Nepal Govt. Regd. No. 1224/064, SWC Affiliation No. 22612
The Bhawani Higher Secondary School is the biggest school in this region and it provides education to students from more than twenty surrounding villages. The main school building and the school’s boarding house was destroyed by the earthquake. While the school building is being built by the British Gorkha Welfare, Sambhav Nepal has taken the responsibility to complete the building of the boarding house block.
The boarding house of Bhawani Higher Secondary School was established in 2052 BS (1995 AD) in Ward No. 2, Manbu Village of Arughat Rural Municipality (previously Manbu VDC), Gorkha district. The boarding house was built especially for students who had to cover long distances on foot to attend school. It had to close down during the bloody Maoist insurgency period and only came into operation on 2067 BS (2010 AD). After it was reopened, the boarding house had 40 boarders, 2 wardens and 1 helper. The boarders were mostly students from distant villages which had no schools. Unfortunately the devastating earthquake that rocked Nepal on 25th April 2015, with Gorkha at the epicenter, destroyed the entire boarding house building. As the students staying at the boarding house were left without shelter, Sambhav Nepal built a temporary shelter for them immediately after the earthquake. The organization, with the funds received from generous donors, is building a safe and earthquake-resistant boarding house building for the boarders in this remote village. The school boarding house when completed will offer accommodation for those students who have to walk long distances (3 hours to 5 days walk) to come to school.
Sambhav Nepal’s Bhawani Higher Secondary School Boarding House project began with a small number of 42 students availing the facilities of the boarding house. Since we started the project in 2016, there has been a sharp increase in the number of students seeking accommodation at the school’s boarding house. Now we are pleased to inform our donors that the current number of students using the boarding house’s facilities stands at 135 (67 girls and 68 boys) as of December 2020. The numbers are affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Once things are back to normal, the completed hostel will serve to more than 160 students.
Bhawani Higher Secondary School has become a sought after educational institution in the region where students vie to get admission as it is located near the only college in the region offering higher education and most importantly, a course in agriculture. The college at Manbu is newly established and has the support of the government. The establishment of the college has brought a ray of hope to poor students who wish to continue their higher education without having to leave their mountain homes and spending a large sum in the city for higher education.
After the completion of Phase III, we have a fully furnished, modern and safe school accommodation that can accommodate more than 160 students and 3 staff members to look after the boarders and ensure the smooth operation of the boarding house. This has been our main target since we started this project.
When the entire construction is completed, we will have a fully furnished, modern and safe school accommodation that can accommodate more than 160 students and 3 staff members to look after the boarders and ensure the smooth operation of the boarding house. This has been our main target since we started this project.
We began this project in April 2016, one year after the devastating 2015 Nepal Earthquake, by laying the foundation stone on the site where the boarding house was going to be built.
The construction for Phase I started in November 2016. Our needs and targets were a four-room block for girls boarders. By May 2017, we completed the block, which has 4 rooms with each room with the capacity for 5 bunk beds for 10 boarders (in total, this block can be used by 40 students). We fully furnished the rooms with curtains, beds, mattresses, blankets, tables, chairs, cupboards, carpets, etc.
Phase II started in Nov 2017 and ended in June 2018. On this stage, we added the second floor on the previous block. The floor has 4 rooms with each room having 5 bunk beds for 10 and, can accommodate a total of 40 boarders. These rooms are fully furnished too. By this phase, we constructed one whole block for female students that can house 80 of them and 4 toilets and 3 bathrooms for girls.
Phase III began in April 2019 and ended in February 2021. In this phase, we fulfilled the following needs and targets:
WHAT’S NEXT?
In front of the boarding house compound, there is a motorable dirt road used by students and locals. There is also an unmanaged drain channel against the outer front wall of the boarding house. It keeps the dirt road, mainly the areas near the outer wall, wet. And during monsoon, when it’s raining, the road usually gets flooded and makes the road very difficult to pass. Additionally, on the left side of the compound, there is a small steep stream which flows only in monsoon. The effects of the unmanaged water flows on the base and outer walls is minimal. But in long term, they can do serious damages to the land on which the hostel is built. The continuous water floods and the gradual soil erosion can make the land weaker and lead to landslide.
During our recent visit, the headmaster of Bhawani Higher Secondary School, told us about the condition of the front road and asked us to pave the road and manage the water flows. So, to prevent long-term damages to the hostel land, we need to pave the dirt road in the front and the left side areas. If we can pave these with sand, concrete, rod, gravel and other necessary materials, the water flows, especially during monsoon, won’t be able to weaken the land. Plus we need to create a proper drain channel so that the water can flow in one direction instead of spilling onto the front road and the left side areas. We are seeking funding for this and hope to pave the road and manage the water flows before the next monsoon.
Under our Himali Chhatrabas project, we are planning to build hostels/boarding houses in various other places to help the students who have to come from faraway places. We want to serve many students all over Gorkha. Our considerations for hostels/boarding houses spread across three rural municipalities. We want to build another hostel/boarding house in Arughat Rural Municipality and this will be for Bimodaya Campus at Arughat Bazaar. It’s one of the most important and largest education institutions in northern Gorkha, offering education from nursery to Bachelors. The other two hostels/boarding houses will be in Dharche Rural Municipality and Tsum Nubri Rural Municipality.
Sambhav Nepal’s Bhawani Higher Secondary School Boarding House project began with a small number of 42 students availing the facilities of the boarding house. Since we started the project in 2016, there has been a sharp increase in the number of students seeking accommodation at the school’s boarding house. Now we are pleased to inform our donors that the current number of students using the boarding house’s facilities stands at 135 (67 girls and 68 boys) as of December 2020.
