EDUC-Nepal is a school in Kathmandu that provides a free education to underprivileged children from the Basundhara squatters’ area who would not otherwise have the opportunity to go to school. Each day the students of EDUC are given a hot lunch, clean drinking water, a uniform, school supplies and regularly health checks. There are currently around 70 students enrolled at EDUC, all crammed into four classrooms.
The school was started in 2002 by Nepali sibling team Keshari (Principal), Bishnu (Chairman) and Beena (Head Teacher) and runs entirely on the support of local friends and family. The school has no donors. Emma first met the team at EDUC in 2014 and has been a passionate advocate for the school ever since.
In 2015, the current rented school building was hit by the earthquake and became an unsafe learning environment for the children. A block of land next to the current school became available for long-term lease, so Emma and the EDUC team in Kathmandu jumped at the opportunity to plan the construction of a new school building.
Through the support of many varied friends, we have been planning, dreaming and fundraising for our new building for over two years. The project is expected to cost approximately $25,000 AUD and as of May 2017 we have raised $19,000 AUD of that! The school is currently under construction with the earthquake-proof steel structure in place, along with the prefabricated walls and tin roof. The school construction is expected to be completed by June 2017 and ready to open not long after.
In addition to all of our wonderful donors, special project thanks go to: Architects Without Frontiers who linked us with the brilliant David Anderson (senior architect at HDR Rice Daubney), Professor Yadin Shrestha and his team at the Department of Engineering at Tribhuvan University, Andrew Middleton and the team at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne, Audrey Atkinson and her team at the Graduate Education Society, and Jeremi Wallace and his team at Echo International Aid. We could not have done this without you.
For more information about the project, please email Emma: em.e.mcdonald@gmail.com
