With this years fund raising for Reach Out for Nepal now nearly at an end & recent updates from CAN regarding the Prok School being received it’s time to update all those who have helped us raise nearly £24,000 this year alone.
Firstly we can confirm that we have now raised enough to fund the entire Build budget for the school (£34,000) with additional surplus money also going towards CAN’s general fund which is just excellent news so thanks to all involved. A particular mention must go to Ian Draisey & his band of cyclists who raised over £17,000 through their Moel Siabod Sportif.
As for the school itself many of you will know that the Monsoon this year was a particularly bad one reeking devastation to many areas, cutting villages off, all at a time when Nepal was severely hit by Covid. However it is not all bad news, prior to the Monsoon some initial works including excavation & material sourcing from the local area got well underway. With post Monsoon communications now re-established CAN have received their first official construction report for several months so here goes of where they are at:-
Wood has been collected & is being seasoned throughout October & November. Further Stones are being collected from the local area & these collections are due to be completed by early December. With excavations already completed this will allow Build works to commence late December. CAN’s engineer, Keshab Adhikari is now working closely with ward officials in Prok to monitor progress & forward updates on progress to CAN at regular intervals over the coming months.
Subject to winter weather the planned completion date will either be late Spring 2022 or October/November if the Monsoon puts a stop to work for another summer. With this in mind CAN are proposing to hold an Official Opening of the School for this time next year & have asked if we would like members of Reach Out for Nepal to be at the ceremony & hand it over. Myself, Dorina, Ian & John are all considering this & we will definitely have some presence there on our behalf, it goes without saying that any costs related to this will come from their own pockets & not from funds donated to ROFN.
If you are interested in tagging along with the probability of tying it in with a trek to Manaslu simply tap me on the shoulder next time you are in the Café.
Hopefully you will agree that this is very positive news, the villagers of Prok who are part funding the works themselves are very appreciative of our efforts & support, so once again a massive thank you to all involved.
We will put a few photo’s up on our Facebook site showing some of these preliminary works in the coming days.
Paul