School to bring new hope to the remote village of Lomanthang

Our schools programme builds and repairs schools in remote regions of Nepal to improve access to education and in turn offer a better future to Nepali children.

Work will begin shortly on one of the most remote school refurbishment projects that the Trust have ever worked on. Lomanthang is situated in the North of the Mustang District, bordering Tibet. The region consists of high altitude desert landscape with pockets of greenery, caves, stunning scenery, ancient monasteries dating back thousands of years and diverse cultures, with almost all of the inhabitants following Buddhist religion.

Set in the foothills of the Himalayas, Lowo Nyuphug Namdrol Gumba School is 150km from Pokhara. With the roads winding through the mountainous landscape, the journey can take up to two days. As our team made their way to the school on their initial site recce, they encountered treacherous road conditions, with numerous hazards such as bumps, mud, rocks, and the threat of landslides.

The school is currently in a very poor condition. The infrastructure is not earthquake-resilient and there are cracks and occasional water leaks. The cramped classrooms have been built using locally available materials of stone and mud, without proper engineering, it does not meet the standards of even a basic school.

Due to the rural location and lack of classrooms available, the students sleep in the classrooms overnight for 6 months of the year, when winter falls, the school must close as Mustang can be extremely cold and snowy during winter, and the students must relocate to an alternative school in Pokhara where they will stay for the winter months before returning again in the Spring.

“We wish is to provide proper and up to date educational materials for the students so that, they can receive better education and knowledge. Studying and sleeping in the same room feels like being in jail. Therefore, by offering bigger, better and safer classes, we can avoid this issue, and students will also perform better in their studies.”

Previously, individuals were required to undertake extensive journeys to India or Tibet in order to pursue education, as educational institutions were not accessible in the region. Now, the aim is to keep education inside their own country to preserve their cultural heritage, gain a better understanding of their surroundings, people and to mitigate the financial burden of studying abroad.

“We must prioritise the preservation of this school, as it plays a crucial role in preserving our culture and our roots.”

Mustang is a place which has developed its own distinct religion, culture, traditions, language, and history. The primary objective is to ensure that students who do not wish to pursue Buddhist philosophy as a field of study, should be well educated in other subjects. This will provide them with a wider range of career options and prevent any hindrance to their future prospects.