Build Classrooms and Soccer Field for 217 Nepalese Children - UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara

Arupokhari-1 in Gorkha, Nepal, is a small village with no electricity or running water. The Sarswati Peace School was established in 2009 to help educate the war afflicted children living in this village. By working with the Sarswati Foundation and Inspire a Child, Nourish International hopes to ignite and utilize children’s passion for life to help them get the education they deserve.

Nepal’s 10 year civil war has had profound impacts on its people. More than 15,000 people perished. 100,000 to 150,000 people were internally displaced in this small landlocked country. As a result, the country’s development was sharply hindered. More the 50% of Nepalese live in desperate poverty. Most villages in this region are without schools, hospitals, or paved roads. In the village of Arupokhari-1, many of the children are emotionally and physically scarred by the warfare. As a result, the Sarswati Foundation was established to give these children and Nepal a brighter future.

This summer the UC Santa Barabara and UC Davis Chapters of Nourish International will partner with the Sarswati Peace School to support the village's education system. The main source of income in Nepal is through agricultural practices. Because of their reliance on sustenance farming, families are not able to invest in their children’s education. This project strives to make the local school accessible to the children of Arupokhari-1 and ensure that they have a quality education.

The project will begin by constructing additions to the school, including additional classrooms, a library, computer lab, and teacher’s quarters. By creating more classrooms, it will allow more students to attend the school. The library and computer lab would enable the students to have better facilities to use.

The project will begin by constructing additional classrooms to the school. By creating more classrooms, it will allow more students to attend the school. At the present moment, the Sarswati Peace School can only serve the 217 students who range in age from 3 years to 17 years old. By making it larger, we hope that more students would be able to attend. Several families walk for days to bring their children to the school, but they have to be turned away since there is simply not enough space.

Working with Inspire a Child, this project will also bring physical education and green technology into the Peace School’s curriculum. The Nourish student will work to build an ecofriendly soccer field. This field will require few resources for its upkeep, and it will help keep the local children passionate about school. Students interested in sports would be able to pair this love with a commitment attending class. Inspire a Child will also bring sOccet balls. These balls absorb the kinetic energy from play and can be used as a portable LED light for up to 3 hours. These balls will benefit the community because this village is without electricity, so students can use these lights to help them study at night.

Finally, Nourish International will be working with Inspire a Child and the Sarswati Peace school to establish a mentorship and peace curriculum. We will work on a system to connect University students with one of the Peace schools students. Through this mentorship, it will keep students engaged with their learning, help expand their knowledge, and keep them on the path to higher education. The peace curriculum will use Nepal’s rich cultural heritage to integrate play, drama, storytelling, gardening, music and dance, arts and crafts, and sports in to the daily lives of the students.

Aside from empowering the students, our long term dream is that this will be part of the healing process for Nepal. Through education, we can bridge the gap that years of tension have caused. This project works to ensure that students in this community will get a comprehensive education through the use of state-of-the-art, sustainable technology and cultural heritage.