Grang, Rasuwa
SHREE GRANG BASIC SCHOOL

The earthquake in April 2015 hit the Rasuwa region particularly hard, destroying 70-80 percent of the houses there. Unfortunately, this also included the building of the basic school of Grang. Situated at 2,210 meters, the village of Grang is largely inhabited by the Buddhist Tamang ethnic group. A special feature of the Shree Grang Basic School is the large number of girls: in 2016, 92 girls and 64 boys between the ages of five and ten were taught here.

Based on an earthquake-resistant reinforced concrete design, four classrooms were built, offering 200 pupils the opportunity to learn at the school.

Already in April 2016, Sabine Klotz and Kamal Thapa visited the construction site and met with the teachers and parents of the children to discuss the plans for the reconstruction. After an extremely strong and long monsoon, the dangerous roads were finally open again in the fall, so that cement, bricks, iron bars and other building materials could be driven into the village in small trucks. They then had to be carried by the population on their backs for another 30 minutes to the construction site.

By March 2017, the foundations had been dug, effused with cement, and the iron rods, over four meters long, for the supporting columns had been fixed. The walls were also in progress, brick by brick growing upward. But due to a flood disaster that lasted almost four months, work could unfortunately not continue in the summer of 2017; the roads were impassable, and supplies of building materials were therefore not available. It was not until October that trucks with the required materials slowly began to arrive again and work on the roof began diligently. By December, the shell of the building could be completed!

Unfortunately, due to political unrest and washed away roads there were further delays. In February 2020, the windows could finally be installed, and the walls painted, but then Corona also got in the way, and the handover was delayed again by a few months. But in August the time had finally come: this beautiful, bright school with spacious classrooms could be opened. Now there is enough space for the meanwhile proud number of 200 students, who could enthusiastically start their lessons after the school vacations!