Hari and Kamaal our local staff headed off at 6am last Sunday morning on Hari’s motorbike to make the long, windy, journey to Sindhuli to hand over schools #7 and #8 funded by the Wishner5, Jana Jyoti Lower Secondary School and Bhimsen Primary School.
By 11am they were in Sitalpati, 115km from Kathmandu where they met up with Navaraj from our local Sindhuli partner the Collective Concern Society. A further 12km along a dusty, bumpy, twisty road they finally arrived at Bhimsen Primary School to be met by smiling faces and the children all in a line offering flowers as a welcome.
The end of year exams and had finished just the day before and despite the school being closed for the holidays before the start of the new academic year later this month, all the teachers, school management committee members and most of the students and their parents turned up for the hand over ceremony, such was their gratitude. They had all made a huge effort to make the handover ceremony extra special, making welcome banners and also one that showed the progress of the build.
After two hours of speeches (everyone wanted to say how grateful they were!) they were finally able to wrap up the program and head off for some lunch and a clean up of all the dust accumulated from the journey to and from Bhimsen Primary School before going to Shree Jana Jyoti Lower Secondary school, 5km away to perform the handover of their new classrooms.
This school, including the new classroom building was being used as a regional testing centre for the class 10 Secondary Education Exams (SEE), hosting children from all over the region in their end of school exams. Given this, there was not the same fanfare that they received at the other school, as the teachers were busy organising that day’s answer sheets, but they were still welcomed with warm and gratitude.
The School Management Committee and teachers all got together in one of the classrooms where they expressed their thanks and shared their experience of the difficulties they and the children were facing before the new classrooms were built. It was wonderful knowing that the new building had eased their problems and enabled the school to be used as a central exam centre and was being put to maximum use.
Hari and Kamaal finally started their journey home around 4pm not getting back until 9pm, as along the way they stopped to help a fellow motorcyclist who had been in an accident, patching him up with their first aid kit and then getting caught in a storm about 25km from Kathmandu, which meant they had to sit the worst of it out before completing their journey. Despite the long distances, the dust, the bendy roads and the dramas along the way, both Hari and Kamaal enjoyed their day and were happy to see more safe, weatherproof classrooms being used and appreciated by teachers, parents and the children.
Once again, a Himalayan thank you to everyone involved with this project. To Hari Bhusal, who coordinated it on our behalf and to Kamaal Miya for helping him out on handover day. Navaraj Pahadi of Collective Concern Society, Nepal for working closely with the schools and helping them get all the necessary documents and financial reports to us. The School Management Committee members, teachers and parents, but most of all the Wishner Family, collectively know as the Wishner5 and all their supporters for funding this new classroom buildings. Once more a legacy has been created that will touch the lives of many children and teachers for years to come.