We are glad to report that Upallo Pekhu Secondary School, in Syangja District is now the happy owner of two rebuilt/restored classrooms thanks to the efforts of Himalayan Quests and the local community.
This old government school which has been educating children from rural communities for 64 years, was badly damaged during the earthquake, with many of the old mud and brick rooms ending up as piles of rubble.
Five local skilled labourers, lead by HQ’s Saroj Ale transformed the broken shell of two classrooms into safe, semi permanent weatherproof learning centers, using just reclaimed materials, bamboo, wire, nails and corrugated tin sheets.
The class 5 room lost its roof during the earthquake, but the walls were left pretty much intact. Class 4’s room wasn’t so lucky with virtually nothing left standing.
Class 5 lost its roof in the earthquake
After clearing the rubble from both rooms, the next job was to dig down and level the floor of class 4. A bamboo frame structure was then erected for both rooms. This will hold the roof for the entire building as well as act as a frame for the walls of class 4.
Levelling the class 4 floor
The bamboo frame was erected
The roof was then put on – tied onto the frame and weighted down by a lattice bamboo structure to make it safe in high winds.
The roof went on and was held down with a bamboo lattice frame
A low level wall was built to define the boundary of classroom 4 and also to offer extra strength and support to the bamboo frame. Bamboo panels were then battened onto the frame, a window made and the reclaimed door put in place.
The walls, door and window were added
After 5 days of hard work, the kids happily moved their desks and benches back into their classrooms, the whiteboards were hung and lessons resumed as normal.
The kids moved their desks and benches into their new classroom
Back to lessons as normal
A huge thank you to everyone who made this project possible – donors, community and school members and especially Saroj for organising and overseeing the project for us.
Class 4 their teachers and Saroj outside their new classroom