CHILDREN ARE BACK TO SAFE AND PERMANENT CLASSROOMS

In the recent final monitoring visit to the project site of the School Reconstruction Project-Shree Birendra Secondary School in Parbat District, the group of students seemed busy in writing a note in colorful chart papers that says, “Thank you Innerwheel Deutschland Distrikt 90 and SWAN Germany”- expressing their joy and gratitude to donors at having finally received safe and permanent primary block of school.

“With an intense smile on their faces, they display the hand written chart papers while assembling outside the school and shows their gestures of respect with flowers, garlands, vermillion and Khada for us,” shares Muna Thapa Magar, Program Assistant based in Baglung – who has been closely working with the school since the beginning of the project.

The smiles on the faces of students has been brought back with the successful completion of the reconstruction of the Primary School Block consisting six classrooms along with the two separate toilets for girls and boys  with the generous support of Innerwheel Deutschland Distrikt 90; a German Organization for women through SWAN Deuschland e.V.

“These students who were learning fearfully in the damaged classrooms since the Earthquake 2015 now have a safe and permanent classroom. While SWAN Nepal came for needs assessment, we had no concrete idea-how to start the reconstruction work. Fortunately, SWAN had a lot of experiences working in the school reconstruction model. So they came up with an approach with 60-40 model in which SWAN will raise 60 percent of the total budget and 40 percent has to be raised by the local government and the community. This approach sparked a hope and commitment among the local stakeholders and now our shared vision has come true,” shares Ramesh Bom Malla, Chair of the construction committee for the project.

Suman Nepali, a 5th Grader opined that students are very glad to have a safe infrastructure. The school should now focus on providing a quality education for their exciting future.

Naranath Rimal, Principal of the school said, “this project has benefited around 300 children from the catchment area. We believe that the school will be able to increase enrollments in the school and prevent dropout rates. We will try to bring remarkable changes to bring a high quality education in our school.”

“I am deeply motivated by the efforts of SWAN as they gave us a proper guidelines in a series of our meetings and helped us to utilize our resources alongside their funding to rebuild our school,” said Shiva Poudel, Chair, Ward-11, Kushma Municipality, Parbat. Earlier, the reconstruction of the school had been delayed due to the lack of proper guidance and planning. The Co-funding partnership for this project has created the ownership while also benefiting the local children at large.

Jyoti Khatri, Playgroup Teacher expressed her opinion that it was very hard for her to conduct Playgroup activities in a small and dark room which was on the verse of collapse. Now they have a spacious bright room to involve kids in daily activities – meaning children will be regular to the class while also helps them to keep cheerful and engage in class activities.

Last year, the reconstruction work was started during the monsoon season which made the project work slower in the initial days. However, the local people managed to complete their assigned task within the project period.

Speaking at the final monitoring program, Kalpana Karki, Team Leader-SWAN Nepal said, “It’s a great joy to see the children learning in the new and permanent building and we’re very proud to be a part of the rebuilding effort.”

However, the formal inauguration and the handover of the school will be done on 24th October, 2019 amid a function in the presence of the funding partners from Germany, community and the local government at the school premises, Parbat.

By: Prekshya Lamichhane Kunwar, Communication & Documentation Manager, Social Welfare Association of Nepal (SWAN)
Date: 5th June, 2019

For further information,
Please email: swan@swannepal.org