Nepal: Great Job!

The WACKER Relief Fund has been supporting the nonprofit student company since 2015. Founded in 2005, Namasté Nepal collaborates with a Nepalese aid organization in the building and running of schools and kindergartens in the Sindhupalchok province. Earthquakes left a trail of devastation in Freiberg’s sister village of Gati, situated around 100 km northwest of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

After leaving the airport, the group saw the sights in Kathmandu. The trekking tour then took them into Langtang Valley. In Freiberg’s sister village of Gati, the group was pleased to find the school with ten grades nearly finished. The new building only needs painting and furnishing. During their stay, the Freiberg group met with teachers to discuss school equipment and ways to improve the local students’ English skills. German and Nepalese students swapped their experiences. Joint cooking sessions and discussions with the villagers rounded out the three days in Gati.

“The Freiberg students were overwhelmed by the villagers’ friendliness,” reports project coordinator Steffen Judersleben, who accompanies the students on their long journey each year. “Everybody who has ever been here before and seen the post-earthquake damage is pleased that so many people are now living in houses instead of corrugated-iron huts.” Back in Germany, the students appreciated warm water and a soft bed, but: “What we miss are the open people who gave us a warm welcome wherever we went with Namaste.”

Namaste Nepal S-GmbH is funding reconstruction of seven schools that were destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.

• The secondary school in Gati and the primary school in Singarche were completed in late November 2018.
• In Sotang, the primary school’s building shell has been built – with overall completion set for the spring.
• The two schools with eight grades in Mandra and Kacherie are set for completion in the early summer of 2019. Work is now starting on the upper floor, to be followed by the roof, interior plastering and exterior painting.
• The primary school in Bugam is at the highest altitude of all project-area schools. Transport of construction materials is a major challenge, since the narrow dirt road is often impassable due to the weather. The base plate was laid in 2018 and the school is scheduled for completion prior to the 2019 monsoon.
• The Dandakaterie primary school and kindergarten, both funded by a Delfter project partner, are already up and running.

“It’s not easy building in mountainous Nepal. The villages are at altitudes of 1,500 to 3,000 meters,” stresses Steffen Judersleben. “Our project coordinators, workmen and architects in Nepal did a great and responsible job.” The villagers actively pitched in, too – with a team spirit that really impressed the visitors from Freiberg.

You can read more about the Nepal project at: www.nepalfreiberg.de. The online shop that the non-profit student company maintains is always worth a visit: www.nepalfreiberg.de/cms/index.php/shop. Legendary Nepalese coffee, for instance, and their beautifully illustrated Nepal calendar make great Christmas gifts – and help a good cause.

If you’d like to help, please donate to the following WACKER Relief Fund account with Bayerische Landesbank München:

IBAN DE59 7005 0000‎ 0003 3333 33
BIC BYLADEMMXXX

Please state your name and address on the payment transfer form (in Germany, your WACKER ID number is enough). The Relief Fund will issue donation receipts to employees residing in Germany, as the donations are tax-deductible there. Grateful for every donation, the fund issues receipts in the first quarter of a year.