The dilemma:
In the rural areas of Nepal, the school buildings are not always in a good condition. Sometimes walls fall apart, woodwork rots, or the roof has leakages, making it impossible to teach during the monsoon season. Furthermore, there is a lack of furniture, and when available, it is often broken. In other cases there are not enough classrooms, so two classes have their lesson at the same time in one classroom.
Our aim:
Foundation Care For All and Care For All – Nepal try to uplift the quality of education in every possible way. We build schools, give teachers a salary when there is not enough governmental funding, and we provide teachers’ training programs. We believe that it is important to focus on the quality as well as the quantity of education. When we help to build a school, we do not spend unnecessary money on fancy materials, but provide that what is needed.
Our method: We do a lot of field visits to find out which school is the most in need of help. We always ask the community to contribute 15 to 20 percent of the whole project cost, because then they will be more attached to the project and take better care of the building afterwards. The contribution is not necessarily given in cash; it can also be in labor hours for instance.
The results: Where we have already constructed a building, we see that the classes taken have been improved. Students are encouraged to learn in the new, or renovated, building. The number of students attending the class has increased in some places, which we take as a good sign of improvement towards a better education. In addition, we can see that the buildings are continuously maintained properly.