Mount Kailash School

 

Building of a computer laboratory to provide a better future

Nepal is the second poorest nation in Asia and, with India and Bhutan, is one of the shelter countries for the Tibetan community in exile since 1959.
 
The Mount Kailash School, one of the first Tibetan refugee camps at the foot of the imposing Annapurna mountain range near Pokhara, was opened in 1963 . It now has 223 students from primary to 10th grade, of which 75% live permanently in the compound and the other 25%, from remote and far Himalayan areas, are boarders.
 
As in more developed countries, computer technicians are more and more in demand. Very few schools in Nepal have the proper equipment and teachers to teach this subject. In 2002 the Mount Kailash School received a donation of 4 computers. Up until then, only those students in 9th and 10th grade had been able to follow basic computer studies. MHF project with the Mount Kailash School was to provide it with a computer classroom and a science laboratory and with teachers in these subjects.
 
A one story building was built to house the laboratory and a classroom for 24 computers. This allowed 100 students from 6th to 10th grade to qualify every year. Further tuition was also available for those who wished to learn more. Our aim was to provide young Tibetans with better training to integrate the Nepali workforce.
 
The building of this laboratory, faithful the local architecture, benefited the families of the 30 hired labourers. All construction materials, as well as the furnishings and computer equipment, were bought from the local companies contributing, that way, to the local economy and lowering the overall costs of the project.
 
MHF donated 5.000€ out of the total 20.000€ cost of the whole program. This project was supervised by Maylis Chevalier, instigator of the program, and Lobasang Phelgye, director of the Mount Kailash School.