Excavation for the foundations

“School up!” is no longer just a donation campaign, but a project that is realized. Thanks to your donations, the first building of the new school is being constructed in the small village of Thulosirubari, some 70 kilometers east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. “Digging foundation has been started. Construction materials have been dropped on site,” Shyam Pandit wrote to me these days. Shyam is the liaison man of the German aid organization “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” in Nepal. “I was on-site and talked to the contractor. He said and committed, the building would be finished before the next raining season June/July 2017, except painting. They are really moving on.”

Exemplary

The plans are drawn up

Also in the village, some residents have started to rebuild their houses which had been destroyed by the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015. “They learn from the school construction,” Arjun Gatraj, the former chairman of the school committee, wrote to me. The earthquake about a year and a half ago had killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal. Sindhupalchowk District was particularly hard hit. In Thulosirubari alone 75 people died, including eight children, who had been students of the “Ralf and Gerlinde School”,which had been built by “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” and inaugurated six years before. Only the fact that the earth shook on a Saturday off school, had prevented more young victims. Just 30 to 40 of the 1,800 houses in the region around the village had remained undamaged.

Government prescribes new style of painting

Dredging

The school had been damaged so badly that it had had to be demolished. In the summer of 2015, I had launched, along with the two climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits, the donation campaign “School up!” with the goal of rebuilding the school in Thulosirubari as soon as possible. All donations for “School up!” really end up in the construction project, which is implemented by “Nepalhilfe Beilngries”. Due to their numerous projects in the region, the German aid organization has been a known quantity there for almost a quarter of a century. The previously characteristic white-blue appearance of the “Nepalhilfe” buildings will be missing in Thulosirubari. The Nepali government has prescribed that all new schools in the country must have a red roof, a light yellow exterior paint and dark red doors. As if there were no more important things to regulate in Nepal!

We still need your support

The pits for the foundations

So be it! “School up!” is not for self-praising but to guarantee education and thus the future of the children from Thulosirubari and the surrounding area. 575 students are to be taught in the new classrooms. The overall cost of the school is not yet completely financed. We need more donations. Here again the bank account:

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

I will continue to inform you about the progress of the construction work in my blog. So you can see how your donations “work”. All previous reports can be found by clicking on “School up!” in the upper menu bar. Please also tell your friends about this project. Thank you so much!

Schoolchildren in Thulosirubari

… go! Not only Olympic athletes are currently waiting for this call. People in Thulosirubari are in the starting blocks too. Hopefully we are only few days away from the start of the construction of the new school at this small village in Sindhupalchowk District in Nepal. According to the German aid organization “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” finally all bureaucratic barriers have been broken down so that the school for 700 children and adolescents in Thulosirubari can be rebuilt. That has been and will be the goal of the aid project “School up!” that I had launched along with the professional climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner from Austria and Ralf Dujmovits from Germany a year ago. The “Gerlinde and Ralf School”, which had been inaugurated only in 2009, was so badly damaged by the devastating earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015 that it had to be demolished.

Long and winding road

Stones for the new school

“We are going to do our next meeting with the contractor this week, after that we’ll start the work,” Arjun Gatraj, the chairman of the school committee in the village, which lies some 70 kilometers east of Kathmandu, writes to me. Sunil Shrestha and Shyam Pandit, the liaison men of “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” in Nepal, have completed a truly “Olympic program” in recent months to obtain all permits and stamps for the construction project. Those who (often with good reason) complain about cumbersome and excessive bureaucracy in western countries could experience in Nepal that an increase is possible: The road through the involved authorities is even much longer and more winding. Many employees in Nepalese offices feel and act just as if they were little kings, because they know that things cannot go on without their permission.

Only two-storied buildings

The new school building is to be built here

Thanks to Sunil and Shyam this probably most difficult phase of the project is now behind us. In the first of three construction stages the first building section with classrooms is to be built. The Nepalese government has ruled that due to the risk of earthquakes only two-storied school buildings should be built in the future – in the form of the letters H or U. Of course, I will continue to keep you up to date about what will happen in Thulosirubari. Arjun will provide me with first-hand information and pictures of the construction progress.

Thanks to your donations the construction is about to start at all. So far we have collected more than one third of the required sum. We need more donations for “School up!” to finance also the second and third construction phase. Here again the bank account in Germany:

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

Please tell others as well! Thank you so much!

P.S.: If you want to read my previous articles on this subject – including those about my visit in the earthquake region last March – simply click on the top bar at “School up!”, there you will find all posts concerning our aid project.

