The St Christopher’s UWS school in the Gurase community in Eastern Nepal has officially opened!
Jack Clark, School Partnership Director at the UWS: “The school building in Gurase is complete and the community has opened the school to students! There are already 120 students enrolled, and as many as 150-180 students will attend the school once it is inaugurated”.
The UWS Country Manager, Surya, has organised for a local celebrity, the Chief District Officer, to open the school. The school will benefit from three government teachers and a local teacher who left the village with his family as a child and went to university. As soon as he heard that a school was being built in Gurase, he came back to take part in this fantastic project! Tim Howarth, CEO of UWS: “he is the most motivated teacher I have ever met. The teacher wants others from his village to have the opportunities he was lucky enough to receive, and to learn how to read and count”.
There have been a flourish of fantastic charity events at the St Chris Senior School to raise funds in support of this project. The students have been working very hard to raise money to cover the costs of building, resources and supplies. We have also seen a number of superb student-led initiatives that are supporting the drive for Nepal.
Background:
Following the success of St Christopher’s Infant and Junior Schools’ project, in association with United World Schools (UWS), to raise funds to build a school in Cambodia, St Christopher’s Senior School students have embarked on their own challenge to fund, again in association with UWS, the building of a school in Gurase, Nepal.
During the recent earthquake, 9,000 people were killed in Nepal and all buildings in Gurase were destroyed. The Nepalese government is unable to finance the construction of a new school given the extent of the devastation in the country. Many of the children have to walk 3-4 hours to reach the nearest school and the terrain is often difficult and dangerous. Crossing rivers using unstable rope bridges is a routine feature of the journey.
The funds raised will be used to build the school, including a Library, and to provide clean water and teaching resources for 200 students and their teachers. The building work began at the beginning of October 2016. The support for the project is very strong, with many students inspired to become very actively involved in supporting this very worthy cause.