This project was born in the spring 2016, one year after the terrible earthquakes that shook Nepal.
It was born from a meeting between our President, Marc Fouilleul and Nikesh a young Nepalese living in France for several years.
Located at an altitude of 2800m, the village of Lapchane, where Nikesh is from, is located in Ramechap district of Nepal.
The very remote village is a day's journey from Kathmandu.
Families live from agriculture, in particular potato production.
Before the earthquakes of 2015 the village counted 21 houses and a school 8 classrooms and an office.
The school provides education 120 children from 4 neighboring villages, from first to eighth class with 6 teachers. Some children have to walk more than an hour to come to study.
This district has been strongly impacted by the various earthquakes that have followed one another..
The walls of the school buildings have cracked and/or collapsed.
In spring 2016, he returned to the village. With the money raised in recent months, he was able to finance a training of 3 days for 6 people from his village Earthbags anti-seismic technique (bags filled with soil) and buy the materials to rebuild 2 classrooms using this technique.
October 2017 – Site visit by Marc Fouilleul to decide on the allocation of funds “Nepal emergency” collected by the Association Ecoliers du Monde
Here is his report:
“Leaving KTM at 5am with Nikesh in a crowded jeep where we were seated at 4 on the last row at the bottom of the jeep. 10h30 of road and track…
The day after, visit of the school and the different buildings with Nikesh and the Principal. Compared to last year, the roof of the toilet building built by Nikesh is in very poor condition, lack of maintenance : metal sheets are missing or poorly fixed. The same is true for the roof of the building 2 classrooms built whose construction was managed by Nikesh.
44 only children are present at school. The other classes are unsanitary.
We organize a meeting with the School Committee, the Principal and some of the teachers.
Beforehand, I note the maintenance of the buildings : what is the point of rebuilding new buildings if 1 year later, they take on water and are already degrading !”
Nikesh at the initiative of the project
Marc Fouilleul, President of the Ecoliers du Monde association, visiting the site to sign the financing of the works
Headmaster, responsable du School Committee
There is the imperative need to rehabilitate the existing buildings before starting the reconstruction works. The Principal takes responsibility for carrying out these repairs before starting new work..
About the 4 classrooms that will be rebuilt, they will be in stone with 3 concrete chaining on the height and all around the building.
Half of the stones of the current building could be recovered as well as the metal frame. We keep the base of the walls and the foundations. Some doors and windows can be salvaged.
After checking the quotes by Marc, the association releases the funds necessary for the reconstruction work, is the equivalent of 5 000€ and participates in material price negotiations with suppliers. Work begins mid-2017.
Fin 2017, the work is finished and classes can resume in good conditions.
A project follow-up meeting is organized in 2018 in the presence of Nikesh and Marc with the same people from the School Committee and the Director of the school who tells us about new needs, in particular the fitting of windows with plastic panes.
We ask for an estimate and the association Ecoliers du Monde allocates an additional aid of 1000€ to allow the closing of the windows.
