On 25th April, 2015, thousands of schools were severely damaged or destroyed by the massive earthquake in Nepal. The Champabati Primary School in Ilimpokhari is one school that was completely destroyed by the quake. When Aide et Action in consultation with the local education department, proposed to construct new building for Champabati Primary School along with 20 other schools, Dilli Ram Dawadi, the head teacher of the school was the first person to have come forward to extend support to the initiative.

Besides providing necessary support for the construction, he vigorously sought the support of the local Chairperson of Rural Municipality and the village governance body to fulfill other needs of the school such as a playground, furniture etc. “Earlier, I did not have clear idea about the different organizations from which a school can get support. I came to know of such information only after Aide et Action came to support to revive the school immediately after the earthquake”, says Dilli Ram Dawadi appreciating AEA’s efforts in rebuilding a school that has no road access. “As the nearest road is two hours away, it was a challenge for us to transport construction materials to the site. The community members came forward to carry them manually. Now with the classrooms, play ground, teaching/ learning/ play materials, the school is full of infrastructure and materials for smooth teaching/learning activities” he adds.

The school was constructed adhering to Nepal government’s building code of conduct and is earthquake-resistant. Post the construction along with the improved library material and infrastructure, the attendance of the children has increased substantially. The children also feel safe studying in the new building.

“Due to the availability of comfortable classrooms and learning/playing materials, children themselves are interested to come to schools and regularity of children increased significantly. This has made us easy to teach them. I thank Aide et Action for not only the support it provided in the construction of my school but also for being the catalyst for me to garner the support for school from other sources too,” says Dawadi.