The village of Thulo Bharkhu (2,050 meters above sea level) is inhabited by 256 residents (58 households) of the Buddhist Tamang community. Bhimsen Basic School runs classes from kindergarten to eighth grade. Due to the earthquake in April 2015, the school had partially collapsed, and the walls of all rooms were destroyed, so the school had to be completely rebuilt. According to the RCC module (reinforced cement concrete), three strong and resilient classrooms could be built, providing a suitable space for the 90 students to continue their education.

Unfortunately, a lot of obstacles were put in our way at the beginning. Although we had received permission to rebuild, we had to wait for almost a year – until fall 2016 – for permission to remove the partially collapsed and broken roof. Since the parties in Nepal are internally strongly divided, and each party has other authorities beneath it, they like to block each other – the ones who suffer, as always, are the population. In addition, the Nepalese government had issued strict new guidelines on earthquake-resistant construction in spring 2016, so the size of the classrooms also had to be adjusted (almost twice as large as planned).

In October, we were finally given the green light. The material was driven up the dangerous mountain roads by small truck, foundations were dug and the iron rods (over 4 meters long) were fixed in the ground before everything was effused with cement. After that, it was time to take a break for the winter, because the temperatures here in the mountains often drop below zero degrees, and the construction site was snowed in for months. Therefore, it is impossible to build with cement or mortar because the cement does not bond with the bricks but becomes brittle.

After the slow start, things progressed well in 2017. Following the freezing winter, construction of the brick walls could finally begin in March. By November, the wooden frames for the doors and windows were sawed to size and inserted by hand. The reinforced concrete ceiling was pulled in, cemented, and plastered. The shell was thus finished!

Due to political unrest and severe weather disasters, there were further unexpected delays in the construction of the classrooms in 2018. But in May 2019, they could finally be completed and ceremoniously handed over to the school committee of Shree Bhimsen Primary School. Thanks to the financial support of Lopoca, as well as the local coordination of the Langtang Area Conservation Concern Society (LACCoS) and Chay Ya Nepal, the students are happy again to have safe and adequate spaces for knowledge exchange.