If I could write a wish list for Christmas now, it would say: “Please don’t forget the children of Thulosirubari!” For two years now, the German aid organization “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” has been building the new school for more than 500 children and young people in the small mountain village about 70 kilometers east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. This was made possible by your donations for “School up!”, the aid project that I launched together with the professional mountaineers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits after the devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015. The money we collect ends up in Thulosirubari and is used exclusively for the new construction.

Giant contrast to 2016

Last March, Ralf and I were in Thulosirubari when the first two of three planned parts of the new school building were inaugurated. The whole village was in a party mood. I looked into hundreds of smiling faces that communicated optimism. Not only at the school, everywhere in Thulosirubari construction work was on. What a contrast to my visit two years earlier! In 2016, one year after the earthquake, the village had still been a field of ruins, the inhabitants had seemed depressed, paralyzed.

Thank you for your big heart!

Third construction phase

“School up!” – as I had the chance to experience last March and the memory of it still warms my heart – is so much more than just an investment in a building that ensures that the students no longer have to be taught in corrugated iron sheds: The new school has become a symbol of hope and a new beginning. It is impossible to forget the natural disaster of 2015, but the people of Thulosirubari are now looking to the future – thanks to your generosity.

And it is this generosity that I would like to appeal to again shortly before Christmas: Please continue donating for “School up!” because we have not yet crossed the finishing line! The construction work on the third part of the building is in progress and must be financed. Here is the bank account again:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V.
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School