Shree Bhanubhakta Secondary School is the key to education for students across nine wards in Uwa Village Development Committee because it’s the only secondary school in the area. Landslides in the rainy season meant students no longer had an outdoor play area but the reconstruction called for an impossibly huge investment from parents and the school.
A Self-Help Group facilitated by INF in Rolpa District had worked to mitigate further landslides by planting trees on the school site. Unfortunately the landslides continued and finally the SHG devised a plan to build a retention wall from wire. With the help of INF, fundraising by the school community and voluntary labor the fence was completed. The wire wall helped to control the landslide on one side of the school. Unfortunately a landslide subsequently destroyed one of the school’s classrooms.
Again students were put at risk but the success of the SHG’s first wire wall had given the community the hope and courage to build again. The group developed an action plan and purchased more wire, the collaborative approach from the school, SHG and community members has seen benefits across the community.
This article featured in the latest issue of Today in Nepal.