shree Prithvi was in a poor state. Holes in the classroom roofs leaked water when it rained, and the floors would become slippery with mud. Strong winds would also blow dust into the rooms. With no lights or electricity, students studied in the dark.

We got straight to work, constructing two school buildings of 18 classrooms, one community hall, a toilet block, a tap stand and chain link fencing. We also refurbished an existing school block, the school’s library, and furnished all of the new classrooms.

“After the school project’s completion, the place looked completely different,” said one of our team members. “A big, sturdy school building was standing strong. It now has proper desks and benches, whiteboards in every classroom, lights and electrical sockets, ceiling fans, a library full of books, toilets for boys and girls with handwashing tap stands, a disability-friendly toilet, a multipurpose hall, fencing surrounding the school, solid doors and windows and most importantly, a proper school environment where children can focus on their studies.”

All the children and teachers were thrilled with their new school. Fourteen-year-old Mahesh is looking forward to studying his favourite subject, mathematics, in comfort. “The new building is very good. Before, when it rained, water used to enter the classrooms. The floor was not cemented so the classrooms used to be all muddy. But now we don’t have to worry about these things. The desks and benches were also old and damaged, but now we have new ones. Now we have a proper toilet and hand washing tap stand.

“I love the new school building and I am very happy to be able to study in this school. I want to thank all the donors from the bottom of my heart for such a wonderful school building. I will study hard and make them proud.”

Another student, 16-year-old Renuka, expressed how happy she was with her new school. “We love everything about this school building. We have now lights and electricity in our classrooms. We are well protected from the water. This the only school in our area with such a wonderful infrastructure. We want to thank the donors very much. We will try and do better in our studies. We are very happy. Thank you.”

Rana Bahadur Rai, the school’s principal, said that after the school rebuild, student enrolment increased by ten percent. “The work done by GWT is very professional and very good,” he said. “New books have recently arrived in our library. The students are very happy.

“We feel very fortunate to have received this major school project and so does the community. This village will not forget the work that The GWT has done for us.”

Fourteen-year-old Mahesh is looking forward to learning maths in his new classroom.