Universal Love

On November 3rd, 2023, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Karnali province of western Nepal. The quake, which occurred at night in a region where most buildings are of rudimentary construction, caused the deaths of 153 people and the destruction of over 20,000 homes. On our visit to the region this February, four months after the quake, we observed that the local people are still greatly affected, many of whom are displaced from their homes, and people are only slowly recovering from the effects of the quake. The government provided the equivalent of $375 USD to people displaced from their homes, not nearly enough to compensate them for their losses or to support reconstruction efforts.

Amidst this large-scale scene we were given a tour of a local school in the village of Gotamkot which had been impacted by the quake. The K thru 10 school, called Shree Saraswati Madeymik Bidhylay, was already barely adequate in size to serve its roster of 500 students. During the quake, a further two buildings were rendered unsafe, causing some of the youngest students to forfeit their classrooms and be forced to congregate outdoors. Aside from the effects of the quake, the school is also desperately needing many basic improvements such as shutters on the windows, floor coverings, electricity and lights, chairs and wall plaster.

This fundraising campaign aims to provide sufficient resources for the school to build two additional classrooms and outfit the existing ones with these basic items.

Shree Saraswati School Tour

When we arrived at the school in the morning, the students were all assembled in the courtyard, arranged by grade, for the day's morning exercises:

After the morning exercises and an opportunity to introduce myself to the students, we were taken on a tour of the school grounds. Our first stop was the Pre-K class, which had been moved outside due to the earthquake damage to their classroom building:

Next, we visited the 6th grade class, which was located in one of the worst quality buildings that was still being used. Notice the lack of window shutters, plaster, and the dirt floor:

Here's a view of another similar building without students in it:

After this, we went behind these buildings where an 8th grade math class was also taking place outside:

After this we were shown two buildings that were so badly damaged in the quake that they were no longer safe to use:

When the tour was complete we took a photo with the five of us:

Later that afternoon we got to participate in a volleyball game, which is the preferred game in this village due to the lack of flat ground for soccer, etc:

Thank you for taking the tour! We hope you'll contribute to this cause. :-)