Some children walk for eight hours to and from school every day. The trails to the schools are steep and rugged. The Nepal Youth Foundation’s student housing will reduce the drop-out rate and give students more time to study so they can succeed.
Far Western Nepal is far behind the rest of the country, especially in education. The terrain is rugged, there are few roads, and houses are scattered throughout the hills and mountains. As a result, children often walk for hours to get to school. This leads many kids to drop out of school at young ages. Others spend so much time walking every day that they do not have enough time to study and fail out of school. A sustainable solution to this problem is to build student housing next to schools.
Gaurishankar School is a public school for 450 students from first through tenth grade. There is no road to the school, and the trails to it are steep and rugged. Because it is the only high school that serves more than 30 villages, some students walk as far as 20 miles round-trip every school day. Most students in the higher grades walk at least three hours a day, and it takes some eight hours! During the rainy season, students must cross dangerous rivers. Girls feel unsafe walking after dark.
The Nepal Youth Foundation is planning to construct two dormitories, one for girls and one for boys. Schoolteachers will live in the housing and supervise the students.
