UK charity faces 'reality' of restoring education in Nepal
School in a Bag"Once the cameras leave, we're going to face the reality of how to restore education."
Jimmy Lama, a Kathmandu-based charity worker who has been employed by Somerset charity School in a Bag since 2012, has seen first-hand the devastation wrought by the immense flood along the Trishuli River, on the Nepal-Tibet border, on 26 August.
It has, to date, left more than 1,000 people known to have died and nearly 4,000 missing.
Entire villages have been wiped from the map under a torrent of mud and water. Among them, Lama said, are up to 20 schools educating thousands of children.
"There are just so many things happening at a time and, at the same time, people who've come down to a relatively safe place are now struggling for clean water. Food, health and sanitation are a big issue," Lama said.
"For hundreds of people who have lost everything, it's about temporary shelter, what's going to happen next."
When it comes to helping people navigate the next steps following the disaster, Luke Simon - founder and chief executive of School in a Bag - said a major priority was working with families to get children back in a routine.
The charity, based in Chilthorne Domer, near Yeovil, raises money to provide thousands of schoolchildren around the world with the essential supplies they need to learn, including stationary, and items like lunchboxes and hygiene products that help them get into the classroom.
"It's really important that we start to consider getting children back into school," Simon said.
"Schools that have been lost, schools that have lost everything, will find that really challenging but our school banks allow children to be taught in temporary learning centres so they can re-establish routine and carry on with their education, which is so important for them in the wake of disaster," he added.
School in a BagThe school bags themselves will not travel all the way from Somerset. Instead, the funds raised by the charity's supporters will be used to help Lama put together some 3,000 bags in Kathmandu, which will then be distributed by hand to those who need them most.
"Somehow, these families deal with disaster and they just move on, they are incredible," said Simon.
"Jimmy met children who were in the flood and survived."
He explained: "Because the infrastructure has been so damaged, you've got some families living either side of the river and where they used to just nip across the bridge to see one another and they can't do that now.
"The only way they can see each other physically is to get a helicopter across, so it's these things that are so crippling for the families but they are the most resilient people and the best people to deal with these sorts of circumstances."
The charity is preparing to launch a new appeal to specifically raise funds for children in Nepal, with all money raised in September to go towards helping them get back into education.
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