Overview
Teachers and children alike at Bupsa Primary School have benefitted hugely from Moving Mountains involvement in the area. The whole school was built by us after the Maoist conflict in the late 1990s and then expanded by 40% to enable 170 children to be educated there. We have been paying for teachers salaries for nearly two decades now. Over the years we have seen significant increases in educational standards at the school. We have also provided an office, teachers hostel and a water supply.
The school teaches up to Class 5 (end of primary school education) with three teachers provided by the Nepalese government, and five teachers whose salaries are funded by Moving Mountains. We provide books and teaching equipment twice yearly to cover all the needs.
Bupsa is a small village south of Lukla, on the original Everest trail that still leads from Jiri all the way to base camp. It has Sherpa and Rai residents. Moving Mountains also built a monastery in the village and over the years has installed water pipelines to some of the houses and buildings.
The expansion of the school has enabled many students to avoid what were often prohibitively long journeys to schools elsewhere and has guaranteed an accessible, good quality education. We also supply an annual grant to the school for books and stationery which enables them to charge less to families for the education of their children, indeed many families pay no fees and education is now accessible to all.
The school buildings have had several facelifts over the years, and the region (below) is now well serviced by a new road which means materials can be brought up by truck. This area of solu Khumbu is the Sherpa heartland where villagers spend their year farming and during the tourist season will go away for work. The terraced fields have not changed much in the last century but the introduction of a school meant that families opted to stay there, and also has enabled the first generation of children to go onto secondary and tertiary level education. This in turn has meant more income for the village as young adults have got better jobs and even gone abroad, yet still send money home. All this has only become evident after such a long time doing our work in the area and having such a long relationship with the community.
Main Donors
- Gavin’s Mount Everest climbs for the initial building of the school
- Dubai College, Dubai for upgrading of the main structure
- MM standing order donors for the salaries and consumables for the last twenty years
Future Aims
Since the earthquake in Nepal in 2018 we now have to rebuild the classrooms which were badly damaged.
Dates
Photos
