'Bangalore Cares for Nepal' opens school for earthquake victims
The old school collapsed in the April 2015 earthquake. The new Jal Kalyan Vidyalay School was inaugurated on 21 July. It caters to secondary and high school students. Almost US$ 70,000 were spent on building four classrooms as well as a library and a lab.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – The newly built Jal Kalyan Vidyalay School inaugurated on Friday in Madhurapatti, a village in Kavre district, about 50 km from Kathmandu, represents new hope for 300 teenagers who want to study.
The old school collapsed when Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015 that killed more than 9,000 people. Now the kids can go back to school thanks to the help of Bangalore Cares for Nepal, an Indian Christian Charity that was among the first to mobilise after the violent earthquake.
The school provides an education to secondary and high school students from surrounding areas. Before it was built, students were housed in temporary facilities.
The new school, complete with library and laboratory, was inaugurated by T P Sharma, mayor of Namobudha, and Fr George Kannanthanam, coordinator of Bangalore Cares for Nepal. Fr Antony Sebastian of the Echo Association and Mr Jose of AIFO, an Italian NGO, were present at the ceremony
Proclade, a development-oriented Spanish NGO, provided the funding (7 million rupees or US$ 68,000) for four classrooms. Nepali Watch, a Kathmandu-based organisation, realised the project along with the school's administrators and teachers.
Bangalore Cares for Nepal is an initiative of the Indian Church under the supervision of Fr George Kannanthanam. It includes various congregations, dioceses, NGOs, trade unions, funding agencies, and individual donors.
Together with his group, Fr George reached Nepal the day after the earthquake. Volunteers from India provided rescue material to about 20,000 people. Tents and temporary accommodations were provided to more than 10,000 people.
About 650 temporary houses were built. Other 60 permanent housing units are under construction thanks to the financial support of Caritas Nepal and AIFO.
In the past two years, the organisation enabled some 1,000 students to go back to study, providing them with materials like textbooks and backpacks. The library and the lab opened last year.
Echo Bangalore chose two groups of 15 students each for vocational training in the hospitality industry and are now in India. At present, more students are being recruited.
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