An update from Mon in Nepal. The main school building's interior and exterior surface renovation is now complete, as you can see in the photos above. The next thing to do is to paint the rooms and outside, and that is currently happening. But due to the difficulties in getting equipment to the village, it will take a little longer than expected. It should be completed for the new year. We will be updating in future blog entries.
Another problem is the school is not connected to power, but the village itself does have power. However, due to high installation and running costs, the very small budget the school recieves, does not cover this outlay. This is where the Aandhimul Project wants to help, on our next visit we want to connect the school the power. But the community has another problem. The Nepali government announced this December, that due to unseasonably low river flows, the 40% of Nepalis able to access electricity would lose it for 16 hours a day for 6 days of the week. On the 7th day they only lose it for 12 hours.
This had made us in the project feel very concerned, that yes, we can install electricity but most of the time it will not be possible to use it. So therefore, we are considering plans for installing solar units on the roofs of the school buildings. At the moment, this idea is in the early stages and needs good research and discussion with NGO's who have experience with installing such units. But one thing is for sure, the situation with electricity in Nepal is not likely to get better for many years yet. So we need to think of alternative means of generating power, and nothing can be better for the environment than using renewable energy.
As soon as we have more information on future programmes for these problems, we will be informing everyone and trying to raise funds to pay for them, and then we hope to give the children light and power that is much needed in the dark classrooms.
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