Old and new classrooms

Namaste,

Part of the project in the Sirdibas area is to work with five of the primary schools in the surrounding villages.  These schools teach local children up to the age of about 9 or 10, after which they transfer to Buddha Ma Vi, the secondary school.  These villages are not close, the nearest being a walk of about one hour. 

Pangsing village is across the valley from Phillim, perched high on the steep mountainside, about 2 hours walk away. 

Pangsing village on the steep hillside.

The school was expecting us, as we had phoned beforehand.  Before we arrived at the village some excited pupils came out along the track to greet us. It wasn't every day they had foreigners visit their school.

Temporary classroom for more than 30 of the youngest children.

The school was badly damaged by the earthquake of April 2015, and since then students have been taught in temporary classrooms.  When we visited, the older classes were now housed in brand new classrooms but the younger three classes were working in a lean-to shed with a hole in the roof.  These young children have to clamber down a stack of large boulders to reach their classrooms. It is hard to imagine how the teachers and the students have managed in such dirty, dark, cramped and cold conditions for two and a half years!  

The staff room and office.

A hole in the roof!

A new classroom.
(Notice the teacher with her young daughter on her back.)

Two new classrooms have already been finished and are in use. 

More new classrooms are now being built by a charity called Samaritans Purse, and they will hopefully be in use in the spring. 

Foundations laid for the new classrooms.