Our school in the Gurase community in Eastern Nepal has opened!
Jack Clark, School Partnership Director at the UWS, was recently in touch to let us know that the school building is complete and that they have opened the school to the community! There are already 120 students enrolled, and as many as 150-180 students will attend the school once it is inaugurated. The UWS Country Manager, Surya, has organised for a local celebrity, the Chief District Officer, to open the school. The school will have three government teachers and a local teacher who left the village with his family as a child and ended up going to university. As soon as he heard that a school was being built in Gurase, he begged to come back! Tim Howarth, CEO of UWS, commented that he is the most motivated teacher that he has ever met. The teacher wants others from his village to have the same opportunity to learn how to read and count.
This is the second UWS school to open in Nepal so it is very exciting to see it up and running, and the children looking so happy to attend! There have been a flourish of fantastic charity events at the Senior School to continue to raise funds to support the project.
The St Chris Senior school students have been working very hard to raise money to cover the costs of building, resources and supplies. In April, we had the second Unplugged concert of the year where a series of performances entertained an audience of over 200. The students were keen to raise as much money as they could and decided to provide busking performances for audience members on their way inside. In addition, the English Department have been very busy leading the ‘Helping Hands’ project, where students are creating a collection of work to be published very soon. The book will be on sale very soon to raise money for our school in Gurase – be sure to order your copy
We have also had a number of superb student-led initiatives that are supporting our drive for Nepal. Roma Vrijhof, 9A, has led three charity events outside of school within a project that she has named ‘Sport 4 Nepal’. Along with her family, she organised two football tournaments at the Rugby Club and a Swimming Gala at the St Christopher’s Junior School in Saar. The events were a great success and have raised lots of money for Nepal. Shauna Holland, 10A, recently ran a Charity Quiz that was held at the Rugby Club. The event was an enormous success and led to further funds being raised for the Gurase community.
We are looking forward to receiving more news and photos from the UWS once the school has been inaugurated!
