Shree Bashukee School, Gorkha - Project COMPLETED
Namaskar,
On behalf of all the Nepalese volunteer friends, school children, and parents of the Shree Bashukee School, Gorkha and Balthali village, Kavre, I would like to thank you for your support. With the contributions received from you, we have launched the following programs and they all have been successfully completed. Truly, you made a difference in the lives of children and parents in the Villages.
Programs Launched:
1. Balthali library project, Kavre Nepal - completed
2. Tuition classes for children, Kavre, Nepal – completed
3. Sewing and tailoring training programs for women, Kavre, Nepal - completed
4. Reconstruction of Shree Bashukee School Building, Gorkha – completed
Large sum of financial contribution was received from our friends from all over the world. Especially, the past members of Nepalese Scholars Association (NepSA), Nepali Heritage Charity Foundation (NHCF), and Shree Bashukee School Management Committee were actively involved to generate financial and technical resources to support the school project. There were hundreds of individuals involved as donor, volunteer, and supporters from all over the world. After a long delay in the approval process from the Government of Nepal, the project started in February 2017, 21 months after the disaster. Despite battling harsh weather, bureaucratic hurdles, and financial difficulties, the work has been successfully completed and the school was inaugurated in April 28, 2019.
For those of you new to the initiatives – a short background:
On April 25 and May 12, 2015, two powerful earthquakes hit Nepal. The disaster took about 8,000 lives and a billion dollars worth of properties. It was the biggest tragedy in the history of Nepal as millions lost their homes and family members and thousands had to relocate and find a safe shelter. In this tragedy, about 7000 private and government schools were demolished to rubble and about a million school children were placed in temporary tents. The educational sector was already in a vulnerable situation as low literacy rate and inadequate educational resources had plagued the country for decades; the natural disaster has only escalated the situation.
Shree Bashukee Basic School located at Wayak 8, Aruarbang Village Development Committee (VDC), Gorkha, Nepal is one of the schools that were completely demolished by the earthquakes. It is a government-funded school and provides education from kindergarten to eighth grade. Since the disaster, school officials have been utilizing temporary tents to run their regular classes. Such arrangements were not sufficient with the onset of the long and perilous monsoon, summer, and winter seasons. As the school is located in a highly remote area, government support was unable to reach in time. School officials and local social workers were desperately looking for financial support to rebuild their school building. Since coming in contact in May 2015, NepSA along other supporters have been trying their best to generate enough funds to complete the school project.
Initiatives:
Two days after the incident, Nepalese students (Alphabetically, Dinesh Adhikary, Gyan Kumar Shrestha, Kumar KC, Om Shah, Ravi Sharma, Roman Karki, Sudip Shrestha, and Upama KC) at UBCO registered a social club, Nepalese Scholars' Association (NepSA), under the Students' Union of UBCO and led a fund-raising campaign. NepSA organized various events, including a candlelight vigil (thank you Anju Khatri, Urbashi Khatri, and all the supporters in the event), bottle drive (thank you student volunteer – Michelle and all the supporters), soccer tournaments (thank you – Stella Mozin and the participants), and booth set-ups at various locations on campus. The university students, students’ Union (Tom Macculli, Sarah Ferguson, and all the student executives, and staffs), International program services (alphabetically - Carrie Karsgaard, Leah Sanford, and Philip Reichert), and university administration Deputy Vice Chancellor’s office (thank you Dr. Deborah Buszard and all the staffs), supported NepSA’s initiatives in various forms, providing logistic, financial, and moral support. NepSA also reached non-profit organizations in the Kelowna community, including the members from Gurudwara Guru Amardas Darbar Sikh Society and Okanagan Sikh Temple. Without their support, these educational projects would not have come this far. The seven months-long campaign raised a total of $13,700. Of the total amount, $3,067 was donated to the Canadian Red Cross Society and $10,000 was invested in the reconstruction of the school building for Shree Bashukee lower secondary school. The generated sum was not enough to complete the project, in 2018, we continued the fund raising activities throught gofundme and generated $1542. And, rest of the expenses for the project was generated by the school reconstruction team.
On June 26, 2016, in collaboration with friends from Brazil (Alex, Eddie, and Isadora) and Kelowna (Ruth, Jon, and Seth), Upama, and Dinesh helped organize a musical concert, ‘Concert for Hope.' The major objective of the event was to raise funds and support earthquake victims, especially children and women, in Kavre District, Nepal. The event generated $2,064 and donated seven sewing machines to a local youth club in Kavre and launched a tailoring training campaign for the women in the village. The program benefitted 24 young women and the training program is still running (Rupa Thapa, https://www.facebook.com/rupa.thapa.397). In the same village, a library project, Balthali Library was launched and NepSA also made financial contribution for 206 new books and a bookrack. The library has benefitted over 100 local youths (https://www.facebook.com/dinesh.adhikary.3).
In the same village, after the two massive earthquakes, local schools were destroyed. There was a long delay in the reconstruction of those schools; school children were distracted and discouraged to go to the temporary class arrangements. Therefore, a part of the funds generated from the concert was allocated and appointed a local teacher for six months to guide these children at the local level and provided tuition classes. The program has benefitted about 25 local children in the small village (https://www.facebook.com/rupa.thapa.397). Although it was not a huge amount of money, it has served to kindled the lamp of hope in the local youths. In this way, friends and families from all over the world supported to complete the projects.
In all these endeavours, Nepali Heritage Charity Foundation (NHCF) http://www.nhcfbc.org/board-of-directors/, its past and current board members have been very supportive. Including the members, there are hundreds of donors and supporters from different cities of British Columbia and from all over the world. Without good friendship and collaboration with them, we would not have been able to support Shree Bashukee School or any of the projects.
I know there are volunteer friends in Nepal working on the project sites in Gorkha and Kavre. Friends from Kavre, Rupa Thapa, Nishu KC and all the local youths have been key to make the programs successful. In Gorkha, Ramesh KC, Hari Adhikari, Tara Devi Adhikari, Ishwar Khadka, Bhuwan Thapa, Ishwar Dhakal, Smriti GC and all the local friends have played a vital role to bring the project to this stage.
I sincerely hope that you and I will be able to collaborate and help generate funds to complete the school project so that once again children will find their classroom under a roof.
Sincerely,
Dinesh Adhikary & Upama KC
(Volunteers)
P.S. Images and videos below show the effort of NepSA and my volunteer friends in Kelowna. I would like to thank them for their great work. These images and video should serve as the supporting material for my campaign and give you an overall idea of what has been done to bring the service projects at this stage. I hope this will help this campaign to generate funds and you and I can support NepSA.
NepSA Executives / Volunteer from Right Upama KC (UBC graduate), Gyan Kumar Shrestha (UBC graduate), Sudip Shrestha (UBC Student), Kumar KC (UBC graduate), Ravi Sharma (UBC graduate), and Dinesh Adhikary (UBC Student). Thank you for all your contribution. Remember, you all are part of this great initiatives and you all have made a big impact! 
From Left - Kumar KC (UBC Graduate), Gyan Kumar Shrestha (UBC Graduate),
Upama K C (UBC Graduate), and Dinesh Adhikary (UBC Student). Thank you! 
