CAN Projects

Lamjung District - Karki Danda School

Ian Wall writes - During my recent visit to Nepal I returned to the Karki Danda school that I first visited in 2003 with the Barnardiston School Trek. That visit was the first connection that CAN had had with the school and at that time the head informed us of the lack of toilets at his school. On our return to the UK Col Boulter (Head of Barnardiston) took on the task of fund raising through his school to enable a toilet block to be built. The result of the school's efforts can be seen in the photograph, the highest building above the school.

During my most recent visit we stayed with the Headmaster; in the evening many local children came to visit us as did village committee members, all were very grateful for CAN support and the help that Barnardiston had given them. The children were keen to talk, practice their English and generally find out anything they could about the rest of the world. They also expressed concern over their own further education and their wish to go to College to help them reach their potential. The school is achieving excellent results in the examinations and the numbers of children attending the school are steadily increasing, now at nearly 320. In fact the children are so enthusiastic about school that the older ones attend a 7 - 8 am lesson for English and then an 8 - 9 am lesson for maths before they start their normal daily lessons; and that's after walking in some cases for over an hour to get to school.

The headmaster was keen to show us around his school. Since our last visit the school has suffered badly from subsidence, in fact the building is in such a dangerous state that I suggested that the southern wing (left side in the photo) should be vacated as a matter of urgency. In the unfortunate event of the building collapsing while the children were attending lessons many would be injured or worse, but as the head replied 'there are so many pupils I don't have anywhere to teach them' and some staff have as many as 40 children in the class. It has been estimated that at least 95% of the existing materials could be used in a rebuild.

Due to the extreme pressure the school is under the Head is applying to CAN to assist in providing an additional two members of staff at secondary level and further consideration for help with the building issue and I have informed the Head that I would positively recommend this to the UK Trustees.

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