Student Housing in Remote Nepal

There is no road to the Gaurishankar School, and the trails to it are steep and rugged. Some children walk for eight hours to and from school every day. NYF's student housing will reduce the drop-out rate and give students more time to study so they can succeed.

Far Western Nepal is far behind the rest of the country, especially in education. The terrain is rugged, there are few roads, and houses are scattered throughout the hills and mountains. As a result, children often walk for hours to get to school. This leads many kids to drop out of school at young ages. Others spend so much time walking every day that they do not have enough time to study and fail out of school. A sustainable solution to this problem is to build student housing next to schools.

Gaurishankar School is a public school for 450 students from first through tenth grade. There is no road to the school, and the trails to it are steep and rugged. Because it is the only high school that serves more than 30 villages, some students walk as far as 20 miles round-trip every schoolday. Most students in the higher grades walk at least three hours a day, and it takes some eight hours! During the rainy season, students must cross dangerous rivers. Girls feel unsafe walking after dark.

Kamala Magar is in her last year at Gaurishankar School and wants to study hard to prepare for her college entrance exam. However, she doesn't have enough time to study because her village is more than seven miles from the school. Kamala walks about eight hours every day on steep trails and has to cross rushing rivers. She leaves home at 5 AM every day and literally has to run to get home before 8:00 at night!

Thirteen-year-old Namu Bohara is a victim of polio and walks with a marked limp. She is from a village four miles away from Gaurishankar School. Namu is determined to attend the school even though she has to walk eight miles a day, which takes her four hours. Namu would like to stay near the school and have more time to study, but there are no dormitories or houses nearby where she can rent a room.

The Nepal Youth Foundation is planning to construct two dormitories, one for girls and one for boys. Schoolteachers will live in the housing and supervise the students. This project will reduce the drop-out rate and give students more time to study so they can succeed.