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| A classroom where the damaged walls have been removed and the thin pillars are exposed. Classes were being conducted in this dangerous environment. (All photos are from Dhading District, Nepal, August 25th, 2015) |
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| With AAR Japan's support, a brick-walled, tin-roofed temporary learning center with steel beams was completed. (August 25th, 2015) |
We plan to build a total of 26 buildings, each designed to have 2 classrooms, across 17 schools where dangerous school buildings are currently being used. We have already been able to provide 12 buildings / 24 classrooms to the local School Management Committee. Students who were studying in a dangerous environment now can study at ease. Also, schools where multiple grade levels were forced to study together because of a lack of classrooms, are now able to run more smoothly. Once the 26 buildings / 52 clasrooms are completed, 2,080 children will be able to study in a safe environment. Subeksha (age 6), a 1st grade student at Kalika Primary School, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up, said to us, "Thank you for building us a new school."
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| Children study at ease in the completed temporary learning centers. (August 25th, 2015) |
The biggest challenge for this aid project was acquiring land to build the temporary learning centers. Flat land is necessary to build a school but such level land is hard to find in mountainous Nepal. Many schools have been prohibited from using their classrooms after a government inspection deemed them "dangerous". These dangerous classrooms cannot be removed and are awaiting repairs by the government, but it is unclear when such repairs will be completed. To meet the needs of these schools, many aid groups built easy-to-build, simple school buildings on the available land using tin sheets and bamboo. However, since entering the rainy season, water leaks have made some of these buildings unfit for school. Additionally, AAR Japan cannot remove these buildings to build the temporary learning centers. This being the situation, with a heavy heart, AAR Japan was not able to include some of the intended schools in this programme due to a lack of land.
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| "I want to be a doctor" says Subeksha, a 1st grade student at Kalika Primary School (August 27th, 2015) |
While there are many hardships and concerns, I cannot help but smile when I see the children, despite experiencing trauma from the earthquake, now playing at the schools. During the handover ceremony of a temporary learning center at one of the primary schools, a boy who had lost both his parents to the earthquake performed a song for us. In my heart I could not help but feel pain at the sight of the young student singing with gratitude in his in spite of the difficulties he has and will face. Even when the learning centers are completed and the students are able to attend school again, the family members and friends they lost will not return. But it is my hope that the education received at these schools will empower these children and make their futures a little brighter.
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| A boy performed us a song at the handover ceremony of the temporary learning center. Pictured are Daijou TSUCHIKAWA (left) and Norihiro FUJIMOTO (second from the left) of AAR Japan. (August 18th, 2015) |
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| Dajo TSUCHIKAWA, AAR Japan Nepal Office TSUCHIKAWA has worked at AAR Japan’s Nepal office since July 2015. After graduating from university he worked as a systems engineer before attending graduate school in Australia to study Development Economics. TSUCHIKAWA joined AAR Japan after graduating from graduate school. He was born in Iwate Prefecture and was raised in India. |
Japanese-English translation by Mr. Yasuhiro Kusakawa
English editing by Mr. Peter Bungate
This article has been translated by volunteers as part of the AAR Japan’s Volunteer Programme. Their generous contributions allow us to spread our activities and ideas globally, through an ever-growing selection of our reports from the field.
