Himalayan school building collapses during monsoon

Hello readers, I am Hari from India. I am an apprentice in Ecological Horticulture at CASFS. I have been blogging about Bhagirath Pande Charitable Trust - a non profit I started in India. You can read my earlier posts here.

In the earlier posts, I have talked about our work with the Shishu Vidyapeeth, a school nestled between villages in the Himalayan foothills. The school has around 200 students from grades 1-8.


The school building was constructed many years ago with traditional materials like stone and mud plaster. The building has not been renovated since its original construction. Classes are often held outside in the warm summer season as the classrooms are too small to accommodate all students, are poorly ventilated, and the roof is in danger of caving in.


This is the monsoon season in India. With the advent of the monsoons, classes were held inside. However, the school building has not been able to withstand the heavy rains, and a part of the building collapsed in June this year. Three children were injured during this unfortunate event, and were rushed to the nearest hospital 3 hours away. While the children are recovering well, this incident underscores the urgent need to rebuild the school. The school is responsible not only for the children’s education, but also their physical safety while at school.


The Bhagirath Pandey Charitable Trust, a registered non proft, aims to rebuild the school. Currently, the school has 3 classrooms and a Principal’s office. We propose to build eight classrooms, a staff room, two store rooms, a computer room, a Principal’s office, two toilets, and classroom furniture. The approximate cost of construction alone is USD 130,000. We hope to begin construction by the end of September 2010.


If you would like to support our work and contribute to the reconstruction of Shishu Vidyapeeth, please consider contact us.


Monetary and non-monetary support is welcomed. Our PayPal id is

bhagirath.trust[AT]gmail.com


For further information about the school and reconstructions plans, please contact Hari Pant at

hmpant [AT] gmail.com

For more information about our work, please see our new website – www.bhagirathtrust.org