Andrea Zimmermann-Sherpa

Leptung village, Dolakha district, north-east of Kathmandu (food supply and school material)

27-28 May 2015:

Food supply:

The first time Norbu and me were supposed to go to this village was on 12 May 2015 but we were stopped in the middle of our way and very close to the epicentre by the second massive earthquake. Fortunately, the food could still be brought at destination several days later by the head teacher of such village (see article from 13 May 2015).

This time, we started from Kathmandu with a strange feeling in our stomach and "our survival bag", just in case... As we came closer to the last epicentre area, some big rocks at the road side remind us of our last trip and we could see that the local people are now courageously under the heat demolishing some parts of their houses to built their temporary houses before the coming monsoon.

After 7 hours driving and a stop in the district town, Charikot, which has been severely affected by the second earthquake, we arrived at destination. It was already dark and too late to call the villagers to get the food that we brought with us.

A 5 o'clock wake-up by the roaster and everybody was ready and excited to see what they would receive this time. The headmaster invited the 109 families that did not receive food till now to come to the distribution point, together with the other villagers to get the shelters for the school.

(28.05.2015) Janajyoti secondary school, Leptung, Dolakha district:

The majority of the villagers have now built their temporary house. Our aim is now to support the construction of a temporary school for the 360 kids of this area. We brought the shelters to built 12 classrooms (452 steel sheets) 5 toilets, the necessary tools, 10 dashboards for each classroom, a notebook and pen/pencil for each kid. Everybody was taking part in the transport of the material from the road till up to the village, from the young kids to the old people. An amazing mixture of generations.

The headmaster is now coordinating with the community of the villagers to start as soon as possible the construction of the temporary school.

We are looking forward to going back in about one week to see the advance of the work with the food to prepare the lunches at school for 1 month for the 360 kids and 12 teachers, together with some playing games material.

A special thank to all of you, and in particular to our friends Jessica Tradati and Séverine Pont Combe (Association les Enfants du Sourire) for their specific support in this temporary school project.