Earthbag School in Nepal

“Together, with the local community and our Nepali project partner, we began construction on a much-needed lower secondary school for students in classes 7 and 8. Inspired, energized and more aware of the issues facing the developing world, our volunteers are now settling back into life at home as they process through their experiences.

The Need: In rural Nepal, most families live off of subsistence farming. Household chores like collecting and chopping wood, harvesting millet, feeding animals, fetching water, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and so on, require more hours than there are in a day. Families need the support of their children to get by and sometimes opt to keep their kids out of school (particularly if the school is not nearby). In rural areas, girls bare the brunt of the work, often marry early, and are disproportionally affected by the barriers to education. In Nepal, just 38% of girls eligible to attend secondary school actually attend school regularly (in comparison to 46% of boys).

The Solution: Phuleli’s community leadership approached our Nepali project partner, asking that we construct classrooms for grades 7 and 8, so that more students (and thus more girls) could receive a basic education in the village where they live.

Thanks to Edge of Seven’s generous community of supporters, we were able to raise the funding required for the school and broke ground in early November. The school should be finished in late December and 49 students will move into the new classrooms in January. Over the past several weeks volunteers worked tirelessly beside skilled laborers and the Phuleli community to clear the site, lay the foundation and begin construction on the facility. See photo of our progress below (the white bags are where we are building). In fact, I actually heard news just this morning that the team remaining in Phuleli laid the last earthbag today!”

Source: Edge of Seven
(Lots more great info on their website. Of all the places doing earthbag building, Nepal is at or near the top of my list to visit and help build. Don’t forget I’m from the mountains of Colorado, ya know!)