Sponsored ‘March for Nepal’ walk raises £4,000

Junior School pupils swapped school shoes for trainers during the month of March to take part in a sponsored walk, aiming to clock up 2,268 miles between them to raise awareness and funds for schools in Nepal destroyed by earthquakes and flooding.

Members of the Junior School’s Global Citizenship Committee organised ‘March for Nepal’ a series of sponsored walks across March, with children in the lower half of the school tasked with logging seven miles, and those in the upper half of the school aiming for 14 miles. This is equivalent to the distance children in Katali, Nepal are forced to take on foot each day to and from their nearest school to maintain their education.

If everyone completed their challenge, this would mean the children had collectively walked half the distance between Scotland and Nepal, 4,535 miles away. Following their efforts, £4,001.83 (including Gift Aid) was raised by our Junior School children.

This initiative arose thanks to a Junior School parent flagging the University of Strathclyde’s Engineering for Development team and their ‘Nepal Schools Project’. This is led by Christine Donald, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde and Dr Huyam Abudib, Research Assistant in the Department of Architecture.

This international outreach activity by the university first arose in 2015 following an earthquake which damaged or destroyed 8,000 schools in Nepal. Thanks to the university’s existing contacts and partners in Nepal, it was able to start providing support via engineering students and staff and by teaming up with a local social enterprise company, Community Impact Nepal.

The Strathclyde Engineering for Development project utilised the skills of staff and students within the University of Strathclyde’s Engineering Faculty, tasking them with developing ideas for earthquake and flood resistant structures. As a result, buildings are being constructed using innovative, interlocking bricks made from compressed earth. They’ve been teaching locals to produce these bricks which are eco-friendly, earthquake resistant, stronger than fired bricks, provide better insulation, are less costly to produce and are approved by the Government of Nepal.

Engaging locals in the building work, keeping all construction spend within the local community and helping to establish small business enterprises to produce sustainable bricks, not only develops useful skills for local people and provides job opportunities, but improves the quality of their built environment.

There have been a number of successfully completed schools as part of this project already thanks to the fundraising efforts led by Christine Donald which involved family, friends and colleagues taking part in a variety of events, including many sponsored walks, as well as several large donations from benefactors. This included Sika Mandir School in Fenhara (pictured below) which was affected by both floods and earthquakes. The project involved the construction of seven classrooms, a toilet block, and a water supply with treatment plan. Since this new school opened in late 2022, the school roll has more than doubled from 61 to 126 pupils from some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised communities in Nepal. The same team is currently building a second school in Narsahi in the Lumbini Provence for 120 pupils. The project includes the construction of five classrooms, a toilet block and a water supply system and is expected to be completed in 2025.

In 2023, Nepal was hit by another earthquake and subsequent flooding, with a further 100 schools severely damaged, one of which is Joli Pipal School in the remote Katali region. The damage to this school was so extensive it left the building structurally unsafe, meaning pupils must either learn outside or walk for many miles on unsafe roads to attend their nearest school. The Strathclyde Engineering for Development team is currently making plans and applying for permission to rebuild the school and is looking for help to raise both awareness and funds for this project, which is where the Junior School came in with its March for Nepal fundraiser.

Commenting, Ms Heather Fuller, Head Teacher of the Junior School, said:

When a member of our parent body flagged up the important work the University of Strathclyde’s Engineering for Development team is doing to construct schools in Nepal destroyed by natural disasters, it felt like a good fit for a fundraiser led by Junior School pupils. Education is vital for all children and there is something meaningful about pupils in Scotland doing what they can to help pupils over 4500 miles away to access an education.

“Every pupil at the Junior School is a member of a pupil committee, designed to give children the confidence to make decisions, take action and use their voice to effect positive change. The Global Citizenship Committee consists of children from across all the primary school year groups and focuses on the fact that every person is a citizen of the world, with a civic duty as part of this global community. The March for Nepal sponsored walks was their idea and they executed it expertly with the help of my colleagues. It was heartening to see so many Junior School children, their families and staff get behind this and walk many miles to raise funds and awareness for this important project in Nepal by the University of Strathclyde’s Engineering for Development team.”

Christine Donald, Director Strathclyde Engineering for Development, said:

Sincere thanks to everyone who walked and donated to ‘March for Nepal’. It is an amazing amount of money and it will really help with the new school build which has now commenced. The teachers and pupils at Joli Pipal School are so happy and excited that they are getting a new school and have sent their thanks to the Junior School pupils at The High School of Glasgow for their help.”