Bay of Plenty Nepalese community helps rebuild quake-damaged school

Peter Gibbs from the Nepalese Consulate of New Zealand inside one of the new classrooms at the Toman Danda Lower Secondary School. Photo/Peter Gibbs

A new six-classroom school block has been built in a remote village south of Kathmandu thanks to funds raised by the Bay of Plenty Nepalese community.

Powerful earthquakes flattened many homes and damaged school buildings in April 2015 and the Bay of Plenty Nepalese Association began fundraising to help the quake victims soon after.

More than $40,000 was raised, which included $15,000 from a fundraising dinner in Tauranga in June 2015 attended by Lady June Hillary.

The new two-storey block at the Toman Danda Lower Secondary School in Bhumlichok was opened last month by Peter Gibbs, who runs the Nepalese Consulate in New Zealand.

The senior students' new block complete with desks and whiteboards is in stark contrast to their previous corrugated iron building.

Gibbs said the association had wisely decided to pour all the money raised into the project which will benefit many generations to come in this "very poor" part of Nepal.

Just getting to this remote village was a three-hour drive down the notorious Raj Path to a giant swing bridge across the Trisuli River, followed by a 90-minute walk uphill, he said.

"This was a particularly special trip, especially seeing the immense pride and joy on the faces of the students, staff and the headmaster as they showed us their new facility."

Many of the 203 students, mostly from the Chepang community, had to walk more than an hour to attend school, he said.

"Congratulations must go to our local Nepalese Association for their fantastic fundraising endeavours which made this all possible," Gibbs said.

Bay of Plenty Nepalese Association past president Ramesh Gurung said he and the other association members were overjoyed to finally see this project come to fruition.

"We were all shocked and saddened about what happened during the 2015 earthquakes and we desperately wanted to do something to help this very poor remote community.

"The association reached out far and wide to raise funds and we could not have done this without the kindness and generosity from the people of the Bay of Plenty," Gurung said.

The junior school is still housed in an open corrugated iron building and help is needed to help rebuild it to the same standard as the senior school.