NEPAL

The student-run charitable organization Namaste Nepal S-GmbH based at the Geschwister-Scholl High School in Freiberg, Germany, has been active in the Sindhupalchok province of Nepal since 2005. Together with a Nepalese aid organization, it supports the construction of schools and kindergartens. Its partner village of Gati, situated around 100 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu, was hit particularly hard and was in urgent need of help.

We donated an initial €50,000 as emergency aid to support the student-run charitable organization with its project work. Our employees donated €20,000. We matched this amount, so that over €90,000 was available by February 2016 to rebuild schools in Gati and neighboring villages.

A lot has happened since, even though the conditions for the reconstruction of the schools that were destroyed have not been favorable: impassable roads, bottlenecks in material procurement and associated price increases, a lack of technology and construction machinery, and heavy monsoon rains have all hindered the construction work. Due to these difficult conditions, it was necessary to build the schools by hand. The villagers’ work here is impressive. The first story of the new school was completed in October 2017 – with the active assistance of a group of students from Freiberg.