We are glad to announce that Phase III is completed and the boarding house is fully complete. On Feb 27, on the occasion of International NGO Day), the completed boarding house buildings at Ward No 2, Manbu village of Arughat Rural Municipality were jointly inaugurated by Melanie Kreuzer (President of Sambhav Nepal Switzerland), Prem K Khatry (Founder President of Sambhav Nepal) and Purna Bahadur Dahal (Chairman of Arughat Rural Municipality).
The program was attended by Melanie Kreuzer, Founder and President of Sambhav Nepal Switzerland. She came all the way from Switzerland for this program. She was the one who initiated this project from the start, raised the funds and provided us guidance for the project. We as well as the students, teachers and headmaster of Bhawani Higher Secondary School are extremely grateful to her for all she has done.
The entire boarding house now consists of 2 two-storied buildings with a total of 16 rooms, 9 toilets (8 for students and 1 for warden), 7 bathrooms (6 for students and 1 for warden), 1 dining hall, 1 kitchen, 1 library plus computer lab and 1 hostel warden’s room. The boarding house is fully furnished with all the necessary items and equipment.
The work on Bhawani Higher Secondary School Boarding House (Himali Chhatrabas) is progressing smoothly. We have completed the construction of the new two-story block with 4 rooms on the ground floor and 4 rooms on the upper floor. Along with this block, we also completed dining and kitchen hall, library and warden’s quarter block. We are now in the final stage. Within 1.5 months, we will fully complete the work.
Please note that we had to stop the work for three months because of disturbance caused by monsoon and Covid-19 pandemic. The work restarted from the first week of October.
At the moment, we are working on the interiors. We are carpeting the floor. We have started transferring and installing all kinds of furniture needed for the boarding house such as beds, lockers, computer tables, library tables & benches, chairs, racks, dining tables & benches, etc.
We will soon buy library books, computers, laptops, TVs, projector and all electronic accessories as well as kitchen appliances and equipment, and install in the new blocks. We will create the compound around the hostel area. Then, we will hand over the boarding house to the school administration.
After handing over the two-story block to the administration of Bhawani Higher Secondary School Boarding House, we are currently making another block which will serve as the boys’ quarter. This will have 4 rooms on the ground floor and 4 rooms on the upper floor. We are also constructing dinning and kitchen hall, library and warden’s quarter block. We have laid the foundation and the construction is going in full swing.
The construction of the second floor of Bhawani Higher Secondary School Boarding House (Himali Chatrabas) comprising of 4 rooms, 4 toilets and 3 bathrooms that started in November 2017 has come to an end. The construction, interiors including attaching curtains, laying a carpet, adding a bed, providing mattresses, blankets, cupboards etc. has finally come into completion. The hostel has been handed over to the school authorities successfully.
The construction of second floor consisting of 4 rooms, 4 toilets and 3 bathrooms had started according to the phase second in November 2017. The rooms were to accommodate 40 boarders. By the end of March-2018 the construction of the walls is completed. The roofing of all the rooms is taking place at the moment. As soon as the roofing is completed, the work for the interiors will be on process. The interiors will include attaching curtains, beds, mattresses, blankets, tables, chairs, cupboards, carpets etc. The hostel will fully be ready for handing over and inauguration by the end of April 2018.
After successfully completing phase I, We started phase II from November 2017. In this phase the construction of second floor consisting of 4 rooms for the accommodation of 40 male boarders has been ongoing. The construction of 4 toilets and 3 bathrooms will be started by early February. Along with the toilets and bathrooms, furnishing for the rooms which includes attaching curtains, beds, mattresses, blankets, tables, chairs, cupboards, carpets and all the other necessary items will be completed too.
Due to the lack of sufficient fund to undertake the reconstruction of the entire boarding house at once, we decided the right way forward is to build it in different phases. While we were still receiving funds, we started with Phase I.
On April 25th 2016, one year after the devastating earthquake, we laid the foundation stone with a puja, (an auspicious ritual according to Nepali culture). Our objective for Phase I was to build a four-room block for the girls. We started the construction in November 2016 and completed it in April 2017. On May 2nd, we organized the inauguration ceremony for the new 4 rooms block in the presence of our founder Prem K Khatry, Melanie Kreuzer (our main partner and president of Sambhav Nepal Switzerland) and her assistant Bruno Ruedisueli.
Each room has the capacity of 5 bunk beds for 10 boarders. Now, the newly built modern and earthquake-resistant block accommodates 40 girls.
Back in November 2016, we started building the foundation for the boarding house. By February 2017, we had finished the foundation, which is considered 30% of the entire construction, and have continued erecting walls and pillars. You can see in the images above how the progress has been made.
A year after the earthquake, on April 25th 2016, we organized a foundation stone (cornerstone) ceremony – an event with traditional importance. In the program, attended by the Building Construction Company for the school and boarding house, our founder Prem K Khatry laid the foundation stone as per Hindu traditions. This marks the beginning of the construction of this project. In the ceremony, Prem instructed the Building Construction Committee not to compromise on the materials for the buildings.
In May, shortly after the April 25 Nepal Earthquake, we visited Manbu village and distributed 7,500 kg rice (250 sacks x 30kg) to the affected villagers. During the same first-aid-trip, we visited the Bhawani Higher Secondary School of Manbu and obtained its post-earthquake status. At that time, after evaluating their immediate needs, we distributed 50 bundles of aluminum roofing sheets for building temporary rooms which will provide shelter for the monsoon that was going to start very soon. Those sheets were used to make 2 temporary rooms for the boarding house students.
Swiss Version