The school in Thulosirubari is going to be demolished

It was simply too dangerous. In the village of Thulosirubari in the Nepalese earthquake zone, residents and helpers of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have begun to remove the debris of the school. The building that was heavily damaged by the quake on 25 April “stands dangerously on the side of the ground where children use to play”, Arjun Gatraj, chairman of the School Management Committee, writes to me. As reported, the ground floor of the “Gerlinde and Ralf School” had collapsed, the building cannot be maintained. “These days, we have the big problem on how to destroy the main building and how to clear the rubble”, says Arjun. “We have no money for that ant the Government of Nepal is also not able to support us.”

Highly motivated

The school, that was built and maintained by the German aid organization “Nepalhilfe Beilngries”, was inaugurated in 2009. The professional climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits had made the construction possible with their financial support. Before the earthquake, 700 students per year attended the school. They came not only from Thulosirubari but from other small mountain villages in Sindhulpalchowk District too. The students are now taught in tin sheds, in groups of up to 70 students. “The temporary classrooms have proved to be useful”, Arjun writes. “The teaching is more or less the same as before the earthquake, but there is a great lack of teaching materials and school furniture. The children are just as excited to learn even after the earthquake.”

No family left the village

Living and learning in tin sheds

In Thulosirubari, located about 40 kilometers east of the capital Kathmandu as the crow flies, 75 people died in the earthquake, among them seven students of the “Gerlinde and Ralf School”. The villagers have overcome the monsoon – most of them in shanties with corrugated iron roofs and tarpaulins to protect against heavy rainfall. Despite the difficult living conditions, no family has left the village because of the earthquake, says Arjun. “They are struggling with the current situation. Those families who were temporary staying in Kathmandu returned to the village. The greatest concern of the people in Thulosirubari is: How can they build new and safe houses again? And who can rebuild the school for their children?” But of course they do not have the money for that. “So please help us to rebuild it!”, Arjun Gatraj appeals.

Every Euro or Dollar helps

This is precisely the goal of the fundraising campaign “School Up!” which I started in late June along with Gerlinde and Ralf. With your help, we want to ensure that the school in Thulosirubari will be rebuilt as soon as possible. The campaign had a promising start, but it is like being on expedition: If you have left the base camp, you are still far from the summit. You need patience and staying power. Once again, here are the bank details:

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

Every single Euro, Pound or Dollar is helping. A big thank you in advance to all donators!

70 students per class

Discussions under trees

Meanwhile teachers have resumed the lessons, in sheds made from bamboo, wood and CGI sheets. “But the children are not safe enough to stay inside these temporary learning buildings because they cannot protect them when rain and wind take place at the same time”, Arjun, chairperson of the School Management Committee of Thulosirubari wrote to me. The “Gerlinde and Ralf School”, which was only inaugurated in 2009, was – as reported before – so badly damaged that it must be completely demolished. “Almost all of the furniture and teaching materials were destroyed too”, Arjun said. “In our leisure time, we and the teaching staff are now using the ground under a tree to discuss the teaching and learning methodologies.” Due to the lack of rooms, the classes have been merged, they now have about 70 students each. “The teachers are feeling that it is problematic to teach them effectively under these conditions.”

“Everybody joined the work”

Opening of the school in 2009

This is reminiscent of the period before the construction of the school. “When we were in Thulosirubari for the first time, we met children who were taught sitting on the floor due to the lack of school furniture,” says Gerlinde. “The small classrooms were overcrowded.” At that time, the idea was born to build a larger school together with the Nepalhilfe Beilngries. “Everybody joined the work, the childrens’ parents, whether men or women, all helped. Eighteen months later, the new school building was finished”, the Austrian mountaineer, who was the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen, recalls. ”I’ll never forget the moment when we were standing in front of more than five hundred students who were so incredibly happy about their new school. It was a wonderful day.”

Dangerous way to school

Lessons for many students

Only the memory remains – and the ruins of a school, which was once a symbol of hope for a better future. In the village, hostels are also missing for students and teachers who are coming from outside to stay. “The students have to walk for hours to attend the lessons”, Arjun Gatraj wrote. “But now their way to school is more dangerous due to the earthquake.” After all, said Arjun, Thulosirubari has been spared from floods and landslides in the monsoon so far, so that there is no need to worry about the crops and plantations. “The villagers are thinking more of their children’s future than their own lives.” And that will be decided in the classroom. “Let’s combine our efforts to rebuild the school”, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner appeals – even to you. You can ensure with your donations for our project “School up!” that the “Gerlinde and Ralf School” will soon be more than just a memory.

You can transfer money to this bank account in Germany:

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

P.S. I’ll be on holidays till the end of July. But you won’t have to miss my blog completely. Next week I’ll publish a series in occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn.