We’ve not posted much recently and its now very much history as far as National Media is concerned, but that does not mean things have stopped in Nepal for the Charity. or those that live there. Many of you will have followed the progress of the many rural homes that we built in one of the worst affected areas, and the completion of the School rebuild in Kodari where we have had a long link of supporting this community when we built a classroom in 2009.

The Nepal Appeal Charity has been funding the rebuild of another very rural school in the same region at Siranchour. During my visit in September I was working with the Mandala organisation, our partnered team on the ground who are over seeing the projects we are supporting. As part of this visit we travelled extensively by jeep and on foot to see where our help would be most useful and without  came across the temporary school at Siranchour high up in the foothills.

Hidden high up on the foothills - Siranchour School (temporary tent and Bamboo School)

Their School was demolished in the earthquake and a temporary bamboo structure was in its place and I was lucky enough to spend time with the children and locals seeing how much even this temporary structure meant to them. We agreed to fund the rebuild of a permeant structure whilst we were there and the next project was identified.

The Charities commitment to the locals to rebuilding the school.

On the 26th April I’ll be heading a team of volunteers from the midlands who will be accompanying me out to Nepal. We will be spending a week visiting the projects already supported by the Charity, but also aiming to complete the school at Siranchour helping with the last bit of plumbing, painting and electrics before handing it over to the community.

Some of the team will also be spending time with the children and community structuring some session to include lessons and sport, and we will be taking resources out with us to support this, and to leave with them. One of the Charity Trustees who is a teacher will be spending time with the rural school staff from each of the schools we are supporting to consider the long term needs and support we can give them regarding resources and their future education system.

Spending time identifying future needs, and having fun with the community.

One of my roles whilst I’m there will be to hike to another rural school that has been identified in the same region that was dramatically affected as a result of the earthquake and desperately needs support. In addition to this there are villages who are currently walking 2 hours to reach fresh water each day as their piped supplies were ruptured during the earthquake - we’ll see what support we can give to help them.

We’ll be identifying further projects to support

I’ll be filming out in Nepal and uploading updates during our time out there, so you can see how all of the funds you helped to raise are being spent and the difference it is making to reals lives on the ground in Nepal.

For many this will be their first time to Nepal, so following the Charity project work I’ll then be guiding the group to the opposite side of the country supporting some of the local operators and highlighting the fact that ‘Nepal is open for business as usual’ as it strives to get Tourism back to the levels of income it needs. We’ll be completing a 5 day trek to 3100m and 3 days white water rafting for them to experience what Nepal does best - adventure travel!

I’ll be writing regular blogs and Facebook entries to follow.

Again thanks for the ongoing support of the Charity and due to public response we will be hosting a number of events later this spring and through the summer that you can get involved with, to help the long term support of the projects that the Charity is funding.

Ant

www.nepalappeal.com